Bambao Asian Restaurant — Restaurant in Baltimore

I struggle between 2 - 3 stars for this. Lunch today was challenging. Our first outing here on their 2nd day open so I'll say they have room to improve. Taro boba tea was not bad but too much ice left it difficult to get the boba out and made my drink watered down in 10min. The ordering went quick and the food was ready fairly quickly. We sat upstairs at a comfortable round table with homey cushions and atmosphere. Our food was given in togo containers w/ lids and bags despite asking to eat in. I sampled a lot today: The pork & shrimp dumplings were amazing. This was the best thing on the menu by far. The popcorn chicken was a large portion with hearty dark meat but the breading was soggy. Maybe it shouldn't have been covered? Dipping sauce was spicy and excellent. The beef bulgogi was on the chewy side. The one piece I had wasn't bad, but my friend got tired of chewing thru the meal by the end. The teriyaki pork rib on bun was greasy and heavy with braised flavor. The portion size was good. The bun was a horrible mess and I couldn't finish it. It was rubbery like they microwaved the thing. It's offensive to call this wrap a bun because it was like a cheap pita wrapped around the meat. The buns need a total re-write. This one went to the trash. The veggie fried rice was an abomination. They actually put imitation cream meat in a vegetarian dish and don't call it out on the menu. The dish tasted heavily of sesame oil so much so, that it became tiresome to eat. This one went to the trash. The Sambal honey fried chicken was ok. It is reminiscent of another local area shop's signature dish so comparisons come to mind when eating it and it fell short. The lemongrass chicken was reportedly the best dish, though was not breathtaking. It was just better than the rest. Overall this was a lot of disappointed people out for lunch. The price was high to spend for lunch, especially when it didn't satisfy. I'll admit we walked in with high expectations after watching the IG photos for weeks, but this place needs some more work to be worthy of stopping by. About $10 for lunch is a common standard and I blew past that to $24 w/o tip. It's unsustainable at that price point for what amounts to a...

Cultural appropriation at its absolute worst. Ironically, the logo just means “white” in Chinese, which is apt because this place is so obviously 100% white-owned (google it). Food was gross and the staff looked miserable. Plus the white owners just took a bunch of random Asian motifs with no respect to food or community and butchered them together to create the biggest insult to Baltimore. Look, there are several other American-style Chinese joints with better food. Please go support those immigrant-run family businesses, not here.

When this restaurant opened, the owners did an interview where they proudly claimed they consulted “Chinese nationals”. Whoever helped them must’ve not liked em very much. It’s hilarious that their logo means “white” (nothing poetic or food-related), as if a warning sign to avoid this place...

Was in the area and I wanted something quick since I had not eaten since breakfast. I got the lemongrass chicken w/cauliflower rice, napa cabbage salad, and egg rolls. I'm not a fan of mayo based foods, so I was surprised to see this on top of my chicken when I got back to my hotel. Not the best flavor, and the chicken could have survived w/o it had if it had been seasoned properly. But, the meal served its purpose, to quell my hunger. The napa cabbage salad had great flavor and I loved the sesame oil and vinegar based dressing. I prefer that the cabbage was shredded instead of chopped into big chunks. That would have put the salad over the top to what was a pretty mediocre meal. The egg rolls were pretty good. Crispy, crunchy, great flavor. Definitely will not be my 1st, 2nd, or 3rd choice for a meal next time I'm...