Bao

Update this they’re closed and replaced with king of kabob…

Menu looked great, but the food lacked taste. I didn’t feel right about the place when I ordered honey shrimp with walnuts, and was told they had no walnuts, but made it with just shrimp with sesame seed sprinkles anyway. Look I’m Chinese so I’ve had plenty of this dish before and, it’s called shrimp with walnuts! And you’re trying to tell me the dish is only served with shrimp? It lacked the sweet sauce that should be smothered all over the shrimp. Hubby got some beef in chili sauce, but I swear there were 5 cups of chili OIL in it! Did not work over rice. I did appreciate the homemade buns, but I am truly disappointed with bland taste. Kudos to my delivery guy though, who pulled up in his mo-​ped in 40 degree weather.

Despite reading Unilocal reviews (esp as to what was awesome on the menu) I really wanted some delicious, hot, Chinese takeout. I ordered the «westernized» Chinese food, and it was great. Nothing fancy, probably not remotely authentic, but delicious and not too greasy.
My food came faster than expected and was piping hot. I would definitely order again, and perhaps when I’m not craving American Chinese food, try some of the more authentic dishes or stir fry.
Bottom line is, I can see why you’d give it fewer stars (if you’re looking for «real» Chinese), but if you’re looking for something real delicious, Bao didn’t disappoint me.

I liked this place for its cheapness and proximity to the office… that is until it was shut down by the D.C. health department. I’m not sure when it’s scheduled to reopen, but I doubt I’ll be going back.

Got take out from here a couple of weeks ago. The food itself was good and was piping hot. The lunch portions are decent;, although I wish their lunch specials menu had more options. It’s obviously not something I would eat every day, but I’ll be back again when the craving strikes.

Went here with my girlfriend. We beat the noon rush and were the only ones there for a good ten minutes. Really simple layout, focusing on food than atmosphere. Food was delicious! We ordered fried crab wantons (?) for an appetizer, and general tos’s and sesame chicken for lunch. The food was served very hot and the food display was great. Each entrée comes with an egg roll on the side as well. Really recommend it for a quick lunch, however make sure you get there early. By ten minutes after noon there were no empty tables.

Went to lunch here today with a couple of friends who have had xiao long bao (Shanghainese soup dumplings) in Taiwan… and well, I’ve been to Shanghai. I know it may be a lot to live up to – but I’ve had delicious versions in multiple places in NYC (Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown, for example, and Grand Sichuan).
Unfortunately, this place’s xiao long bao (dubbed «dragon balls») is not even as good as Chinatown Express’s version. They are made to order, and the broth flavor is delicious — it’s just that there’s only a sip’s worth of broth, they are small (they give you 6 for $ 6.95), and have that really thick dumpling dough. If they could only roll out the dough twice as much to make it larger/​thinner, and add more broth… they’d be pretty good. As they are, they are still really filling though.
I ordered something that wasn’t on the lunch menu — the beef noodle soup, which was a pretty good version of the dish. Fresh tasting, plenty of fresh baby bok choy, lots of stewed beef with attached softened tendon (I was hoping on plenty of slippery unattached tendon as well, based on another review here), and an enormous amount of noodles. It’s enough to feed 2 – 3 people. The waitress told me I could order it again in the future with rice noodles, thin ‘fun’ noodles, lo mein noodles, you name it — which was very helpful of her. I was the only one to receive chopsticks automatically with my meal because I didn’t order off the menu :).
I still want to come and try the cumin lamb sometime for lunch, especially since it’s just a quick few minute ride away from my work on the metro. Otherwise it’s only different from your typical Americanized Chinese joint if you order the specials, the cumin lamb, or with a specific non-​menu item in mind.
Oh, and the place was rather warm inside (A/​C wasn’t working well). But I got used to it even though I ate pretty steamy food.
If only someone would open an authentic soup dumpling joint in the DC area. I wish I could… do you realize how many people crave those things?

No, folks, this is not «authentic» Chinese food. Preachy sinophiles seeking the «real» Chinese food from their six-​month study abroad program need not apply. Instead, let’s applaud Bao for what it is: very, very solid Chinese delivery.
I have never actually been to Bao’s physical location, and it scares me a bit when I drive by. (See sketchy doorway photos.) As with most Chinese delivery places, I’d simply rather not see the sausage factory. In my mind, I imagine Bao’s kitchen with vats of MSG, mystery meat, and rats scampering around.
So don’t visit the place, and just accept that they can deliver you a great – saucy, tangy, sweet, and a little crunchy – General Tso’s Chicken. Their steamed dumplings and char siu are quite solid. No, it’s not healthy, and yes, too much will probably give you cancer. But is it precisely what you need when settling in for a lazy movie night at home after a long day at work?
Absolutely.

Meh. Adequate.

If you plan to order crappy American Chinese food like crab rangoon, Bao is not the place for you.
If you enjoy less fabricated fare, Bao’s eponymous steamed buns, soup dumplings, and cumin lamb should be right up your alley.
I recommend two tactics:
1) Order off menu (works best if you speak Chinese and are familiar with Chinese food). In my experience, they’ll make you almost anything you ask for.
2) Ask the exceptionally nice proprietors for suggestions!
Favorite Dishes
— Char siu bao
— xiao long bao (dragon buns)
— red bean buns
— cumin lamb (Uighury delicious!)
— Hunan lamb
— gan bian si ji dou (dry green beans with dried chilis)
— any vegetable fried in garlic
— shui zhu niu (beef simmered in a chili broth, slight vinegar flavor, also available in fish.)
Pass on the Americanized junk. Bao’s proprietors are far more talented at cooking food that more closely resembles what they themselves would probably eat.
Also, I think some of these reviews refer to prior management. They certainly don’t seem to be describing the same restaurant I’ve been to multiple times.

Barf.
Since we ordered delivery, I can only comment on the food, not the physical place. Here is the list of our order that arrived about an hour later after the phone call was placed:
1 Eggroll
1 Hot & Sour Soup
1 Char Siu Bun
1 Sweet and Sour Pork
There is nothing remotely positive to say about any of these items. Additionally, the restaurant could not confirm if it was completely MSG-​free since many of their items were already «pre-​made». According to my growing migraine, I can confirm for you that there is MSG hiding in there somewhere. Need I say more?

Checked this place out for lunch and was pleastantly surprised. I had actually come from City Buffet where it was packed and it didnt seem like anyone was leaving soon.
So we wandered over to Bao, which is a relatively new establishment. From the outside it looks like one of those large Bruce Lee types of Chinese restaurants with the big lazy susan tables (maybe its that pair of golden lions outside), but Bao is pretty small inside. Their lunch menu is like any other Chinese place with the standard American Chinese fare comeplete with rice and a deep fried egg roll. The price is pretty decent– at $ 7.95-$ 8.95 for most.
Unfortunately the thing that the restaurant is named after ‘bao’ or steamed buns, were the most interesting on the menu, but I did not order. Next time I am definitely trying the Dragonballs…

Not bad really. We ordered a few things from here last night: Singapore noodles, veggie buns (pan seared) and garlic tofu.
All the dishes were great. We did have to wait a long time for our food, but when our delivery came, the guy had 5 other deliveries in our building — that’s comforting.
It’s a good alternative to new big wong’s drunken food fest. =)

I walked into Bao at around 9pm, ordered the Char Siu Bao and the Shedded Pork Stir Fried with Hot Chili Pepper, waited the 15 minutes the menu says the bao takes and walked home (which took about another 15 minutes). Both the bao and the pork survived the walk back and I can say I have great hope for the future of bao in this city.
The dough was soft with just enough resistance to feel substancial and the char siu inside was perfectly adequate. Being hand made, and then carted home, they weren’t perfectly formed and there could have been more filling, but I will absolutely order them again (if I had to compare, I’d say I like them better than Wow Bao in Chicago, and they are about 1.25−1.5x as big as any frozen bao I’ve ever had).
The pork dish was good, but not as spicy as I’d hoped. However, it was very simple (lightly stir fired pork with mild green chiles, and onions in a thin almost none existant sauce) and tasted fine. Not sure I’d order again, but that’s more because I’m interested to try the Simmered Beef in Hot Chili Sauce to see if that has the spice I crave.
All in all, Bao was a good experience and has earned my business again. There is a lot of potential in this place, and I’d love to see more bao in this city.

At first the menu seemed very standard with a few twists… all myy 3*s goes to the beef noodle soup. Friends also like the kung pao chicken a lot, super spicy and not ‘saucy’ like a carryout.
Bluntly speaking, I feel it’s sad how some chinese restaurants have to cater to the more general western taste by having to make certain dishes that we would never eat at home or anywhere in asia. But yet if they don’t make those dishes it’ll take a lot more time for some people to understand why there’s no red-​orange-​burgundy sauce with their deep fried everything. Obviously I’m not saying this excuses all Bao’s negative Unilocaler experiences, but I’ve had so many times heard restaurant owners talk about being in a catch 22 situation. Anyhow some notes:
1– 80% of the things on the menu’s ‘Westernized’
2– They have a chinese ‘menu’ (more like chef’s picks) if you ask for traditional dishes and not westernized.
3– Their beef noodle soup is very home-​style, it’s a time consuming dish to make at home because the tendons needs to be cooked till they are soft as tofu.

I bow to Bao. I love that DC is a walking city. We weren’t wandering aimlessly for very long when we found this place. We were in the mood for rice or noodles and this place didn’t disappoint. The chicken stir fry, mongolian beef, sweet and sour chicken, wonton soup, and chicken fried rice were great. They have coupons and they encourage you to use them.
They also delivered straight to our hotel room. They said they’d deliver in 30 minutes, but they were there in 15. Nice!

It is so nice to find a moderately-​priced
restaurant open in the evening in this area. Friendly if slow service. The hot and sour soup is quite good. The Mongolian lamb is tasty and a nice take on a classic.

I *really* hate doing a bad review on a restaurant that serves something I can’t usually find elsewhere, so I’m sure this will come back to haunt me at some point.
I just got back from Bao’s for lunch, after finding they’d replaced Hunan Palace, along with their Lo mein (!!). So, curious, I looked at the menu, and quietly squealed — they had pork buns! I hadn’t had any since I’d been up to Chinatown NYC two years ago, and I’d fallen in love with them. I dashed in and ordered three pork buns to go, and got back to my job as fast as the the lights could turn green.
Sadly, *deep sigh* their pork buns were nowhere near as tasty as I was expecting. I am not a fan of steamed buns to begin with, but any buns were welcome in the absence of Chinatown NYC! The meat in these… it’s almost like they rolled a small thing of pork into a meatball shape, stuck it in the bun, and popped it in the steamer. There was no meat «falling out» of the bun as I bit into it. In fact, most of it WAS bun, and a bite and a half of pork (if that). I ate them, only because I’d already paid for them, and was already back at work. I may try the pan-​fried buns as a «second chance», and I will go back for some of their dishes (Cashew chicken! You can’t screw that up, right?) to try those out.
The upside to lunch was that I got a free can of soda with it.
Basically? Steamed pork buns were a disappointment at Bao’s, only because they lacked enough pork to call them such. I’ll do an update in the future when I try some of their other stuff.

Nope.
My theory that there is no great Chinese in the District continues unchallenged. I got Bao delivered last night. The buns are probably better described as dumplings. The dough was really thick and hard and appeared to have been made ahead, possibly frozen. We got the char sui (roasted pork), pork and dragon bun. The latter was described to me as «pork and juicy.» It had pork, it wasn’t juicy.
The mongolian beef was really good. The crispy salty chicken was a bit chewy, but oddly appealing. The honey walnut shrimp was by far the strangest thing ever. Fried shrimp on top of lettuce and wait for it… covered with what appeared to be mayonnaise with a side of candied walnuts. Hm? The shrimp was tasty, but mayo? Ick.
I don’t think I’ll be going back for more.

This is a first impression reflection. Bao is now open but I would’t go there just yet. Although the primary construction is complete, there’s still a great deal of remodeling and decorating left to be done. Bao replaced what was once Hunan Palace and the owners appear to be new as well.
The new restaurant-​lounge is an improvement to its hole-​in-​the-​wall but it hardly resembles a lounge or a bar. The walls are newly painted, there’s now a flat screen television, and the old buffet area is now a bar counter. The menu is a prototypical of Chinese take-​out restaurants. On the main kitchen menu, dishes are distinguished by its preparation (e.g. kung pao plate, stir-​fry with jalapeño peppers, glazed orange plate) and you choose the protein or vegetable. A side menu identifies appetizers, soups, and «specialty» dishes.
The problem with Bao is its namesake special. Bao refers to steamed buns, often filled with meat and vegetables. Think of it as the Chinese empanada but steamed. The menu proudly discusses bao as the ultimate snack food and welcomes you to «indulge in a centuries old past time and cultural treasure.» I went inside because I was sold on the idea plus a 10% discount; but then I discovered they only had two varieties and the 10% discount only applied for dine-​in orders. I ordered two roast pork buns ($ 5.95). Another grave disappointment. There was too much bread and not enough filling. What filling was inside was dry and lacking in flavor. The dough was so thick that most of it wasn’t even cooked all the way. This kitchen needs to learn how to make proper pork buns.
To summarize, Bao opened its doors sometime between May 2 and May 4 and it’s way too early to even come here. The new owners are trying to run before they can even walk. Give it a month or two until they can get their act together. [Original Visit: May 4, 2009]