Happy Bao's — Restaurant in Mesa

DO NOT EAT HERE if you would like to be asked to move to another table in the food court while eating your meal! My husband and I had an early lunch, but our son wanted to go to Happy Bao's for his lunch. I took him in to order food to go instead of dine in so while my husband and son waited for the food, I could do some grocery shopping. The food came out sooner than I was done, so my husband decided to let him start eating while they waited for me to finish my groceries. My son sat at the corner outside dining table to eat his food. I called my husband to come to the market because I was getting ready to check out. My son had a few bites left of his food so my husband left him there to finish his food. Soon as my husband left, the younger girl with the glasses came out and asked my son to move to the food court table to finish his food in case they had a big group come in and needed the table. Immediately, my son wrapped his food in the bag and called to ask where I was so he can come over to me. I asked him how come you didn't stay and finish your food and he said they didn't allow him to sit there so he's just going to eat it later in the car. MIND YOU!! You brought the food out to him, you knew what he was eating was from your restaurant, so learn to treat your customers with respect regardless if they're a kid or adult!!! We are your paying customers and regardless if it was a to-go order we bought the food from you what doesn't give us the right to sit at your outside table to eat our food? Soon as I checked out my groceries, I walked right over to their restaurant to check and see if they were busy and needed their tables. Surely enough, the whole restaurant was empty inside out except for ONE small dine in table inside so what was the reason for asking a 14 yo kid to leave while he was finishing his food outside and there was absolutely no customers that needed to use your dining tables?! The lady I spoke to explained that her staff was young and didn't know better and apologized and offered something complimentary. No thanks! We didn't come to you for free food, but if we came to support your business and this is how you treat your paying customers, then surely this will be the last! I have never written a review at any restaurant before, but never have I experienced this at any business. This place needs to learn...

Craving some asian food, my partner and I decided to try Happy Bao after seeing a few videos about it. We ended up getting the Touchdown combo, which consisted of Pork Sheng Jian Bao, Xiao Long bao, honey ribs, wontons, dumplings, and fried rice for $60 before tip. This ended up lasting us a few meals at home too, so for the value, it was a nice combo that allowed us to try a bit of everything we were curious about.

My partner and I both agreed the honey ribs and the fried rice were the best dishes out of this combo. The ribs were soft, flavorful, and I honestly wish I had more for the price. But with it being part of the combo, it was fine. The fried rice is huge (see picture), and is actually pretty good. Not just "soy sauce" flavor you might taste at some other restaurants. It paired well with the rest of the dishes.

Our next favorites were the XLB and the wontons. The XLB came out hot/fresh, and the soup/meat inside were flavorful. We paired it with both the XLB and the other dipping sauce they provide. We both felt the XLB sauce was way more vinegar-y than we liked, but the other sauce was more better balanced. The wontons (the ones with the yellow wrap) were much better flavored than the dumplings (the ones with more pinkish wrap).

The dumplings were probably our least favorite. It didn't have that much flavor and lukewarm at best when we ate it.

Of note, both the wontons and dumplings come with chili oil all over. As someone who likes spicy food, this definitely can be spicy for people, so be careful! It paired nice with the fried rice in this regard.

Lastly we got Pork Sheng Jian Baos as part of the combo. The bottom is nicely crispy and pan fried, which was a nice change of texture. The bread itself is kind of bland (tastes like pan fried bread), but the meat inside is flavorful. I liked eating a bit of bread with the fried rice and some of the chilli oil or ribs to make a more well-rounded bite.

All that to say, if we were to come back, I think the only things we'd for sure try again are the fried rice, the honey ribs, and MAYBE the XLB. I think the combo is still worth it to try if you're curious about the menu and want to make your own...

First, this restaurant is small but not too small. It’s extremely clean from tables to cutlery. The menus are beautiful as well as helpful if you are new to these dishes. The staff were so friendly and helpful with recommendations. It is wheel chair accessible which is so important to how I rate any establishment.

To start we order Chili Dumplings and cucumber salad. These dumplings were absolutely delicious!! If that was the only thing I ate that day I would have left happy. Light & airy with the perfect amount of spice. The filling was perfectly seasoned. Cucumber salad was super refreshing with light garlic oil dressing. I took it home and even the next day it still had that beautiful crunchy texture.

We also ordered Pork Wonton Noodle Soup and Seafood Wonton Noodle Soup. The pork in the noodle soup was delicious and fresh. The wontons are such a good size and the filling was so tender and delicious. The noodles!!! Wow just wow!! We loved the noodles in both soups. The seafood soup was incredible!! I lived in Australia for 2 yrs and I have never had anything even come close to the wonton noodle soup until now!!! It had shrimp, crab meat and squid. Everything was cooked perfectly!!! Squid is something that can be overcooked so easily and this soup was exceptional. All the seafood from the wontons to the shrimp etc was so fresh not fishy at all!!

We ordered some Baos and honestly we both were stuffed we ended up sharing one and eaten the rest the next day. They were light and fluffy and cooked to perfection.

I highly recommend Happy Bao’s and we will be...