Baohaus is a hole in the wall located in the East Village that serves Bao, these steamed bread-like buns that originated in Chinese cuisine. Interestingly, I discovered them in Japanese restaurants and was persuaded they were from Japan...But no, they are definitely not!
The place, opened by Eddie and Evan Huang is tiny!
You do not go there for a romantic dinner or to hang out; it is more grab, eat and go, except later in the evening.
The menu offers several types of buns as well as rice dishes for reasonable prices. But, if you have a good appetite, 4 to 5 buns will be necessary to satisfy it...Each portion is one bun, allowing to try few of them.
Here is what we got:
The Uncle Jesse (front) and Broccolini BAO:
The Uncle Jesse consists of organic fried Tofu, served with crushed peanut, cilantro, Haus Sauce, and Taiwanese red sugar.
The Broccolini Bao was a tempura Broccoli, served with Zha Jiang bean paste, shitake mushrooms, and daikon.
These were vegetarian options. My favorite was the Uncle Jesse that was a bit crunchy on the outside with a nice spicy sauce.
The Birdhaus:
Fried chicken with Haus Seasoning Salt, cilantro, crushed peanuts, and Taiwanese red sugar. This was my favorite one! The chicken was a bit crunchy, cooked all the way through and still moist. I could have eaten an entire bucket of it!
The Haus Bao and the Chairman Bao:
One was made with pork belly and the second one with beef cheek. It was tasty but on the dry side. I enjoyed it anyway!
The buns were very good, as bit sticky as most of them are...
I enjoyed it and my favorite was the Birdhaus (fried chicken). It is an interesting place, that proposes some cheap alternatives, but I am not sure I love it to the point where I would brave the line of customers. Maybe I should try again..What do you think?
Enjoy (I did)!
