Boa-Bao — Restaurant in Barcelona

I rate restaurants on five criteria:

1. Customer service
2. Taste of the food
3. Atmosphere
4. Prices
5. Portion size

Each one gets 10 points in my system. A perfect score is 50. Now you get my method. So let's get into it.

1. Customer service: I imagine that because of the pandemic and government regulations, the awful lack of customer service is likely not their fault. I won't ding them too much for us being brought the wrong dishes, our order for water being ignored for twenty minutes, or our waiter only paying attention to us when I literally waved my arms until he finally saw me. Let's give them a break, and only mark them down by half. Score: 5

2. Taste of the food: It was nice. Not great. A bit bland, but passable. My wife's family is Asian, and we eat (and make) this kind of food a lot, so I consider myself a bit of an authority in this (I say this to combat their repeated claims that if I think their food is not perfectly flavored, it means my palate is to blame). For instance, their shrimp dumpling was great, but their chicken bao was ho-hum. Score: 5

3. Atmosphere: Beautiful decorations. Charming in general. I really liked the place. They even have interestingly decorated stairs. A bit of a ding for the bathrooms not being totally clean, but not much else to complain about when it comes to this. Score: 8

4. Prices: So ridiculously overpriced. My wife owned a Michelin-rated restaurant in NY, and I apprenticed in a high-end kitchen, not to mention that we frequent Michelin starred restaurants all over the world as part of our business travel, so I can definitively say I know what I'm talking about here. I NEVER mind spending money on good food, but it has to be worth it. This was not worth the price, sadly. The meal we had, even if we account for a markup because they use good, authentic ingredients, should have landed around €70. Maybe €75, if I'm being generous. Ours ended up being closer to €120. About €50 more than it should have been, if the prices were more in line with realistic expectations. Normally, I don't even notice such things, but this was so overboard, both my wife and I commented on it to each other when paying the bill. Impossible to ignore. Score: 2

5. Portion size: Another falter here. Tiny portions. Especially the bao, but in general. When measured against what can be found in other comparable restaurants, in Spain AND Asia, these are - at best - mini portions. Because we are a partially Asian family, we eat this sort of thing all the time, and these were the smallest portions of this kind of food we've come across. I should point out that many people comment on this in the reviews, and the restaurant constantly responds that no one has ever made this complaint before. So that's... strange. Look, this is a culture (similar to Spanish tapas) of buying a lot of small dishes and having them make up a larger meal, but even by those standards, these portions are too small. Noticeably so. Again, my wife and I commented separately on this. It's hard to not see it. Score: 2

5+5+8+2+2 = 22 out of 50

It wasn't bad! It just was... average. Just as the score indicates. You can't escape the score.

Sadly, because I love this kind of food, I won't be back. Now you know why. Thanks for reading, if you've...

the best part about our visit was the interior design. but that could also be a warning sign as it might be a hiding place for the shortcomings of the food. in general i don’t go out for dinner to marvel at a trendy design, but to taste good food.

the service was very friendly but a bit all over the place. we had several people coming to our table and it was a bit confusing, for us and them. i used to work in hospitality for many years and i think it makes more sense when one waiter is responsible for a certain area, maximum two.

and now to the food: i have never eaten a veggie pho this boring before. looked really good but tasted like nothing. the broth is what should hold this dish together but it was truly disappointing. the seitan (pretty sure that’s what it was) tasted like absolutely nothing! veggie meat alternatives are often prepared in such a delicious way these days but this place hasn’t quite found a solution yet. unfortunately, the veggie dumplings weren’t much better. reeeeally boring… :/

apart from that, my friend also ordered a vegetarian dish but got something with meat instead. she decided not to say anything because she does eat meat, but she wasn’t that convinced about the general taste either. she has extensively traveled southeast asia and didn’t find it very authentic, nor exciting.

again, the service was lovely and we didn’t feel like we want to complain to the waitress and stress her at this point as she had just started working there and really was super sweet!! i just don’t understand how the kitchen can send out such tasteless food, cooks are supposed to have decent tastebuds… ps: my other friend was pretty happy with her pad thai!

overall thoughts: i would visit this place for a beer but not...

Avoid if you are celiac. We arrived at this restaurant with high hopes as parents of a gluten free child. John who served us was lovely, but the staff did not have enough awareness of celiac disease or gluten free, despite it being on the menu. We were recommended this place by another sin-gluten establishment, so we were surprised at the lack of knowledge. We mentioned that the GF food was for our young daughter - now in most places, people know to bring out kids food first but we waited over an hour for the only meal she could eat to arrive. Initially we were given confidence that they would cook it separately but we were anxious and asked a few times to ensure it was separate. Jebb another member of staff actually joked that they could call an ambulance if there was an issue - we didn’t find this appropriate at all. The food was late, despite us asking for it multiple times and our starters that arrived before it had to go cold as I wasn’t planning to eat anything and leave my child hungry. What was most shocking was the service from Jebb - he was rude, told us to pay the bill without any consideration for our poor experience (only John apologised, no one else). He also said the staff that served us would not be working there again, which is terrible as John was not at fault and was actually the only person to acknowledge the issue. I would not visit here if...