Bao Wow - Fast, Casual, Affordable Bao

Price: $

Cravingness: ★★★☆☆

If you ask what is the recent food trend in Hong Kong, it is definitely Bao. Bao has made a scene in Hong Kong and if you notice more restaurants are adding bao into the menu, recent examples would be Comfort by Gold Harlans or Mayta Peruvian Kitchen. And of course there are restaurants that specialise in only bao, so today I am going to introduce to you a pretty new one in Wanchai called Bao Wow.

Bao Wow, unlike any restaurants that offer Bao, setup a fast food platform to bring fast and delicious bao to all foodies. So no fancy table setup and definitely no crazy queue that you need to get a bao, all you need to do is to queue up at the cashier, order your bao, grab a vacant seat and enjoy! Just like what you do at Mc Donald's.

Being a fast food shop, do expect Bao Wow to be a tiny shop. Yet it is still big enough to cater around 20 people at one time, seated. You can always opt for standing in front of the restaurant with your beer on your hand. The shop has a sleek and contemporary setting. Red and white are their main theme colours which is derived from the traditional Chinese Chop. One worthy point to mention is the multi devices charge station at the single seated bar table, so bring along your laptop, iPad, iPhone or whatever here as you need!

What's more to wow? Bao Wow offers an undeniably great deal of only HKD$58 for 2 big baos! You can also opt for combo and add drinks or other delicious sides for an additional HKD$10 or more.

You might think as I did that the idea of Bao store is originated in US, but it was actually from Taiwan. I would say US does a greater job in marketing the Bao and made them one trendy food, And for the very same reason that bao is originated from Taiwan, Bao Wow's drink list includes Taiwan soft drinks and Taiwan beer!

You will be amazed by how Bao Wow's little kitchen can do. The baos are made from scratch at the kitchen and so are all other food preparation. Baos are streamed and prepared upon order. The baos are usually served in a paper container but if you order an assorted set of baos in 3 flavours (that's 6 baos in total), the baos are served on a traditional Chinese bamboo streamer.

Original Guo Bao

This drooling looking Original Guo Bao was divine! The thick braised pork belly was fatty and juice. It was heavily cilantro spiced, be warned to request skipping it if you hate cilantro! There was also Chinese relish to whet your appetite.

Kimchi Bulgogi

The Kimchi Bulgogi bao was a bao with grilled sliced beef, homemade kimchi, bean sprouts and homemade bulgogi sauce. The bulgogi sauce was not spicy at all, the spiciness is about 2/10. My beef was ridiculously chewy. The only nice thing on the bao was the bean sprouts which were fresh and crisp. This is my least favourite bao.

Teriyaki Tofu

Oh my! Don't be deceived by the ordinary look, the tofu bao was scrumptious!! The Japanese egg tofu was silky smooth, combined with the sweet teriyaki sauce was heavenly! My favourite bao of the night!

Sesame Ginger Pork Chop

This Baowich wrapped fried pork chop, shredded cabbage and homemade Japanese sesame ginger sauce. The pork chop was savoury but was quite dry and also a bit thin in thickness.

Thai Fish Fillet

This colourful bao is my top 2 of all baos. The Thai fish was juicy and was fried super crispy. The Thai fish sauce was flavourful and the sweet pickle added extra flavour to the bao.

Taro Fries - HKD16

Taro fries is something that I have not tried before and I quite liked it. The fries are very flavourful with strong taro note. To make it more interesting, it is served with a spicy sauce for dipping.

Kimchi Cheese Fries - HKD48

Hot fries with melted and slightly toasted cheese are the best combination! The meat sauce also made the fries more savoury but the kimchi flavour was too weak to taste.

Ice Cream Baowich - HKD38

Dessert time comes a deep fried bao wrapped a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. The hot crispy bao and the cold creamy ice-cream combination was delicious but the ice-cream melted too quickly and created a bit of mess.

Bao Fries with Dipping Sauce - HKD28

The Bao Fries is like churro but without the brown sugar coating. The fries is a chopped version of the bao, deep fried and made pretty crispy. The housemade Ovaltine with condense milk dipping sauce was not too sweet but was quite a good pair with the fries.

I would say Bao Wow is doing great as a fast causal Baowich shop. Food is delivered fast and prepared fresh and hot upon ordering. The menu has enough combos to chose from and more importantly they are priced reasonably. The baos are original and the only area for improvements is increase the amount of sauce in each bao as I personally think they do not deliver enough flavour now and tasted rather dry overall. My only advise is to request EXTRA sauce for your bao and you will have a great meal at Bao Wow!

Rating
Food - ★★★☆☆
Service - ★★★☆☆
Ambience - ★★★★☆
Overall - ★★★☆☆


Bao Wow

Address (E) Shop 2, 28 Tai Wong Street East, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
Address (C) 香港灣仔大王東街28號2號舖
☏ 2528 9505
Opening Hours: Mon - Sat: 12pm - 9 pm
Reservation Available? No
Walk In Possible? Yes
Website: http://www.baowowhk.com/


Date of Dining: 27 Feb 2014
Bill Per Person (Dinner excl. alc) - HKD$118

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