Could do much better
I came there with a friend I don't see often, because I wanted to check out the place, the only in the Bao family chain to offer Kung Pao chicken.
First bad surprise, the place is taken by storm. even coming for lunch at 12 precisely, we still had to eat at the bar.
We take a set menu for 2 to share. 2 appetizers, 2 main dishes with rice, and a glass of iced tea per person.
Appetizers were decent, nothing bad to tell of the cucumber salad, or the xiaolongbao. the food was nice but nothing to brag home about.
Then a nasty problem. After the appetizers, we got to wait really overlong, while people who had come and ordered after us got served first. They even wanted to take everything off the table and ask if we wanted desserts, when we hadn't had the main dishes.
After this got resolved, we got our dishes. Hong shao eggplant was good, but the kung Pao chicken for which I'd come was a disappointment. the fried chicken was coverd in a sauce that did not bring much flavour, but was definitely much too sweet. To boot, they were stingy on the rice, only one standard sized bowl for two people, neither of whom was on a diet.
Another point was that the place being crammed to the gills, and the tables being very close to each other, the place was noisy, and it was not easy to circulate between the door and wherever you had to go.
Not going to tar the whole Bao family chain, maybe they are not ALL overcrowded to the point that making a reservation is a necessity, and the other two I tested had the service correctly organized. But this one, I'm not going back. read more