Little Bao is the most-obsessed new restaurant in SoHo devoting itself to feature tiny Chinese steamed buns with creative ingredients fillings. When we arrived at Little Bao a little before 7:30 p.m. on Friday, we were greeted by a cheerful waitress at the entrance who informed us the wait would be for at least an hour (!) and asked us politely whether we wanted to put our names on the wait-list so that she would call us once our seats were ready.
After wandering in the Sheung Wan neighbourhood for nearly 45 minutes, we finally received a call from the restaurant and by that time we were just happy to be able to sit down and eat. The restaurant was also little, intimate and cramped with an open-bar area on one side, and the other side facing the wall. The music was incredibly loud that made dinner conversation extremely difficult and you would feel like you were in a bar instead of a diner. The menu was simple and the choices of Baos were less than we expected (only 4 in total). They also offered a few daily specials on the board. The price was expensive for its portion and dinner was priced at around $250 to $300 per person.
(1) We started with Short-Rib Pan-Fried Dumpling ($128) which was served with slow-braised organic OBE beef short rib, celeriac coleslaw. There were only 4 pieces when the dish was served and we wouldn't complain if it was able to blow our minds with the expensive price tags. But, it didn't. The dumplings were outright disappointing, with the beef tasting bland and dry. The dish was in need of some brilliant seasoning to redeem its poor execution.
(2) For the Baos, we ordered the Bao with Pork Belly ($78) which was a combination of slow-braised pork belly, leek & shiso red onion salad, sesame dressing, hoisin ketchup. We were stunned when we saw the actual size of the bao (see below) and it was wrong for customers to feel happy just because there were 2 (instead of 1) pieces of pork belly! The flavours weren't bad but the Bao wasn't as spectacular and Tee thought that this dish definitely did not worth its price.
(3) The Bao with Fish Tempura ($78), made of fresh market fish, tamarind palm sugar glaze, pickled lemongrass dennel salad, was a symphony of crunchy, was quite good with its alluring textures and tastes. The gorgeously deep fried fish tempura, sandwiched between the steamed buns completely made for a rich and sweet taste! We just wish the portion could be larger as there was only 1 piece of fish tempura for this dish.
(4) The LB Ice Cream Sandwich ($48) and the Ice Cream Bao ($48) both looked extremely adorable and colourful with green tea ice cream and caramel ice cream respectively. These beautiful and petit desserts, however, did not taste as delightful as they appeared as the ice cream proved to be too cold and tasteless while the deep-fried bun was too hot and too salty. And after a few bites, we realized that the desserts were only daring in conception but lacking in execution as when the ice cream started melting, and quickly becoming messy and you would just want to finish it as quickly as possible.
Overall remarks: With such expensive price tags, we expected the signature Baos to be little yet delicate and refined, but the dishes were still stuck at the beginner's stage: the clever, inventive and ridiculous variations Little Bao promises seemed to be impossible for its own chefs to realise. Little Bao is certainly an example of exceptional marketing and how to run an business with ordinary food solely fueled on hype! Filled with gimmicks, words-of-mouths and promises, I would like to say that you might enjoy it if you just try and go for what it is, but it's hard because the food was too unbalanced, too unmemorable and too expensive. If those buns could have at least made us more than a little "Bao" ("full" in Chinese), Little Bao might be getting somewhere by now.
Food: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Ambience: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Service: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
INFO
Little Bao
G/F, 66 Staunton Street, Central 中環士丹頓街66號地下
