Bao Space — Restaurant in Ann Arbor

I have to admit that I was let down by this restaurant.

Very friendly and patient staff guided me through the menu and answered my questions. Food was ready in less than the estimated time.

I tried the pork dumplings, the pickled cabbage bao, and the pork rib soup.

Pork dumplings (I got pan fried) were a decently executed version of a typical dumpling in NYC, but for the price, rather uninspired, and was very disappointing to see the size of them. The exterior was not as crunchy or otherwise rigid as I would have hoped for a pan fried dumpling.

The bao was a nice surprise as I’ve not had pickled cabbage in a bao before, but was, to me, quite salty. However I almost chuckled at the size when I saw it.

The pork rib soup was not what I expected, which may be a fault of my lack of exposure with Chinese food (I thought it would be something of a bone broth with seasoned pork ribs) but it’s just slow cooked veggies (carrot, slices of a corn on the cob) in a clear broth. I was expecting more seasoning even considering it being a clear brothed soup, especially at the price, which was very high given the portion of soup and most notably the pork which was notably dry and chewy. I would have hoped for some aromatics like goji berry or something to make the soup more flavorful. It was almost like water.

For the price, I felt absolutely disappointed after eating my meal. I will say this, the ingredients tasted fresh and of high quality, and clearly a lot of work was put in to start this new restaurant, as the staff seemed friendly and happy to be here. But, this felt like a kick in the rear to spend 20 dollars on something that costs 15 in comparable...

I grew up in Ann Arbor, and I still come back once in a while since I left more than 15 years ago. I like the joints back in the days because they offered good quality food, though old school. Now everything is just trendy and mediocre. This is a cramped little joint. Clean. It was Ann Arbor Air Fair weekend, the joint was at about 60% capacity. They ran out of the popular Pork Bao and the Hot and Sour soup, maybe those could've helped my rating but too bad. They ran out before noon, how is it possible? They make the Bao continuously in the open kitchen. I had the Beef and Onion Bao and the Shrimp Bao, the meat core was OK, you can taste the MSG, the dough had the right chew and density. But they are not $3.50 - $4.00 ea. good. They are slightly better than the frozen ones you can buy from the Chinese supermarket. I saw some people even compared this to Ding Tai Fung, I feel bad for people who are still suffering from taste lost post COVID. The most disappointing items are the miso soup and the rice bowls. Both the braised pork and the braised beef were just OK, nothing like what they should be. The flavors are too bland, the servings are small for the costs, but you do get a ton of semi-hard rice with it. The miso soup was absolutely revolting. It is just miso with some hot water, sea weed and tofu, absolutely no flavor and taste water down. I had instant miso soup from the convenient store better than that. Over all, these food items are cafeteria quality. No alcohol here, just some soft drinks. I simply cannot give it more...

TLDR : Watch out Din Tai Fung, there's a new Bao Bun at the table.

The service was immaculate, very attentive, weight staff, and very attentive workers who would walk your food out to you quickly and ensure that you got the right meal and double check before they left.

The ambience of the restaurant is what really sold me on this facility. It was a cute, clean and well lit facility that just made me feel so good and so excited to eat. I will definitely say that the interior designer did a fantastic job of making do with the space that they had and making the seating arrangement comfortable.

The food here, in my opinion, initially reminded me that of Din Tai Fung when I used to live in California. I love the steamed buns as they brought back memories of friends and family coming around for a meal, and I will definitely say that these were amazing. Only thing I would like to say is I could not tell the difference between the beef and the chicken. It could have been the cold weather was playing tricks with my sense of smell so I will definitely be back to try them out once more - stay tuned for an updated review in the future.

I did just want to mention, everything inside of my picture, if you're not able to read it, two chicken, two beef and a...