If you know your burgers in Sydney then you know Belly Bao. It’s not a dedicated burger joint like Guilty or BL Burgers, but for quite some time now they’ve quietly been making one of the best on the scene. Every Thursday they offer a special simply titled “The Baoger”, a beef patty with melted cheese, lettuce, radish, onion and special sauce in between two slightly steamed, crispy and fluffy bao-ger buns. It’s one of the most perfect hybrid foods to ever hit Sydney and has been a constant sell-out with discerning foodies since it was introduced in 2015.
It took some time and a few demands but Belly Bao seem to be ready to embrace the power of the baoger with the introduction of a few different flavours that they’ll be pumping out one day each week. Located in Hudson Ballroom (formerly Good God Small Club), the colourful bao kitchen will be switching it up with the following.
Each Wednesday the original menu will feature along with the Chopped Cheese Baoger, which boasts American cheese, Angus beef, gherkin, ketchup and mustard. The difference here is that it features “chopped cheese”, which is the process of melting a cheese over a patty on a flat pan and then chopping it up with a spatula towards the end of the cook, leaving you with a beautiful mess of a burger.
Thursdays will stick to the classic Baoger, which you can read about in our archives HERE.
Each Friday will see the introduction of a vegan option, the Eggplant Baoger with braised eggplant, pickled cucumber and shredded lettuce.
Every Saturday Belly Bao will be bringing back what became an instant classic when it served as a one-off special at a dedicated fried chicken festival last year. That’s the Chicken Baoger with a fried chicken breast patty in their signature BBC batter with sarsaparilla soda reduction, onion cheese sauce, pickled cabbage and spring onion.
Of course a few extras can be purchased here and there (tip: add some bacon to the Thursday baoger, it’s heavenly) plus they’ll be a few new sides to get around including Curry Cheese Fries which mirror the flavour of classic Japanese curry with onion and cheese sauce (it’s basically Belly Bao’s version of poutine) and BBC, the signature fried chicken wings and drumsticks served as is or with sticky/spicy sauce.
If that’s not enough Belly Bao have also introduced a bit of an off-menu dessert, only available for those who are wise enough to ask for one: a Golden Gaytime Bao. It’s pretty much what you’d expect, a golden gaytime (sans stick) in a fluffy bao with vanilla ice cream melting over the top.
We know where we’re going to be on Saturday. They introduce the menu this week so dig in and don’t forget to check the Hudson Ballroom website for an upcoming gigs or parties.
Feature image: The Original Baoger (Thursday special). Image by @feeev.
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