Nice buns: celebrate Valentine’s Day with Bao’s penis and boobs box
Taiwanese London restaurant Bao launches a limited-edition bao buns box just in time for Valentine's Day

Romantic gestures take many forms – from the bold to the bashful, there are countless ways to express your love on Valentine’s Day, from chocolate gifts to flower deliveries. But this year, why not mark the event with a little more imagination? Luckily, Taiwanese restaurant Bao has risen to the occasion with its limited-edition penis and boobs bao buns box.
Bao’s six London establishments focus on xiao chi, which are small plates inspired by Taiwanese street food. The chain is renowned for its bao (which literally means steamed bun) – delicious fluffy pillows enveloping a variety of fillings, including fried chicken, beef cheek, and daikon radish. The buns are easy on the eye, and present a compelling, cartoonish package in themselves. They also taste as good as they look.
Understanding the allure and the possibilities of the buns, Bao recently presented a gorgeous puffy tiger’s paw to celebrate the Lunar New Year of the tiger. For Valentine’s Day, its chefs have gone straight for the sweet spot and fashioned the popular Taiwanese snack into delightful, chocolate-stuffed anatomical forms – so you can cut out the small-talk and let Bao do your foreplay for you.
Bao’s creative director and co-founder Erchen Chang explains: ‘At Bao, we like to do things differently and have always had a bit of fun.’ Apparently, the creative process was interesting, with members of the team all having their own opinions on important details of scale and design. They had already developed and served the boob bao, and wanted to expand the theme. Chang says: ‘Some were unsure about adding a penis – but why not? If you sell boobies you should sell a penis.’
The Bao Valentine’s box includes two boobs with a molten-chocolate and cherry filling, and one penis filled with a molten white-chocolate filling. What better way to show your love?
INFORMATION
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Melina Keays is the entertaining director of Wallpaper*. She has been part of the brand since the magazine’s launch in 1996, and is responsible for entertaining content across the print and digital platforms, and for Wallpaper’s creative agency Bespoke. A native Londoner, Melina takes inspiration from the whole spectrum of art and design – including film, literature, and fashion. Her work for the brand involves curating content, writing, and creative direction – conceiving luxury interior landscapes with a focus on food, drinks, and entertaining in all its forms
-
A local architect’s guide to Joshua Tree
Mirtilla Alliata di Montereale shares her favourite things to do to slow down, look closely, and discover Joshua Tree through a more intentional lens
-
Art meets perfume in cross-disciplinary fragrance series Nez 1+1
Talents from film and fragrance come together to create Ansongo, the latest scent resulting from a creative matchmaking project by perfume revue Nez
-
Robert De Niro is creating an island paradise. We eavesdropped on a design meeting
With The Beach Club, a private community on the Caribbean island of Barbuda, the actor is steering away from 'chandeliers and endless marble'
-
Guests dined on Bangladeshi-inspired cuisine at the Serpentine Summer Party 2025
The party marked the 25th anniversary of the Serpentine Architecture Pavilion – and celebrated this year’s design by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum and her Dhaka-based firm
-
Rémy Martin and Anish Kapoor: art meets cognac in London
The cognac house and the artist unveiled a limited-edition XO decanter and a new sculpture in London at a recent event at the Institute of Contemporary Arts
-
Mark your calendars for Mount Street Neighbourhood Summer Festival, a feast for the senses
The event, 12-14 June 2025, showcases the mix of food, art and community in the heart of London’s Mayfair. Here's what to expect, from afternoon tea to aperitivo, film screenings to biodynamic flowers
-
Healthy chocolate? Eat it at Makers, London’s new Lebanese chocolatier
Located in Chelsea, Makers is a new ‘healthy chocolate’ shop offering treats free of refined sugar, seed oils, wheat and dairy – and it tastes delicious
-
Inside Domaine Evremond, the UK’s first subterranean winery
‘Sparkling wine should be fun.’ We tour Domaine Evremond in Kent, a winery steeped in the English countryside
-
Sketch transforms into an English garden in celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday
The 11th edition of ‘Sketch in Bloom’ nods to the most notable works of Jane Austen with budding floral installations and a quintessentially English afternoon tea
-
At the Regent Street Sensorium, architectural jelly sculptures are designed to ignite the senses
Delve into the history of London’s Regent Street through a jellyscape, a fragrance cloud and more – plus, for the event’s final week, two new immersive workshops (ends 27 April)
-
Burns Night 2025: where to celebrate in London
It is time to raise a wee dram to Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns on Burns Night (25 January). Here is our pick of places to enjoy an evening of generous speechmaking, toasting, and drinking around London