BAO TEA HOUSE - Greenwich village — Restaurant in New York

I put too much expectation on their Bao, which disappointed me more when I tried most of the flavor.

Egg Yolk Bao is my favorites. The Egg yolk sauce is flowing, which like a extremely Lava Bao. Every bite on the Bao, the egg yolk overflow. But the egg yolk is kind of too sweet, so it’s better to share with friends instead of finish the whole Bao by yourself. Rate: 5.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Taro Bao is my second recommendation. Since I taste the rest and they are not really good, I lower my expectation on this Taro one. But actually it’s not really bad. Taro flavor is pretty strong though, and sweet. However, it just little bit taste like taro extract with sugar. Rate: 4.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟🌟 . The Classic Bao is okay too. Even though it’s same as the regular Barbecued Pork Bun in Cantonese DIMSUM. But overall, it’s taste good, especially when I just got it and the Bao is still warm Rate: 4.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟🌟 . Choco Milk Bao is not the same texture as the others, it’s more like the bread on other bakery. The top is chocolate sauce and coconut custard as stuffing. But it doesn’t surprise me. Rate: 3.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟 . Valentines Bao, which is a rose custard Bao. However, I couldn’t taste rose at all. It has nothing to do with rose, except the color. This is just taste okay. Rate: 3.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟 . Lava Bao ❌ looks the fanciest but disappointed me the most as well. It’s just an regular egg custard bun, taste same with the frozen one selling in Chinese supermarket. I won’t recommend it. And the menu said the black layer is made of black sesame, but I couldn’t tell there is sesame flavor at all. Rate: 3.0/5.0🌟🌟🌟 . Matcha Bao is the wrooooost.❌ DO NOT ORDER except you love sweet soooo much. And it has nothing to do with Matcha, since the red bean custard is tooo sweet and cover all other taste. Rate: 1.0/5.0🌟

Overall, this place is worthy 3.0/5.0 for me. I won’t recommend my friends to come, and also won’t buy again. By the way, the service is good though, staff is nice. But the restaurant are pretty small, can afford 4-5 party(with 2 people) sitting together and have a...

The store was empty when I arrived, which usually makes me skeptical. But the cute interior was welcoming enough to beckon me in, and I'm glad I did. The tea menu is quite restricted, which, in fact, is a good sign when it comes to boba/milk tea places. True, regular tea houses supply dozens upon dozens of fresh loose leaf teas: but they also do not need to be ready to serve them in an ice cold drink. When it comes to boba and milk tea a smaller menu is a positive sign. It should be encouraging! It means they've selected a smaller selection of teas to serve, each of which is made from good quality loose leaf tea. This is precisely the case here, and you can taste it. This isn't sugary powdered tea which might as well just be watery milk powder with flavored sugar syrup (and in fact often is precisely that). Instead, you get a cup of tea brewed from loose leaf tea in house, with all the richness of flavor that provides. At 50% sweetness, the London Earl Grey did not taste sweet: of course, the sugar is counter balancing the bitterness of the tea, so I wouldn't go any lower. And if you like your tea to taste a bit sweet, I would go with 75% or 100%.

Service is welcoming and even when busy, attentive. Over the course of an hour, with a steady stream of customers, TKTK was proactive in identifying what customers needed whilst enthusiastically giving recommendations and advice to customers ordering. Very good experience, and will surely be back!

PS: I forgot to take...

I was bummed to see that this place only has about 200 reviews but I am glad to help spread the word! It seems as though this may still be somewhat of a hidden gem.

Full disclosure: I have never been to their location but we have ordered them in Uber Eats multiple times. These are the best Bao buns I have ever had - they travel very well and come in amazing little cardboard boxes that makes saving them for later very easy.

They have three types of buns:

Baked Bao - essentially a little puffed pastry cake with bao filling. The ones we have gotten have sugar on top - which is an amazing twist!

Gua Bao - traditional steamed bao hat seem to be perfected. The Fried Chicken Bao is probably my favorite.

Onigiri Rice Bao - these are almost like sushi, where steamed rice is used as the "bun". I have only ever tried the Chicken Curry variety and it is a nice change of pace.

I love that this place offers multiples types of buns. For your first time I would recommend buying a couple of each kind. You get two per order and they are reasonably priced so it is easy to go overboard.

A note on dessert: I am not a huge fan of Matcha, but their baked Matcha Bao is definitely something to try. It was a nice way to end the meal.

PLEASE try this place. I would love to see them expand and open a second location. Hopefully I can stop by in person...