Daddy Bao - Taiwanese Restaurant Tooting — Restaurant in London

I was extremely excited to try Bao for ages but never had the chance. My boyfriend surprised me and took me to Daddy Bao, and having read on their website that walk ins are preferable we went around 4pm and asked if we could have a table for 3 people around 7 and we were told to just come back around 7 and maybe we will have to wait a little for a table, but should be ok. All was fine, when we came back there was no tables for 3 apparently they dont want to give a table of 4 to 3 people.. so we decided to wait outside until a table for 3 people is free inside, considering its now October and it can become quite cold. The door person decided to completely abandon us outside, we were not given any explanation on the menu just a piece of paper where we had to write down our order. For a first timers eating taiwanese it was a bit of a mission choosing. There were no cutlery/ napkins provided, i had to go inside after 30 mins and give our order to staff and ask to be served, and also found out we were no longer on the list for a table inside.. after around an hour and a half we finally received most of our food, after another complaint and me having to go inside and ask about our food; during that time no personel came to check on us outside.

We were given poor excuses and a “sorry” for the poor service and asked if i want a free drink. Every well trained manager would know that first impression is the most important and considering the non existent customer service a free drink wouldn’t make my night better after it was already ruined! Not even 15-20 mins after we received our food we were given the bill and the door person Abby( if I remember correctly) told us “ i assume you dont want to go inside” here is your bill and free COLD sake.. i mean that was a complete joke. Who gives cold sake to people sitting outside freezing.. is beyond my comprehension.

And actually we still wanted to sit inside and order more as we only ordered a few baos to taste before we order alot.. All i can say is that was one of the worst customer service and experience I’ve had in a long time. Even though we live just around the corner of the restaurant I DEFINITELY won’t visit again! As a family owned restaurant i was very excited as I thought the service would be homely and warm, unfortunately most of the people working there are not even Taiwanese, which probably explains everything. Except one of the waiters who was really friendly and tried to help, I believe he was Daddy Bao’s...

Daddy Bao is one of, or the best restaurant in Tooting. It’s in a league of its own, and the food is exceptional. I live down the street and have frequented many times over the last year with my friends, partner or flatmate. Tonight I visited to say goodbye as I am moving to Wandsworth and had a romantic dinner with my partner.

As we arrived we were greeted, checked in for our booking and offered a window seat in an almost quiet/empty restaurant as we were a “walk in” I was surprised and asked why this was as we have booked, and they realised the mistake.

We had an incredible meal including my favourites the Caesar salad, tartare, mixed baos, dumplings etc and dessert. Cocktails were incredibly mixed as usual, and the Sauv Blanc on the menu delicious.

A waitress attended and asked if we had finished or had anything else coming several times to which I responded confused that half of our items haven’t arrived yet. At dessert it continued can I take this away? Sorry we were talking and haven’t finished the dessert.

It was around that time we were reminded that our table needed to be returned prior to 7pm and I questioned this as our booking was for 6pm and I asked how long do we have allocated and they responded 1.5 hours for 2 people and I reminded them our table was booked for 6pm?

We were given 2 free shots due to this.

I was happy and thankful for the apology shots however still quite disappointed at the cute local favourite had disappointed us. Returned home to tell my flatmate and she had a similar story a week prior. We asked for our bill, it never arrived, later asked again and the card machine at the same time to hurry it up.

I hope this is a case of new staff and needing training, otherwise the Daddy we knew isn’t the same.

Sorry Daddy Bao! Delicious, incredible food, but let down by poor service...

Been waiting to come here since it opened and can say I wasn’t disappointed by the food! Everything was really tasty and felt they were actually really generous portion sizes. Unfortunately the reason for knocking 2 stars off was the service wasn’t great. We were in the restaurant over 2 hours (there was 2 of us) Starters came out quickly within 15/20 thereafter we had up to 30mins in between receiving other dishes. Due to the long wait for the Baos we assumed our dumpling starter was still to come out. We finally asked the waiter after we’d finished all our food that we were still waiting on the dumplings (which I guess had actually just been forgotten as it was 1hr 40mins after we’d ordered them). By this point we had such bad cabin fever as we were in a small space we just wanted to get out and so long had gone in between you found yourself not enjoying the food anymore. We then had to had ask for a card machine because we were left with the bill for another 15mins and were sadly just left frustrated at this point. We felt the bill was reasonable so didn’t kick up a fuss but it was noted how long we waited/the forgotten dish and would have expected the dumplings to be taken off as a goodwill gesture but the lady seemed very disingenuous with her apology. It’s such a shame because this ruined the experience and overshadowed the tasty food. We would definitely come back again to give a second chance as the food is great and most of the waiting staff were...