Elizabeth Haigh to return to top-end cooking with Bā

By Joe Lutrario

- Last updated on GMT

Elizabeth Haigh to launch Bā at Mei Mei restaurant Borough Market

Related tags Elizabeth Haigh Chef Mei Mei Singaporean cuisine Borough market

Elizabeth Haigh is to launch a twice-weekly high-end tasting menu experience at her Borough Market counter restaurant Mei Mei.

Launching next week, Bā at Mei Mei will offer one sitting at 7pm on Friday and Saturday for an eight-course tasting menu (Bā is Chinese for the number eight).

Tickets need to be purchased in advance via bookings site RSVP with the maximum number of seats for Bā currently set at 16.  

There will also be four external tables that can sit either two or four guests from the same party offering a simpler £25 set menu.

The menu will be akin to Haigh’s cooking at her Kaizen House pop-up​ , incorporating her Singaporean background and “passion for wood-fire cooking”, and also Shibui, her flagship restaurant concept that has been in the offing since she left Pidgin in 2016. 

Private backing was semi in place for the restaurant, but the uncertainty caused by the pandemic has seen the project placed on hold.

"It's the next evolution of Mei Mei. We're going to be pushing ourselves quite a bit further to create more of an experience. It will be more of a dinner experience as opposed to a coffee shop one," says Haigh, who operate Bā with a skeleton team of three to four people.

Sample dishes include Mei Mei fried chicken with white miso mayo, caviar and taré sauce; heritage tomatoes, Hainanese chicken broth vinaigrette, spring onion oil, raw onion and herbs; and bah kut teh (pork rib soup); and kaya apple pie and tea tarik ice cream.

Pricing has yet to be confirmed but there are likely to be two menus on offer, one for around £45 and a more premium one for £125 to £150 that will include additional dishes and a drinks pairings created by sommelier Honey Spencer.

Outside of Friday and Saturday evening Mei Mei will serve a simple Singaporean menu that’s similar to the one it opened with at the end of last year. 

Haigh - who won a Michelin star at Hackney Pidgin - says that she is excited about the project and cooking at a high level once again but that Bā is also about keeping Mei Mei alive in unprecedentedly challenging trading environment. 

“Everyone is trying survive. You have to adapt," she says. "Mei Mei has had a massive kick in the teeth and the revenue is not what we have been used to. We have had to come up with a creative solution to make up that shortfall."

Related topics Restaurant Openings Fine Dining Chef

Related news

Follow us

Hospitality Guides

View more

Generation Next