Baodega 小杨生煎 — Restaurant in New York

I will preface this by saying my family came on Lunar New Year and they were extremely busy so I understand why service was so slow! I also understand that because the restaurant recently became viral on TikTok that they might not have had time to hire and train additional waitstaff or employees. I hope that they do so and enjoy even more success in the future 🙏

I was so happy to come to a Shanghainese restaurant because my family is Shanghainese and we were craving some xiaolongbao. However when we came in there were no hosts to greet us, nor a clear policy for acquiring a table. So I just stood in a queue and waited until a waiter cleared a table and pointed to me and my party. I think hiring a host could solve a lot of the issues that come with increasing popularity. We were then seated but then a woman came in and said that she had made a reservation for 22! people yesterday so the clearly very overwhelmed waiters had to wait for and clear multiple tables for her party. One particular family was very angry about this (though if she had made the reservation, I don’t understand why) because they had been waiting over an hour with no communication of when they would get a table. These people were yelling quite loudly at the waiter and owner/chef!

Understandably, our food came out slowly (and the party who had been yelling about waiting were promptly seated afterwards and got their food before us, probably to get them out faster 😅). The food itself was good, though some of it was not very hot, and the shengjianbao was undercooked and had raw dough. We waited so long for two dishes that we eventually asked for the check and cancelled those orders after over 90 min of dining. I could tell that it was authentically Shanghainese though, and I look forward to coming on a different day to trying the food again if the...

Nice spacious seating, feels clean and safe. Decent food with some amazing highlights. Kind staff. You can see them making dumplings in window near bar.

Best thing was the pork moon cake. Seriously amazing porky goodness wrapped in super flaky crossaint like pastry. Looks nothing like the picture on menu, cause it's way better in person. I forgot to take picture of the whole thing cause we ate it so fast, it was too good. The flakes were so delicate they were falling apart as you hold them.

Next best thing was bacon scallion pancakes. Flaky mochi center with crispy fried exterior, paired with lightly spicey dipping sauce, tastes like jalapeño vinegar. I can't handle spicey but this was mild enough with good nice sharp flavor. Could use some more scallions and bacon, but the dough itself was impressively executed. The kitchen seems to be very good at the laminated doughs.

The crab roe soup dumplings had a nice thin skin. But the soup and filling itself could use more flavor and more mass.

The Shanghai pan fried soup dumplings, did not have any soup. The pork filling was flavorful, but would be better in the steamed soup dumpling skins. Too much dough to filling ratio. Dough itself was chewy and the fried bottom was a bit thick. I've had this dish in Japan, so that ruined this dish for me personally.

The egg tarts were disappointing. So many better egg tarts in NY. Very egg yolk heavy, and not much flavor, could use more cream and pinch of salt. On upside, thin and crispy shell was impressive. It's difficult to get good egg tart outside a bakery, not sure why I ordered, I was just desperate for an egg tart I guess. Went to Milk Bar after to have better sweet ending to meal.

I would go back just for the pork...

I was craving Chinese food in Chelsea (couldn't make it down to Chinatown) and found Baogeda nearby. I saw online that they also had meals that you could cook yourself at home. So great for these quarantine times! I placed an order online for pickup. I arrived a little bit early for pick up so I decided to order a pork bun while I waited as a "snack" - it was huge, and delicious! Definitely not your normal dim sum pork bun size, so be prepared. I ordered the mapo tofu (which was already fully prepared, heated it up at home), which was delicious and pretty spicy! They are definitely not joking around with those peppercorns.

For the cook-at-home kit, I ordered kung pao chicken and some scallion pancakes. The chef came out and explained that the ingredients were raw and gave instructions on how to make the dish. So nice for him to take the time to personally give me cooking directions! Everything came frozen, so you can throw it back in the freezer and save it for a couple of days - except the sauce, I didn't want it to become a block of ice so I kept that in the fridge. The kung pao chicken is pretty straightforward: cook the raw chicken thoroughly first, then cook the veggies, then stir in the sauce. Pretty simple! For the scallion pancakes, the chef said to pan fry each side for about a minute and keep flipping them over and over until cooked. By continuously flipping it over, it gets fluffier and airier, making it crispier and lighter. I didn't really get it until I saw it in action where they puff up as you pan fry them! Very cool tip -...