Chinese Baozi Master — Restaurant in Richmond

UPDATE: Came back to CBM a year later and the service and food is so much better. The Pan Fried Buns were so much better than a year ago. Gone are the thick dough buns. Menu is now in English and the woman who told my order can speak English too. No need to point anymore.

February 2024: Does not warrant a 20 min lineup and another 25 min for our food. Don’t know what the hype is all about.

Menu is all in Chinese. Don’t even know what I was ordering. It was so hard to understand the woman that was taking my order. I resorted to taking a picture of the menu and pointing to what I wanted. 🤣

Secondly, this place only takes cash. Imagine waiting 20+ mins and then finding out they only take cash. Who carrys cash these days?? 😬

I was expecting Xiao Long Bao and was completely disappointed. There are no XLBs on the menu. 🤬🤬.They have pan-fried buns. But they’re not pan-fried XLB. Pan fried XLBs have soup in it. Their pan fried buns have no soup. I also found the dough for their buns alittle too thick for my liking. 3 out 5 for the pan-fried buns.

I have no idea what the other $2.49 bun that I ordered. 🤣😂 Doesn’t matter anyways, I didn’t like at all. Again, too much dough in the bun.

The only saving grace were the steam dumplings. They were just alittle above average.

To top off this food experience, I was handed a receipt with my order #. The receipt was in Chinese and the girl assembling the orders were calling out the order # in Mandarin. 😳😬🤬 I can bearly understand Cantonese, let alone Mandarin.

Would I come back...

Ridiculous wait time!!! There was no line ups or any orders before me. Walked up to the cashier and 3 ladies standing there not offering any service!!! Just chatting away and ignoring my existence I nicely asked....excuse me, can I get 6 pork steam buns pls. 5:08 pm waited over 15 mins, asked again if the order was ready yet? She said in 2 mins, waited another 5 because she didn't call my order number so I asked again and she said in another 5 mins! I was losing my patience as I had to get my child to a volley game at school. I complaint about the wait time, she then claims it's because it's the new staff, forgot the order?!!! I'm like we'll you should've told me when she forgotten it, I would've left! She said they had to make the filling from scratch that's why it took so long! The truth is...they probably didn't have it ready and still sold that item as if it was available. We waited until 5:40pm to get the order of 6 buns!!! I was so annoyed with the attitude and service , never again would I come here again. On top of that my husband had an awful stomachache after eating those buns!!! Horrible...

We were there three times in total. The first two times we were actually pretty happy about the food and the price. So we wanted to bring one of our family member for another visit. This 3rd visit was unfortunately a really bad one! Tofu pudding was with cold sauce, like fresh from the fridge! They did make us waiting, but not sure why they wouldn't heat the sauce up in a microwave. The stuff is never supposed to be served with cold sauce.

Remember our first two visit, there were quite some customers in the waiting line. The 3rd visit around lunch time, it was not as popular as before.

What disappointed me the most was the napkins. earlier they were placed in a small plastic basket at the counter for eaters to take. Now there is none! Upon asking, one female worker pointed at another female worker with her chin and told us -- ask it from her. To my big surprise, that other female worker got one ONE thin napkin from under her working counter, yes, just one! I told her that we ordered the meals for three of us. with some difficulties she took another TWO napkins and added to...