Bao — Restaurant in Victoria

bao has good and convenient food, however, i called on saturday evening (Family Day long weekend) to inquire if they had space for 5, and the response was so rude it was a huge turn off. “uhhh no we have a huge line up” i say “oh that’s great for you guys!! no worries” he said “yeah. i mean its saturday🙄…..of the long weekend🙄”. with the thickly implied-eye rolling tone. like yeah. that’s why i hecking called, instead of showing up just to not be able to get a table. jusssst checking. all he had to say was “sorry!” or “goodluck” “have a good night” “hopefully some other time”. I’m a server, when a restaurant is full, i’m happy for them and will happily find somewhere else to dine, and look forward to trying again another time. left a bad taste in my mouth and won’t be coming in for awhile.

Reply Edit: Definitely disappointed in the reply. Maybe you misunderstood my story. I didn’t ask for a wait, or push to know why there was no room. The conversation was over, and i had expressed genuine happiness for your success. I was given a blatant sarcastic reprimand for having been so idiotic to even ask the question in the first place. The smile literally died on my face and my stomach dropped to have the conversation flip so rudely like that. Obviously your staff member was in the weeds and not handling it well (been there), but he took it out on a customer that he conveniently didn’t have to hope for a tip from that night, and wasn’t speaking to face-to-face. In restaurants I’ve worked in, the next FOH meeting would include “hey guys, i know sometimes we get super busy and it’s stressful when people call or show up for a table we don’t have, but we should treat all potential and future customers kindly and with respect, we want them to come in in the future when we have space! so we can build our customer base.” Just admit that.

Edit Edit: Thank you for adding the last sentence of your reply...

This is my defense of Bao from those reviewers who didn't like this place just because "it's not authentic".

This place is superb, both in terms of food and aesthetics. I agree it's not an authentic Asian place. It's an amalgam of many Asian food cultures from different countries which fits together on a very mysterious balance, just like how those small artefacts in the place represents. As someone form an Asian country, I must say I never felt this place is phony. If it's not authentic or phony, then what is it? It's a surreal artwork. Coming into this place always makes me feel like I'm having a surreal dream about a home in an alternate universe. And finding the bits and pieces of culture that I grew up with adds to this "I'm having a strange dream" feel. Combined with their uniquely arranged Asian cuisine, they offer a pleasantly surrealistic dining experience not many fusion restaurants are able to offer in this universe. So forget about the Asia you know for a moment, and immerse yourself in the trip to an alternate universe.

BTW, I'm from Japan and I can confirm that there are sour ramens. Is Bao's version of ramen authentic? No, it's very unique. Is it bad? Certainly no. I see they use the noodle with a very small amount of to no lye water, and it's thin and straight. So it matches with the very light broth. It rather reminded me of udon from my hometown, but with again elements from different Asian culture which I loved. The only improvement, if I dare to point out, would be the presentation. The noodle is every where and toppings were sinking. There's a noodle folding technique that every Japanese ramen place use to make ramen look really nice, allowing you to put toppings on the noodle. If you are interested and DM-me or reply to this review, I can share some...

0/5 - Almost died

I really debated on whether to write review or not but I genuinely think that I would be doing a disservice by not saying anything. I have severe allergies to all kinds of nuts. I don’t bother bringing it up to most restaurants as they are already very busy and it’s a crazy thing to not include common allergens on their menu. The bao’s I was served had peanuts sprinkled on as a garnish…. The menu didn’t say anything about the peanuts… idk anything about anyone else but these baos were almost $10 and I was hungry; besides, I wanted to eat for something I paid for?? But after asking the (useless 🫣) lady at the front, she told me that there was nothing they could do (ie., no remake nor refund). So I picked off every piece of peanut and ate it hoping to have the opportunity to show everyone in that restaurant how useful an epipen is.

Also!! The bao was sooo mediocre, actually no, it was bad I’m sorry. It tasted like some white dudes w man buns who get off on explaining colonialism to poc’s made it. Literally instant ramen tasted better than whatever they cooked up

Edit: There are several other claims from people experiencing similar issues at this establishment. I would’ve personally been satisfied with returning it back to the kitchen for someone to literally blow off the garnish, or even just a refund if I had “misread” it. I was just appalled at the blatant disregard and lack of understanding from the waitstaff. I understand you’re busy and have a million other things to deal with but if taking 1 dish back was such an impossible task for her, I seriously worry about why that is the case. Besides I didn’t order the Taiwanese classic. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my review as it gives me hope that this experience won’t happen to...