Petit Bao - Étienne Marcel — Restaurant in Paris

A very approachable spot for authentic Chinese cuisine (at least as far as I can tell) with a Szechuan leaning. Everything is handmade; the Bao wrappers are rolled from dough, filled to order and then cooked over a majestic bamboo steamer in an open kitchen.

The Petit Bao was chock full for Sunday lunch, and they notably do not take reservations. The digital, phone-based queue system they have in place did not work with us; the waiter was very nice, but seemed overwhelmed with the onslaught of customers and couldn't really give an estimate of how long we'd have to wait for. In total, we waited outside for about 30 minutes before we got a table.

The inside of the relatively small restaurant is well designed, but loud, hot (and naturally steamy) and very cramped. This felt fitting for the style of the place, but if you're looking for a quiet, relaxed meal, only the limited seating outside might satisfy.

But most importantly, and warranting the five-star review: The food was great, as was agreed upon by everyone on our table. The Bao were amazing, especially the pork and shrimp soup dumplings as well as the barbecue pork Baozi. The other dishes were at least equally as good, with the Hong Shao eggplant as a special treat. The dishes work best as dim-sum-style plates to share for the whole table. Make sure to get plenty of the Chinese-style egg fried rice on the side, as that might be the best item on the menu. If there was anything to criticize about the food, it would be the vegetarian Bao options, which are based on mushrooms and not quite as flavorful as their meaty counterparts.

I would definitely go to Petit Bao (or to one of its two sister restaurants) again on my next...

I experienced the worst service here while living in Paris. It seems that this place has never considered the process of service for visitors.

While waiting for entry. The employee told us to wait about five minutes to guide the seat and guided us to another place next to the restaurant. However, the teams waiting behind us immediately were guided to their seats. In the end, the three teams behind us entered first and we could enter. They were also not guests who made a reservation. And the number of people in each team was the same.

While ordering. We seated the innermost seat, but no employee came to the inside for more than 30 minutes. Other teams sitting inside also had to wait for a long time to order additional orders. Employees mainly received orders and served food only at the places near entrance.

Didn't receive food. Eventually, we could order after waiting for more than 30 minutes, and our drinks came out quickly first. However, our food did not come out even after waiting for more than an hour. But the team that came in later than us received the food. We were not the only ones in this matter. There were other teams that came in first but didn't receive food, and they just left. We eventually left the restaurant without eating.

I think it would be better to have a break time or receive a limited number of customers to improve their service first. Also, it would have been better if they had informed us in advance that it could take a long time to receive food before entering.

No matter how delicious the food is, there is no reason to visit this...

Food is good. Visited several times and it's always crowded. So I went at 12:00.

Just before they open, there's a homeless came and asked if they have couscous. Then a staff asked him to leave the shop and as soon as he left this staff started to make fun of homeless to other staff, to us and even in a kitchen. I felt so so bad. Anybody has possibility to be in need of help. It wasn't funny at all. I have my little restaurant and if my staff did the same thing, I do not allow it.

If I didn't see it, I would put 5 though there were some more issues like toilet isn't available, no credit card payment and they skipped me in queue....

Hi owner. Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I can't agree cos I was there and watching everything what was going on. I don't think his attitude was agressive or violent though he was lil loud. Similar things happened to me several times but I've never count them as violence. As an asian woman in Paris, I have tons of experience attacked by rude people, I know what's violence or agressive.

It's very good thing to trust your staff but shouldn't believe everything blindly. If your staff said he was agressive, then how do you think about this staff was imitating him several times in front of us. How can he explain about it? Is it right thing to show us? Not at all. It was rude and disrespectful. Made me wanna leave ASAP but at this time I was exhausted because I'm pregnant, didn't have energy to look for another good restaurant so didn't have choice, had to get rest and eat something. (Btw other staff were very nice even during...