My lunch at Shackfuyu Soho began with a walk through Chinatown and ended with two very good char siu pork buns. In between, I found a seat in the window on Old Compton Street, ordered hot green tea and watched Soho pass by. This was a small lunch with plenty to enjoy: soft steamed bread, a generous piece of pork and the pleasure of sitting still while the street carried on outside.

From the Roberts London video archive, originally published on 21 February 2016. The food, menu and interior described here belong to that visit. Shackfuyu has since been retired; the address now operates as Bone Daddies Old Compton Street. See the current venue note below before planning a visit.

From Chinatown to Old Compton Street

I started the film in Chinatown at lunchtime, although Chinese food was not the plan. I was heading across into Soho for Japanese-inspired food at Shackfuyu, part of the Bone Daddies family. More specifically, I had steamed buns on my mind.

London was having quite a moment with bao. As I walked, I joked about jumping on the “bao bandwagon”. What interested me was the choice that came with that enthusiasm. When a particular food catches on, you suddenly have different versions to try, different fillings to compare and plenty of reasons to venture beyond your usual lunch.

The attraction was easy to explain: a little sweetness in the bread, something savoury inside and a format that you can pick up with your hands. I was not setting out to rank every bun in London. I wanted to see what Shackfuyu was doing with them, and whether its lunchtime offering would make a satisfying stop in Soho.

Shackfuyu Soho after the pop-up

There was a distinction worth making before I went inside. Bone Daddies had made its name with ramen, but the restaurants in the wider family did not all serve the same menu. Shackfuyu had its own identity. In the film I also mentioned Flesh & Buns and its Japanese drinking-food inspiration; these were related restaurants, rather than interchangeable places to order the same dishes.

Shackfuyu began as a pop-up and had already become a permanent restaurant by the time of this visit. Its place on Old Compton Street made it an easy destination for my walk from Chinatown. The red awning and dark frontage appear in the film before the camera follows lunch indoors.

For me, the point of this visit was the buns. Ramen belonged to the broader Bone Daddies conversation, but it was not what I ate here. Keeping that distinction matters when looking back at a restaurant family whose different branches encouraged very different sorts of meals.

Early lunch and a window seat

I arrived just after the doors had opened. There were no other customers in the room at that moment, and I made a point of explaining why on camera. An empty restaurant at the very start of service was not a useful measure of how busy it would be later.

I took a seat right at the front, in the window. That suited a solo lunch perfectly. There were also seats around the bar, with tables and booths further back. From my position I could look into the room, film a little of the interior and turn back to the street whenever something caught my eye.

Old Compton Street supplied the view: shopfronts, people walking past and the ordinary movement of Soho. It was the sort of seat where there was no need to find something else to do while waiting for food. I described the meal as lunch, then corrected myself to brunch, because I was there so early.

Char siu pork buns and green tea

I chose the char siu pork buns, listed with apple pickle and kimchi tare, and ordered two. To drink, I kept things simple with hot green tea. At the time I understood the buns to be a lunchtime special, so this account should not be read as a promise about an evening menu, even for the restaurant as it was then.

The first bun arrived with a substantial piece of pork inside. That was immediately noticeable: this was not the shredded filling I had encountered in some other buns. I lifted the top to show the camera what was underneath before trying it.

The bread was soft, slightly sticky and slightly sweet. The pork was tender enough that I described it as tasting as though it had been slow cooked. That was my impression of its texture, rather than a claim to know the kitchen’s method. The sauce had a smoky, barbecue-like flavour that worked well with the sweetness of the bun.

It was delicious. The apple pickle was another detail I liked, giving a familiar pairing of pork and apple a different form. Rather than apple sauce alongside a conventional pork dish, here it was tucked into a bun with the other fillings. There was enough going on to make a second one welcome.

I had forgotten to mention my second order when filming the first bun. Once it appeared, there was no mystery about how enthusiastic I was: it was time for round two. The tea and the window seat made a pleasant setting for taking my time over both.

The appeal of yōshoku

Shackfuyu described its food as yōshoku-inspired: Japanese interpretations of Western food. What appealed to me was that idea of adaptation. A dish can begin with an influence from elsewhere and become something with its own character, shaped by the tastes of the people making and eating it.

My original film wanders into a broad discussion of Japanese food history. The useful point for this lunch was much simpler. Shackfuyu had room to play with combinations, and the pork with apple pickle gave me an immediate way to talk about that creativity. It did not need to resemble a British pork sandwich to make sense to me.

A small Soho lunch worth remembering

I left very happy with those two buns. The visit was not a tour of the whole menu, and I did not try the other dishes for which Shackfuyu became known. What I can recall from this meal is specific: generous pork, soft bread, smoky sauce, green tea and a front-row view of Soho.

That is why this little lunch still earns its place in the archive. A short restaurant visit can capture both a particular dish and a particular moment in London’s food scene. For more from the same year, follow me to BAO Soho and the John Snow pub, or join my Pizza Pilgrims and Bar Italia afternoon.

Watch the original Shackfuyu video

Current venue note

Archive update, October 2026: the official Shackfuyu website announces the restaurant’s retirement. The group now lists Bone Daddies Old Compton Street at 14A Old Compton Street, Soho, London W1D 4TJ. This article records my 2016 Shackfuyu lunch; use the current venue’s own website for its menu and visiting information.