Bao Bao House — Restaurant in Eugene

I live and have been eating all around china for the past +20 years and can confidently tell you that this place is not close to authentic. I don’t think they tweaked the menu items to appeal to the local, western palette but are just bad cooks or cutting corners/costs.

1. the “baozi” (水煎包）is supposed to have a nice, crispy bottom. They obviously did not want to spend the time to patiently allow the nice crisp to form on the bottom. The bun itself lacked the proper bounce in texture as a result of different type of flour (i ll give them a pass on that as it may be difficult to buy in eugene). The meat also lacks that bit of juice that usually collects in the inside. 2)pickled beef noodles: the soup doesnt taste like a broth thats been simmering for hours. It just tastes like some flavoring powders were thrown in the soup with some picked cabbage (酸菜). But the most offensive part of this dish was the beef. Never in my life have a had such dry and tough beef before! Proper beef noodle soup is supposed to use tender and juicy cuts of beef, not cheap lean cuts of beef. If you’re going to us cheap, lean cuts of beef at least put in the time and effort to cook it until its somewhat tender.
2. “special secret made pepper chicken rice”: this dish was lazy in that they basically took the soup from the pickled beef noodle and reused it as the base in this dish and then three in some sichuan peppercorn. Nothing special about that. I’ve never seen anything like this before in the thousands of meals ive had out in china and asia. I do not say that in a good way. The only thing going for any of the food items at this restaurant was the chicken meat in this dish was tender. Frankly, i dont know how this place has excellent reviews from chinese reviewers. I suspect that some may be friends of the restaurant or phantom 1-2 review accounts opened for the purpose of bumping this restaurant up. The waitress was very nice and friendly but i cant give them anything higher than a one star as the food...

This is excellent, authentic Chinese food served in a clean, welcoming environment at reasonable prices.

The vegetarian baozi was the best bao I’ve ever had. Not only was the dough the perfect texture, but the mix inside was so good that instead of tasting like a collection of fillings, it was a balanced mix that would have been delicious on its own.

I also tried the scallion cake, which was a good deal for $6 and turned out to be a very yummy treat.

Service is Eastern style, so if you aren’t familiar, family style dining is welcome and they will bring out the first dish that is ready from the kitchen immediately rather than holding the dish for the entire order to be ready like Western restaurants. As long as you understand that not everything comes out at once, this is a benefit since each dish comes out of the kitchen hot and at peak freshness.

The staff was efficient and helpful. They seemed appropriately staffed, which is nice because it allowed for comfortable service and it didn’t feel like workers were being taken advantage of.

Finally, each table has soy sauce, black vinegar, and chili crisp already set out for you. This is so legit and I loved being able to add these flavors to my food. The chili crisp was spicy, but not mala, which kept everything Northern Chinese. Sichuan food is so popular right now that it was very nice to have regional Chinese food that wasn’t loaded with hot and numbing spice...

My mom and I have been looking for a great Chinese restaurant to replace the ones we left behind in LA, and after 5 years living here, we've FINALLY found one!!! Bao Bao House didn't look like much on the outside--fairly hole-in-the-wall--but all the employees were very friendly, our food came promptly, and was fairly priced with generous proportions. The restaurant was clean and comfortable inside.

The food was great, and so flavorful!!! We had the black pepper vegetables with white rice; the fried rice with vegetables; and the shrimp bao bao. First, the black pepper vegetables came in this lovely pepper sauce that was savory without being too salty or assertive, and the vegetables were perfectly cooked. Likewise, the vegetables in the fried rice were varied and delicious (especially the mushrooms, which were so succulent!), and the rice itself was delightfully flavorful and reminded me of saffron. I've never had bao bao before, but one dish served 6 large bao bao that came nice and hot. The dough was nicely cooked; a hint of sweetness, with a nice, crisp bottom, and the meat inside was flavorful.

Will definitely be a...