Bao Restaurant Chinatown 狗不理多伦多中国城店 GOUBULI — Restaurant in Toronto

Dishonest selling, bizarre experience and kept being bothered by little mosquitoes were the three things to sum up my dining experience here.

I have been to Tianjing and had their steam bun, but I haven’t been to a Tianjing cuisine restaurant in Canada. My mother has never been to Tianjing. Therefore, even though we just ate at a place nearby just a couple of hours ago, we decided to go in to try it out while walking past.

The place looked more beautiful inside than outside. We were warmly welcome by a server that loooked the most senior there and asked if we wanted tea. I replied that I could have tea in the evening or I could not sleep. She recommended a tea to try. I thought it was like a dim sum place and tea was a must have, so I said yes to her recommendation.

We wanted to order a vegetable dish. I was interested in three options. My mother asked the server for advice and she recommended the most expensive one. We were here for the Tianjing steam bun. There were two options: $7 for four buns or $11 for eight buns. I wanted the smaller portion but the server said their buns were REALLY SMALL, just like the Shanghai Xiao Long Bao (steam soup dumplings), and my mother believed in her. I knew that could not be true but I did not want to point out that, so I explained that we were not hungry as we just ate a while ago. Then my mother wanted a dessert pancake she saw on the sign outside the restaurant. I reminded the server that would result in ordering too much food, so I should just have the smaller portion of steam buns. Then she shifted the focus to the price that the bigger portion was a better deal. My mother was once again convinced by her. Since I brought my mother to Toronto for vacation, I did not to disagree with the server, so I decided to just follow the flow.

The vegetable with mushroom was a bit bland and oily. The vegetable should be cooked a bit longer. It was a bit hard and difficult to chew.

The pancake was very big. It was savory, not the one my mother wanted. However, my mother was too nice not to say anything until we went back to our hotel.

The steam buns were huge, and my anger emerged once I saw the size of the buns. The server was totally dishonest.

We also noticed none of customers ordered tea. They just had tap water. That made me wonder if the tea was actually not free. And I confirmed that the tea was not free when I checked the bill later on. It was not expensive, but again, not being honest.

During the ordering, she did upselling and not being truthful/ being deceitful. We guessed she could tell I was mad and she did not come to our table again but did send two other younger female servers instead. So she lied to us and then did not take the accountability for her misconduct.

Worthy to note that, while the place was “clean” overall, there were little mosquitoes flying around the whole time. Once one dropped into my tea and died. I did not complain and just picked it out myself. Another mosquito almost dropped into my mother’s tea. Also, a couple more kept flying and landing on the buns. The restaurant needed to do something about it.

The most bizarre experience was, you could not lock and open the door of the female washroom manually. There were two separate buttons for these two functions. While I was waiting outside, for some reason, the door opened and there was a Chinese grandma inside being panic. I comforted her and said it was okay, I could not see anything. And I offered to help her close the door. This was absolutely ridiculous not putting a Chinese sign on the buttons if they knew their (regular) customers can only understand Chinese.

I will not come to this...

Mixed experience verging on bad. The decor is nice, but I didn't come to eat with my eyes. The food is bland at best, and cloying at worst, save for the kung pow chicken which is what saves this review from being one star. That is the only thing that we ordered that I sort of enjoyed, although it may be somewhat disappointing if your looking for a truly spicy dish (I absolutely cannot stand spicy foods, but the chicken was very mild). My friend told me that she found the kung pow chicken to be a bit too salty, and had to drink a lot of water. The portion size was also on the smaller side when compared to other Chinese restaurants. We also had some stir fried rice, which can only be described as bland but bearable, and a 鲜果咕佬肉 (sweet and sour pork with fresh fruit). The WORST thing on that menu. The pork was so thickly breaded in flour that there was barely, and I really mean barely, any meat. There were even strips of just fried dough, and at times I wasn't sure if I was biting into meat or fat. It was extremely oily, and very cloying, which is why I assume fresh fruit is included as a palate cleanser. Unfortunately, fresh is the last word I would use to describe the fruit they served. The fruit was sparse, and most of it was canned (pineapple, peach), and the strawberries (there were 3 slices. 3. Slices.) were mushy and sour enough to make the toughest guy in the room pucker.

When it was time to pay, I was told that it was mandatory to pay at least a 10% tip, which I first did not include since that pork and "fresh" fruit dish angered me so. But fair enough, tip was paid and I guess it's not the waitress' fault that the pork was not even dog food quality. But I do suggest that they take away the option for no tip on the machine if you are not allowed to do that.

I should also note that the tea here is not free - many Chinese restaurants offer complementary tea for diners, but with some places like this one you have to order yours off of a menu. From what I remember, the tea prices start at 2 dollars a pot and go to around 6.

I wouldn't go here again, and I would warn my other friends to avoid this place. Don't be drawn in by the elegant design of the space. There are only lacklustre...

At first glance on the menu, I had like over 8 dishes I wanted to order. When the server came over, I was told that the peaking duck deal was cash only, so anything else you ordered at the same table has to be all paid in cash, also a Google review is needed.

I've asked if I could split the bill since there was a party of 2, but they were firm about it. So we were back to thinking spot. Since they were firm with it, I've decided just to order the peaking duck only since it was what caught my eyes on the ad they posted on the window.

Seriously, who carries around 200-300 cash on them when the majority of younger generations have Apple or Samsung or Goolge pay?

After my order of the peaking duck comes out, another server just started work. She says she will make it an exception for us to split the bill if we want to order more. The restaurant when we arrived was dead, we were the only table they had. I guess they realized it wasn't ideal to turn down $200 business.

So I've ordered a few more dishes, but there were some items they said on the menu that have different sizing, but when you order them, they say there is only a large size.

The peaking duck is slightly different from the ones you can get from Cantonese restaurant. There are parts that are kind of dry. The 2nd dish has many options to be served, but 2 of the popular ways have an additional $5 fee. I've chosen the salt and pepper style, which didn't disappoint me.

The sliced pork tripe and biased pork belly weren't disappointing at all! The house style eggplant has potential if it's more crispy on the outside. All the dishes were on the oily side, though.

It's also not like your typical Chinese restaurant serving you tea on the house. Tea is...