This is going to be a long winded intro so bare with me….or just skip to the food pictures

When it comes to Asian cuisine, especially Chinese, I’m very particular and pretty discerning when it comes to good quality traditional dishes. Aside from being raised on home-cooked Chinese meals, part of my family tree has a deep tradition and history of professional cooks and chefs.

Some of my relatives, who are scattered across Canada and the US, have opened the token Chinese restaurant in some small town. Even working in a place where tastebuds are unfamiliar to old fashion Chinese cooking, they have maintained their culinary integrity and prepare dishes their ancestors would be proud of….with the exception of the odd chop suey and egg rolls. I even worked at my uncle’s award winning restaurant in Connecticut in the middle of Real Housewives country club-ville during one summer.

My mom would tell me stories of her childhood in Hong Kong and working in my grandparent’s cafe. She was too short for the stove so she would have to stand on a small stool in order for her to work the wok. Yeah…my mom can do the fancy acrobatic flipping food thing in the wok.

My appreciation for Chinese food is largely due to my grandparents.  During my elementary school days, my grandfather would make and bring lunch to my school, sat down with me in the cafeteria while I ate, and when lunch was done he would pack up and go home. Eating sandwiches was foreign to me for awhile. When dinner time came around, they would teach me different preparation methods for certain foods, and let me play with the stir-frying…..oh I miss them.

Now to the dinner at Bao Bei. I was speculative and tried to not have expectations. But honestly, at one point I thought ‘they better not eff this up’ for me. A high caliber chef joined me in trying out this newly minted ‘precious’ spot…and throughout the night we shared the sentiments about the food.

Bao Bei has created a historical ‘turn of the century’ feel at the front and as you walk in it transitions into a chic dining area.  Throughout the night, I saw the familiar faces of the owner, floor manager, and wait staff who have worked at notable places around town.  Everyone was friendly and pitching in waiting, clearing out tables, and refilling water.  And then the food….

For appetizers, I ordered my childhood staples: tea eggs and mantou.

Traditional tea eggs are marinated for a LONG TIME in a base of star anise, tea, soy sauce, and spices. You know when tea eggs are good to go when it turns into a light mocha colour. In one bite you could taste the aromatic flavours of all of those ingredients especially the tea and anise. And in one bite of Bao Bei’s version, all I tasted was soy sauce and not one hint of the tea or anything else. It seemed like boiled eggs that were just rolled around in a light soy.

The ‘mantou’, which can be soft and fluffy or dense, is like the Chinese equivalent of white bread. The one I had was turned into the style of pita bread stuffed with braised shortrib, peanuts, scallions, and vegetables. It was ‘ok’ but messy to eat with the sauce from the filling streaming down your fingers. The braised shortrib itself was nicely flavoured and soft to eat.

We had a couple of ‘hard to mess up’ plates of stir fried watercress and omelette with salted turnip and butter.

And yep, they didn’t mess up the omelette..and that’s about it for that one. The simple watercress was actually the most tasty and flavourful of all the umpteen dishes we ordered. It was a good blend of spiciness and savoury.

My chef friend picked the Ellie’s Belly and Squid. I was apprehensive in ordering Ms. Ellie’s Belly because my mom makes the best and I’m not saying that because she’s mom: it was a dish she specialized in cooking when she was working at the cafe.

After a few bites, my mom is still the reigning champ. To the inexperience, this dish probably tasted great with a light sauce and the bed of pickled sour napa cabbage was a nice touch. The ‘original’ would have had a darker colour and stronger taste from being braised for hours and cooked with the preserved pickled cabbage. You didn’t just taste the flavour from the sauce but the whole meat too as it would have been infused from the sauce.  And Ellie should have had a diet, as the cut of meats we got were too fatty. The squid dish was off balanced with the lack of seasoning so the chilli bits was overwhelming presence in each morsel.

At this point, we were still hungry.  With a quick glance, we ended up with the eggplant and stir fried rice cakes.

The eggplant also nothing special to report. It was slices of eggplant with a ‘too light’ sauce and topped with too much ginger. The flavours were uneven for such a small dish.  The stir fried rice cakes also needed more seasoning. The texture of the glutinous rice cakes was like eating through stale gum; it’s suppose to be soft and chewy and not rubbery.

Throughout the whole dinner, it seemed like the kitchen was too ‘heng sow’ or light handed with their seasoning and spices. My dinner companion and I kept commenting that they needed an extra tablespoon of this, one more dash of this, or a pinch of that. It was like they were holding back and wanted to be safe with their cooking.

With a glass of wine and tip, this underwhelming meal came to a grand total of $88.00.  I’d probably get a similar set of items at 2/3 of the price at a regular Chinese restaurant.

The concept is there but not the food. They claim to serve these traditional meals with a twist…but it’s more like dishes with training wheels. It is a very beta introduction to the authentic.

You know you’re not going to have crap in your system as they cook with ingredients that are organic and chemical free. But the lack of flavours and blandness of the dishes unfortunately negates the quality. People would primarily remember the taste and the source of food as a second thought. And we will remember our meal as…not memorable.  After getting some tips from any local friendly Southeast Asian/Taiwanese/Shanghainese/etc cuisine expert, checkout the smaller places like on Victoria Drive or in Richmond, and you’ll know what I mean.

Some might say why bother going to Bao Bei if all you do is compare it to your Mom’s cooking, just eat at home then…well definitely after this time, I will.

Bao Bei
163 Keefer St

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