Bao Richmond Hill Goubuli 狗不理列志文山店 — Restaurant in Richmond Hill

Been wanting to try out Goubuli since they opened, but didn't get a chance to until recently! Goubuli is a Shanghainese (?) restaurant in Richmond Hill. It shares the parking lot with many, many other notable restaurants including Yu Seafood and Shinta - so beware of parking here and arrive early if you can. The parking lot itself is a bit of a mess.

My mom and I arrived around 6pm on a Friday night and was able to get a table fairly quickly. We did notice that there ended up being more people waiting after we arrived though - but mostly larger groups of 4+. They also have an upstairs level, though I'm not sure how large that is. Service throughout the meal was just okay, but we didn't really bother the staff too much or ask any questions. They also offered green tea to us, but they mentioned it was $5 a person for that! That's crazy - so we just opted for hot water. Might as well stop by Machi Machi next door and get a bubble tea for the same price.

We ordered some jajangmien (black bean noodles), xiaolong baos (soupy pork dumplings), regular pork & pickled cabbage dumplings, and some veggie dish with bamboo/mushrooms/asparagus/black fungus. The best were the XLBs - $8 for 8 is a very good price that you can't find anywhere anymore and was definitely the highlight of the meal. The skin wasn't too thick and inside was steamy and juicy. The regular pork dumplings on the other hand were kind of a letdown. They tasted like the frozen ones you buy at the store and make at home - nothing special. The jajangmien was just okay. We wished there were more black bean sauce and more veggies. It was overloaded with just noodles which wasn't the best noodle to topping ratio. The biggest disappointment was the veggie dish though. It had almost no flavour and was just very bland, especially compared to the umami in the other dishes we had.

I'll come back for the XLBs, and maybe to try out their peking duck, but probably not...

This restaurant is supposed to be known for its baozi, but what we ordered was very disappointing. We ordered beef and carrot bao and the picture looked very enticing. First off, we immediately noticed that the bao wrap was suspiciously white and soft. When I had my second bao, I tasted strong and repugnant chemical taste, not sure if was from the wrap or the filling. I immediately spat it out and let my husband try. He tasted the chemical smell too.

I am pregnant. I just pray that the first bao I had wouldn’t cause any harm to me and my baby’s health.

When I told this to the server, she only explained it was because most bao was machine-made. And that’s it. First of all, as a bao restaurant, using machine-made, instead of hand-made bao is highly unacceptable; second, shouldn’t the restaurant ensure the quality of the food regardless?!! third, the way the server handled this incident was unacceptable, no apologies, not telling the manager to alert the issue, and not offering to take it off the bill, as if she didnt give a damn about the food safety here. I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise as she was the same person who took our order without saying anything(no greeting, no acknowledging, no warmth at all).

The two stars are for the ambience and the other two dishes we ordered were decent.

The experience was extremely disappointing. For the sake of my family’s safety,...

[JUICY PORK BUN - 8 pcs] $8 (not pictured) 🥟 These were overcooked like crazy 😭 🥟 Supposed to be what they're known for

[JUICY PORK BUN WITH CRAB MEAT - 4 pcs] $7 (not pictured) 🦀 The bottom of these buns literally fell through while I picked one up 🦀 Delicious but disappointing that all the soup fell into my bowl as opposed to into my mouth as intended

[DUMPLING STUFFED WITH GROUND PORK, CHIVES, SCRAMBLED EGGS, AND SHRIMP - 12 pcs] $13 (not pictured) 🦐 These were delicious yet simple in a good way 🦐 Paired really well with the vinegar

[PAN FRIED BEEF AND ONION PIE - 3 pcs] $10 (not pictured) 🍖 This was essentoally three flat dumplings that were panfried 🍖 I love a good crisp exterior and soupy interior which is exactly what this delivered 🍖 I would order another order of these for sureeee

[FEATURED PEKING DUCK] $68 🦆 The duck is cut off the bones, and sliced thinly to be wrapped in thin dough wrappers 🦆 The meat of the duck is so tender, and juicy that I could eat all of it 🦆 I like to get the remainder of the duck made with salt and pepper flavoring

[DICED BEEF WITH BLACK PEPPER AND GARLIC] $23 🧄 This was my favorite dish haha 🧄 Highly highly recommend as each piece is so tender and flavorful!

🍵 I loved their oolong tea served by the pot - it had a delicious hint...