Petit Bao - Bastille — Restaurant in Paris

Pro:

Amazing location. We arrived during the rush hour, so the place was packed, but waiters tried their best to keep it clean. The meat was soft and tender. Use the right amount of spices, and it's amazing if you get a bowl of rice as a side dish and mix the rice with the sauce. The prices I would say were all right. If you go for the solo meals, you can get full, but on the other hand, if you go for the dumplings and dim sum, you might need a few portions as they are small.

Cons:

The staff was a bit discriminatory during our reservation as we didn't speak any French and we ordered in English.

We reserved a table and were seated promptly. The restaurant was packed, but we didn't have a problem waiting. After about 30 minutes, we noticed that our waiter was taking orders from other customers who arrived after us. When we confronted her, she apologized and said she had forgotten about us.

Our order was also mistaken, but I didn't have any problem with that as the restaurant was full at the time.

After we finished our meal, we were advised to settle the bill at the table instead of using Apple Pay on the website. Despite following this suggestion, we experienced a prolonged wait for the bill, almost 20 minutes. It seemed that the staff prioritized clearing tables, talking with the few customers that remained, and other tasks over addressing our payment, leaving us feeling disregarded as we ended up being the last customers to leave the establishment.

Conclusion:

Overall the place was nice, the prices all right, but I wouldn't recommend it to any foreigners if you don't...

How to say, clinical average Chinese Asian food, made in a very optimisation targeted way. The McDonald of Asia. Pretty déco, sexy staff, all to make you forget the food.

Foodwise, not really authentic, just a selection of best sellers done in a okay level.

At least the shrimp toast were ok. Nice homemade sriracha and the char siu bao also. But that's a baseline for a Chinese canteen.

Dumping: the Sui Mai were so tasteless, never experienced that. And can't wait to cook Shanghai noodles, clearly cook them better.

So if you're french and want ‘exotisme’ go for it. If you're an international traveller and knowledgeable of Asia, just pass your way. Far too safe canteen, where is the soul? the menu tells a lot, calibration, optimization, no spirit.

Special mention to the cloud invoice system, great idea at start, except when crystal dumplings never arrived even after asking twice to the staff. Maybe we missed the best dish. Who knows. Will never go back. Disappointed

In Paris you have other either group like Panda or more recently some young generation taking over some parents place, no need of a Anglo Saxon chain of average. We want some ‘plat signature’...

j’adore! a sweet restaurant with good food and good vibes. homey and stylish comfort food!

the drinks were nice, especially the ginger beer which has a strong flavour, and the fig leaf kombucha was gorgeous.

we tried all three baos, all were so juicy and tasty, but the best was the char siu BBQ pork. perfect savoury-salty balance, i could eat a billion of them.

the aubergines might’ve been my favourite dish!!!!! the sauce is layered with flavours and the hot vegetable explodes in your mouth. yum!!!!!

the fried rice with mushroom and egg was also super solid, everybody loved the dark soy sauce flavour and the chewy mushrooms add a lovely earthy touch.

the fried sweet and sour chicken was really good but could’ve had a bit more sauce in my opinion, because the saucy bellpeppers were scrumptious.

siu mai was also very nice and i love the little fish roe on top!

lastly, the mango sago is a lovely end to a meal if you’re craving something fruity and not too sweet. the little pearls are so satisfying.

i would love to back some day, this meal made me...