The latest restaurant from Céline Chung and Billy Pham is certainly très bao! After Petit Bao and Gros Bao, the latest addition to the Bao Family is seeing life through blue-colored glasses, with banquettes that stretch all the way up to the ceiling. With its old Sino-bourgeois house decor (props to the small lounge upstairs with its In the Mood for Love vibes), chefs Amandine Sepulcre-Huang (ex-Chardon and Early June) and Leslie Chirino (ex-Frenchie and Cheval d’Or) send out dim sum flavor bombs in bamboo baskets. We nibbled all of the following the other day at lunch: explosively flavorful har gow, which are steamed ravioli filled with shrimp, lard and water chestnuts; piping hot siu mai, or free-range pork and shrimp dumplings, seasoned with ginger and shiitakes; and for some veggies, crispy greens known as cai, sautéed in garlic. All of that before a thunderous whole milk curd infused with jasmine and ginger juice, paired with caramelized pecans and red beans. Baom! // Albert Gredinbar
FEELING THIRSTY? Around 20 wines to choose from (including a natural Loire white from Philippe Chevarin for €33 a bottle), Chinese teas (pu’er at €5.50, Yunnan d’Or at €6), a few soft drinks (toasted oolong bubble tea and kombucha for €5.50), and even cocktails dreamt up by Cheval Blanc mixologist, Nicolas Goradesky, inspired by China’s eight culinary regions –, like the Guangzhou du Printemps that combines tea leaves infused in white rum, verjus and litchi juice, served like a tea (€13).
PRICE: Bao and dim sum €7-10, sides €5-12, desserts €4-7.
