Jingle Bao — Restaurant in Vancouver

I was so excited to try out this place because of my friends recommendations & the nice reviews. The exterior was super cute and colorful. However, everything changed when we stepped into the restaurant. There was a couple ahead of us and they were asked by the manager (a middle aged Cantonese man) about how long they can wait for and if they’re in a hurry. The couple answered that they preferred to eat quickly and go as their schedule was running late. The man replied quite sarcastically and told them that he wanted their business but if they can’t wait then etc etc etc. He kept apologizing in an exaggerated and sarcastic manner as the couple said thanks and tried to leave.

Fast forward, we have ordered and we’re eating already. My friend wanted to add on 1 more dish so we let the manager know cause he just happened to be walking by. He told us he would be back and we said thanks. Another waiter walked towards us shortly after and asked how everything was; we just placed our next order with him since he asked. We didn’t think it was a big deal since he also worked there. The manager came back momentarily and seemed ready to take our order. We kindly told him that we just placed the order with the other staff since he came around. The manager then looked really insulted and apologized super loudly and obnoxiously while bowing to us. Everybody was starting at us because of this. Then as he was looking at my friend and apologizing in this terrible manner, he suddenly apologized in Cantonese super loudly as well. By the way he was bowing this entire time as if he was mocking us. My friend is not a Cantonese speaker so he felt very humiliated and ashamed due to this man’s actions. It was completely uncalled for & extremely unprofessional. He then stormed off and came back with a glass of beer as an “apology” for him not being able to initially take our order……we weren’t even caring about that though. We didn’t know if he was having a bad day or he was always like that but he completely ruined the experience for both of us. After this, my friend wanted to quickly finish and get out of there as he was so embarrassed and felt so disrespected.

This manager was also shouting at his employees for some reason as well. It was loud enough for us to hear in the corner. The employees working at Jingle Bao were all very sweet and courteous. We felt so bad that they have to work under this manager. To sum it up, the reason we gave 3 stars was solely for the service and kindness of the employees (excluding the manager) and the decency of the food. Hopefully they can change managers soon as I’m sure the place will be...

Relies too much on gimmick and instagram-style marketing. Dubious food quality. I loved the presentation of the rainbow xlb (especially the little baskets) as well as the novelty of the supersize xlb (injecting vinegar is so funny), but the actual taste experience is just average. You could get the same result cooking your own store-bought xlb from frozen.

The flavours of the 7 rainbow xlb can't be told apart except for the punch of the spicy one. The crab also is very little difference and is overpowered by the rest.

The skin is ok but on the insubstantial side. Many of them broke due to touching the side of the large steamer basket or even the handles of the individual mini baskets, which seems to defeat the point. I like the idea - it makes them much easier to retrieve from the main basket, as well as looking adorable - but not so much having to flip them out of the mini baskets.

As far as I know, the usual method of keeping xlb bottoms unstuck is using very thin slices of daikon, not thick slices of orange carrot. The problem with carrot is that the taste is very strong. It would be less of an issue if the carrot could be removed easily, but they were frequently stuck and couldn't be removed without breaking the skin. My guess is that the orange is used for appearance.

The supersize bao was a delight - until I turned it over and realized most of the bottom dough was stretchy and uncooked. I'm honestly baffled how this happened as cooking times should surely be standardized, and the filling appeared to be fine. My (uninformed) guess would be that the size of the bao combined with it having to sit in a bowl makes it difficult to cook without popping the entire thing. The server (and who appeared to be the manager?) kindly brought us a second bao and removed the item from our bill, but somehow a tiny bit of the dough was still not fully cooked right at the centre. It was......definitely better, but raises questions about consistency.

We didn't order the rainbow supersize bao, but I would still leave a recommendation that the full menu (that doesn't have photos) indicate that this menu item is also a large bao, as it is not indicated in the English name (only the Chinese name mentions it is large). We didn't realize until I saw the little photo stand on our table.

The use of plastic straws also contravenes city bylaw. Since this isn't even takeout, please consider reusable straws. Paper straw debate aside, metal straws or the like would actually make eating the bao a lot easier!

It's most disappointing because I wanted to love this because of...

There are many interpretations of the Xiao Long Bao soup dumpling (小笼包) out there, but this place feels one out of a million. From the moment we entered and noticed the Chinese aunty hand making the buns right in front of us, we knew we were in for a good time. While their execution of the traditional pork soup recipe is a point of pride, it’s the funky variations on the original that gives this experience the ‘wow’ factor.

Have you ever tried Xiao Long Bao with shrimp? Or perhaps with a spicy or garlic filling? How about in the spinach, mushroom truffle, or curry flavours? These are all the different tricks they got up their sleeve, and one of the best way to have it all is on the ‘magnificent seven’ sampling basket where there is one of each flavour.

But wait, there’s more! The aunty in the front impressed us when she was bagging up one of these ‘Supersize Xiao Long Bao’, that we knew we had to try it. The sheer volume of soup in that delicately thin pastry was a marvel to behold. The use of a straw to first suck the soup out was a bit of a novelty for us, and our friendly server did not hesitate to capture a shot of us piercing our big bun.

Right when we thought we tried all the unique stuff, our minds were blown again when we found out that they had Xiao Long Bao with a milk chocolate filling. Unlike its savoury cousins, the chocolate saucy goodness is held in a firmer mochi-style glutinous rice pastry. However, we would not have noticed that because the appearance is entirely consistent with every other Xiao Long Bao.

Whether or not you are an aficionado of Chinese dim sum, if you want to experience a meal that feels more like a trip to an amusement park, then this has got to be on your...