It sure can be hard getting into the cooler and more popular restaurants in Hong Kong, it's either walk up and wait or book some time in advance. Oh, and make sure you turn up on time, 'cause if you're fifteen minutes late, your table is gone! We'd booked into one of Sheung Wan's most popular new restaurants recently and were pretty excited, but some last minute schedule changes at work meant that we had to reschedule. It was another catch up dinner with fellow blogger buddy JustCozItsTuesday, the last for a while before she heads back to Australia for a few months.
Luck was on our side, after drifting towards Little Bao's big pink neon sign, we were early enough to score the last three seats at the bar, the absolute prime seats in the little dining room. And I do mean little, there's room for about ten at the bar that overlooks the kitchen and then room for another eight or so squished up against a wall at the back. Sitting at the bar, with an elbow in my back from the guy sitting next to me, we had a look over the placemat menus which were uncomplicated, yet contemporary. Share plates, bao and desserts, with a couple of specials written out in texta - a dozen options all up.
Our starters started flying out of the kitchen, with the lamb tartare up first. Interestingly, in all the years we've been eating out, we've never come across lamb tartare, and I'm not sure why. The Iberico lamb was infused with fermented beancurd mayo and takana and was sweeter than the beef variety. Served with the lamb were some puffy tofu chips, which were perfect for scooping the lamb and gave a decent crunchy texture in the mouth. Yeah, surprised we've never seen it before, but I have to say... Genius!
Loving bacon (who doesn't love bacon?) meant that the thick cut bacon, Lap-cheong style and tea-smoked was always on the cards. Served with thinly sliced cabbage and sliced pickles, the instruction was to pick up some of the greens with each bite of the bacon. The sweet and fatty bacon had a hint of smokey flavour and was quite rich, but the addition of the cabbage and pickle provided the acidity to balance out the flavours. Those of you that read my blog regularly will by now shaking their heads with glee saying "I told you pickles rock"! Hrumph, I'm not saying they suck completely - just in burgers!
Never one to pass up trying dumplings, we'd ordered the short-rib pan fried dumplings, which came sitting atop a celeriac coleslaw. Filled with slow-braised organic OBE beef short rib, the dumplings were packed with a strong flavour. I quite liked the dumplings, but found the beef inside to be just a little dry, perhaps as a consequence of the cooking process. The coleslaw helped a little, but I think the addition of a dipping sauce might have negated the slightly dry dumpling.
Our last share plate was the hot chicken, which I knew would have been a risky proposition due to my newly acquired fear of Szechuan spices... The chicken drumsticks looked amazing on the plate, all golden crispy and brown, but I knew that in that batter crust was a heat that would 'knock my socks off'. Cynthia and SC confirmed that there was a bit of heat, so I set about peeling off that lovely looking golden batter to expose the succulent and still moist chicken underneath. The smiles of joy confirmed that the girls loved the hot chicken and I was pretty impressed with my skinless chicken, but I think I made the right move (for me) in peeling the Szechuan spices off... When I licked my fingers clean at the end, the top of my head almost exploded from the heat!
Right, starters out of the way, it was time to order our bao, the house specialty. With a couple of different options to choose from, ranging from hot Szechuan chicken, through to a vegetarian option, we kept it pretty simple and traditional. Bao, in simple terms are Chinese style hamburgers, filled with all sorts of goodness but instead of western style buns, steamed buns are used, which are a little sweeter.
Cynthia and I had gone for the pork belly bao, consisting of slow-braised pork belly, leek and shies red onion salad covered in sesame dressing and hoisin ketchup. The soft and sweet braised pork belly was great, but I really think there should have been more, it seemed like only two bites and the pork was gone. While the balance of the bao worked when the main ingredient was present, I found the texture of the steamed bun a little tough to swallow on it's own.
SC's choice was the grass fed organic beef bao, with tomato jam, roasted onion sesame mayo, shish and cheddar cheese. It was very much a Chinese take on a traditional burger and looked the goods. Loads of melted cheese dripping off the side of the thick and perfectly medium rare beef patty. It was big though, really big and SC struggled to get a bite in, so it ended up being quite messy (in fact, most of the bao was scooped up off the plate). It ended up being too much for SC, so I gladly pounced on the the mess and gobbled the rest up.
Dessert time and we all eagerly awaited our dessert bao to arrive. Sitting at the bar, right in front of the team of chefs putting our meals together, we'd been watching the desserts being made all night. It was quite an enterprise, with the deep fried steamed buns needing to cool a little before the ice cream was added and served. To say it had increased our desire for dessert had been an understatement! There were a couple of options listed on the menu, and a few more on the specials list.
My choice was the LB salt ice cream bao with caramel, which essentially was salted caramel dessert, with a twist. Given the combination of deep fried buns and ice cream, I decided that the best way to eat my bao dessert was quickly. Scooping up my bao, I finished it off in four big bites, which did give me a little brain freeze, but spared me the issue of a melting and messy dessert (which happened to the girls). There was a subtly to the salt ice cream, sure I could taste it, but it did get a little lost with the caramel and I'd certainly have appreciated just a little more salt flavour (but it is a fine balance, too much and it would be inedible).
SC went for the green tea ice cream with condensed milk, which went down a treat, but lets be honest, anything with condensed milk rocks! We had a long discussion about our childhood memories of sucking back on tubes of condensed milk, so it's always a smart move including something that induces those long lost memories!
Sweet branding - this little fellow is instantly recognisable
We were close enough to the chefs to touch them!
And they could certainly show us what they were up to
Watching out Bao being created
Yeah, its a pretty tight space but awesome as a consequence
(2) Chicken bao- 饅頭配炸雞件，雞是美味且嫩，再加少許蛋黃醬。不過後我覺得比饅頭的味道匹配。
(3) Spicy Fried Chicken bao – 同Chicken bao一樣，只是炸雞件是辣味，比較惹味。
(4) 愛吃蜆，Clams, Bacon, Potato的日式炒蜆用牛油炒，特色在用白胡椒麵鼓來吊味。
(5) 來一客炸雞。Orange Chicken走地雞沾上咸蛋炸漿。橘子味道略甜但偏淡，還是用檸檬的酸味最能帶出雞的味道。
(6) 最後，Short-Rib Pan-Fried Dumpling，慢煮有機短牛肋骨肉, 餃子皮脆口，不過不失。最特別是他們簡稱餃子醬為「KY」。芹菜涼拌捲心菜伴碟。
(7) 沙律新鮮，沒什麼可以提及
(8) 甜品 Green Tea Ice Cream Bao 綠茶雪糕加煉奶，炸饅頭配雪糕有少許冰火的感覺
(9) 甜品 Salt Ice Cream Bao 鹽雪糕加焦糖醬，口感同上一樣
總結: Little Bao 對食物的設計及配搭無疑擁有大膽創新，值得讚賞。但撇除新鮮感，吃過2次，真其味還是差一點點。
炸雪糕包 $48@
After witnessing so much hype over these baos on Instagram, I've been itching to have a try since several months ago, especially the popular ice-cream baos. The deep-fried baos were not greasy and were slightly hot to the touch when the desserts were served, making a nice contrast between the very cold and solid icecream and the crispy crunchy bao sandwiches. A lot of people comment that these dessert baos are very small for what they charge, but I think if they were any bigger it would not have looked as "cute" and would have weighted down the palette with too much bao. Being the green tea addict like so many nowadays, I myself preferred the green tea icecream bao.
The savoury items on the menu were also largely satisfactory, the only flaw being the barely lukewarm temperature in which the truffle fries were served. Something was amiss when I put some into my mouth without the typical flinching from the heat of the fries. The fries were not particularly crispy either given its thin cut. On the other hand, the dumplings were piping hot and as soon as you bit on the tender skin, sizzling beef juice spurted out which you could cool down a bit with the fresh coleslaw. The pork belly bao did not disappoint either given its juiciness and helpful flavouring from the accompanying ingredients, as well as the softness of the slightly buttered bao. Good that it wasn't sticky or soggy!
朋友想試，點知要等咁耐，算啦
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.
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.
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