Tasting Journey #26 - Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie

Bao Bei Chinese Brasserie
163 Keefer Street,
Vancouver, BC
604-688-0876
www.bao-bei.ca


Bao Bei, a Chinese restaurant with a French twist.  Located right in Chinatown, I was surprised how busy this place is, and how well the business is doing, given the price and dishes offered. Did I mention that the chiefs are not Asian either?

Andrea, Asmin and I arrived at the restaurant close to 6pm on a Friday night.  Parking in Vancouver's expensive, but not as crazily expensive as the parking lot next to the restaurant.  It was asking for an insanely $17 to park there! With three minds, and 3 pairs of scissor legs, we found street parking: Asmin kept guard on an empty street meter parking; Andrea ran back to direct me to the spot; and I hit the gas pedal as quickly as I could. After much success, we walked into the restaurant.  The restaurant was already busy, and full.  95% of the customers were all non-Asian.  Interesting.  People traffic in Chinatown has been going downhill for the last 10years.  Once a bustling place to do grocery shopping, the streets are now quiet and dead.  I cannot imagine how attractive this restaurant must be to capture such an audience to Chinatown at such odd hours.

We were asked to wait and sit down at a long table (made of old wooden door with the hinge still on it).  We ordered our drinks and stared across the table at the people sitting across from us sitting one-door away ^^.   We really didn't mean to stare, but we were hungry and the food looked and smelled delicious. It was calling at us.^^

I was also fascinated by the interior where the theme some how split into two:  the front - brushed white wall with some kind of Chinese printing press art piece.  There was also a open bar, and a Chinese sign hung on the wall next to it.  The back - wooden silverware cabinet, floral wall paper with dried flowers hanging off vases hung from the wall.  On all of the tables were traditional square plastic chopsticks (the ones you see in noodle houses), and white with red floral plates (the ones my family also used maybe 30yrs ago).

We started our meal with some drinks while waiting for a table to free up.  The drink selection sounded all very interesting: jinzi (what Asmin ordered), to Dan Dan flip, to Kai Yuen Sour.  They all had interesting ingredients such as egg white, shochu, szechuan spiced rum, ginginer...etc.  I went with the Kai Yuen Sour, which did not end up sour at all.  It was strong because it had Bourbon, which we later found out, was actually American whiskey - a taste that reminded me the latter part of my life in Asia, ha.  By 7pm, the wait for a table was long. I'm glad we arrived early.

Andrea can only eat gluten-free dishes.  So to make it easier for us, she ordered her own while Asmin & I shared.  We ended up ordering 4 dishes: mantou (which to me tasted more like 刈包, Taiwanese Hamburger), pea tips (Asmin's favourite), beef tatare, and Octapus salad.  All the dishes were very well-made, but only one really jumped out at me: the beef tatare.  It was so delicious that I almost swallowed my tongue.  The raw beef was so tender that it tasted more like puree shrimp.  The meat was well marinated and rich in flavouring that it was a perfect combination with the fried taro chip.  I would order it again any other day!

The meal was pleasant, and the food was wonderful.  Given that the portion was small and that we ended up spending $44/person, it is indeed quite pricey (just an affirmation to comments about bringing enough cash). Is it worth the wait? hm...considering all variables, though the food was delicate, I would probably save it for special occasion.