Little Bao is anything but little when it comes to its popularity and buzz around the city right now. I can't say I went into the restaurant with high hopes since I was never a big fan of "Baos" (Chinese steamed buns), so not to mention the little ones. But after hearing many positive reviews raving about it, we decided to go with our friend, Tee, last weekend. Unfortunately I was spot on: I hoped to at least get an enjoyable dinner at a cool and hip restaurant with my friends, but ended up feeling quite uncomfortable and unsatisfied after our "little" meal.
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
Telephone: 2194 0202
Speaking as someone who is not a big fan of seafood, if I were to sum up the seafood dining scene in Hong Kong, I would say that it is often very "overpriced". Having said that, if you know the right places, you may be able to find a handful of fine establishments which are the exceptions.
D's friend Liberace was visiting Hong Kong last summer and he was dying to try some Chinese seafood. That's why Sai Kung, known for its fresh seafood, came to our minds when we were planning our gathering.
Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant was like any seafood restaurant with big abundant fish tanks outside for the customers to choose from. The decoration was nice and elegant for a seafood restaurant. But be prepared for the typical noise level you would expect from a Chinese restaurant. Dinner at Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant costs about $200 per head.
As there was quite a lot of us, we ordered a set dinner for 8 ($1,588) and we added a bucket of oyster ($400).
(1) We started off with the signature Australian Lobster with cheese sauce and e-fu noodles. We told the waitress that we did not want any cheese sauce but they apparently forgot. Hence, the taste of the cheese completely took over the dish and we could barely get any lobster taste out of it. We were thankful that at least the e-fu noodles were not bad.
(2) Boiled Sea Snails were Liberace's special order. They were definitely generous in serving a pretty number of them, with clean and nice sea snail meat. There was no sand or dirt in them and the chili sauce added delicious flavours to it.
(3) The Boiled Shrimps were mediocre. The taste was rather meek, and the dish was lacking anything special or substantial to make it stand out.
(4) The Baked Crab was quite visually exciting at first, but when we dug into it, it was completely another story. To C's horror, there was very little meat in this dish with its appearance. Usually that would not bother us if the meat was cooked well, but this was not the case and it could not be excused.
(5) On the other hand, the size of each Steamed Abalone was big enough, but the dish was suffering urgently from its blandness in taste. We had a lot of trouble to believe they were the same abalone fresh from the fish tanks outside.
(6) To be fair, the Deep-fried Lai Urine Shrimp with pepper was well cooked and crunchy. The shrimp was very tender and seasoned. It was one of the more flavourful dish of the evening.
(7) The highest note of the evening was the Oyster Hot Pot. The oysters were fresh, huge and juicy, and stirred with the sauce in the hot pot, it was delicious and refreshing! Plus, this was one of the rare dish we did not have to struggle to peel the shells off.
VERDICT
Ambience: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Service: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Food: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
Overall remarks: Despite the poor quality of dishes, we had quite an enjoyable dinner gathering and no one seemed to have any complaints at the time. But we were all thirsty after the meal, so there must have been a lot of MSG added in their dishes to cure the blandness in taste. Given the ingredients were all fine, the food at Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant was quite disappointing. Unfortunately the service was quite unacceptable too. The waitresses kept gossiping about us in front of us as they assumed we didn't speak Chinese. Perhaps we came on a particularly bad day or perhaps we didn't know what to order. But one thing for sure, we still don't like Chinese seafood and we won't be back anytime time soon.
INFO
Chuen Kee Seafood Restaurant (website)
87-89 Man Nin Street, Sai Kung
