The best designed restaurant in London this year is awarded to the Borough Market outpost of Bao, London’s favourite Taiwanese gua bao specialist. All Bao venues — in Soho, Fitzrovia, and Xu in Chinatown — are carefully and elegantly designed; design-minded operators — Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung, and Wai Ting Chung — are remarkable in their field. But Borough stands out.

It is a project led by Samuel Hosker, now employed as the group designer director at JKS Restaurants, who brought to life a space which appears to have taken as much inspiration from Tokyo as it did from Tapei: a triumphant interpretation of those cities’ nightlife culture. Together, the Chang, Chung, Chung, and Hosker have created the coolest and most original restaurant, bar, and karaoke venue of the year.