The Bao

13 St. Marks Place

(between Cooper Square and Astor Place)

Located directly above Spot Dessert Bar. I’m sure many first went to dinner at The Bao and then headed downstairs to Spot for dessert.

I confess that my friend and I did the exact opposite.

We were wooed by the soup dumplings and the restaurant’s quirky décor.

 

We of course ordered the Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao (6 dumplings). The dumplings were small and thin-skinned. But unbelievably the skin was strong enough to not break open when picked up with the tongs. Perhaps it had to do with the dumpling’s small size?

 

 

I hate it when the juice spills out onto the dish before it can even get on your soup spoon! But not in this case. It held together and the soup was warm as opposed to burning hot, which is another concern of mine whenever I order soup dumplings.

 

We also had an order of turnip puffs (4 pieces) as I LOVE turnips. Unfortunately, it was way too greasy and was definitely in need of a dipping sauce.

 

We shared a bottle of Crabbies (an alcoholic ginger beer from the UK). I had never had ginger beer before, so wanted to sample. Glad I tried it, but would not order again.

Pros:

Very good soup dumplings.

Nice atmosphere.

Above Spot Dessert Bar.

Cons:

Rather small restaurant, so think it might get very crowded during prime lunch and dinner time hours.

Final Thoughts

Will definitely go back for their soup dumplings!