Its A Bao Time

Looks like this is a restaurant that wants to compete with Banh Mi Boys.  Which could be a good thing because I wrote off Banh Mi Boys after I got food poisoning from them.  No matter how good a restaurant is, if I get food poisoning from them, I’ll never go back.  So since I can’t have Banh Mi Boys, It’s A Bao Time seemed like a good alternative. 

So wrong, so very wrong.  This visit started off on the wrong foot and continued to go downhill.  We walked into an empty restaurant on a Friday afternoon around 1:30p – 2:00p.  Yes it’s a late lunch so I didn’t expect a lot of people to be sitting and eating.  Food is to be ordered and picked up cafeteria style like any other fast food place, except we couldn’t order.  There was no one at the cash, no one in the kitchen.  No bell to ring for service either.  Was this place even open?  After waiting for several minutes, a girl walked by the back of the kitchen, saw us, and then got the cashier to come to take our order.  We ordered a grilled chicken bao, Korean beef bulgogi banh mi, and taro fries.  And immediately, 3 other girls appeared in the kitchen and started prepping our order.  Food was done in a few minutes.

The grilled chicken bao, is piri piri chicken (2 small pieces, imagine 2 slices of chicken breast) topped with pickled daikon and carrots, fresh cilantro and cucumber stuffed in a steamed bun.  There was some sort of spicy sauce, probably a siracha mayo.  Portion was extremely small.  The steam bun was a bit smaller than my palm.  I don’t have big hands.  My biggest problem with my order was that the chicken was room temperature, and the bao was COLD.  They couldn’t have warmed it up?

The hubby’s Korean beef bulgogi banh mi was equally disappointing.  There was barely any beef bulgogi in the sandwich.  The picture is super misleading, there was a lot of filler in the bun, pickled daikon and carrot, cucumber etc.  The bulgogi sauce was also too salty.  The bun itself was also cold, and didn’t have that outer crust crunch.  Day old bread?  What makes a good banh mi is the crispy outer crust of the bun.  They could have at least attempted to hide the fact they were using day old bread by warming it up or toasting it.  The worst dish was the taro fries.  Not only were these fries covered in too much five spice powder (to the point where I was using the cardboard box edge to scrape off the excess powder), the fries were DRY.  Crunchy outside, hollow inside.  Imagine eating a cross between hickory sticks and those veggie straws.

Taro Fries, Banh Mi, Bao

If you feel like eating bao, go for dim sum instead.  If you feel like eating banh mi, go to Nguyen Hong.  Don’t waste your money here.

Its A Bao Time

230 Commerce Valley Dr. E., Unit 2a

Markham, ON

L3T 7Y3

Phone:  (905) 771-8866

Hours:  Monday - Thursday 12:00p - 8:00p

             Friday - Saturday 11:00a - 8:00p

             Sunday 12:00p - 8:00p

http://www.itsabaotime.ca/