Bao Down Gastropub + Raw bar

I came here the other day to chill with my good buddy Kent. He recommended this place since I’ve been having a weird Thai craving.
I’ve heard so much about Bao. I was actually surprised that there was a slight sweetness to it. This was my first time actually having Boa, therefore, not sure if the sweetness is a common thing or not but it reminded me of some other Asian bread (steam) pastries = love.
The service was okay, not rude and not friendly just dead pan service.
The place was busy but not overly busy that our main dishes took a little longer than the average 25 minute time frame. The food came out with another dead pan look from a different server and no apologies made for the delay.
The actual Boa was amazing and fresh. I got 3 minis with veggies and peanut sauce.
Most the items, with the exception of the grilled items, were very over priced for what it actually was.
There music was 90’s hip hop which was cool.

We did our date night there recently for dinner. We arrived before 6 pm so qualified for the happy hour savings. A great deal for the food and the drinks. The service was decent, although our server was fairly new as she was not familiar with the menu. Despite that, the food and ambience will ensure our return. Our favourite dish was the Bao Chicka Bao Bao! Simply delicious and not complicated. Everything about it was memorable. Our two Happy Hour appetizers were very yummy as well. Lots of patrons enjoying themselves so the noise was a little loud for conversations. We enjoyed our food and the service was good so we will be back again for dinner.

Amazing.
Staff were awesome and knowledgeable. The Caesar had grilled tuna and bacon and Kimchi.
I had the fairmont breakfast sandwich and cannot wait to return and eat it again!

Overpriced food, flaky service, yet difficult to get in. This local will be taking her appetite elsewhere.
Next?!

Their original location is great!
This one, not so much. The food is good, very good even. What’s lacking is the service, the atmosphere and the general vibe.
Servers are unexperienced, management non existent. We saw at least 5 different servers at our table. They were all over the place, and it wasn’t busy at all. I know they’re fairly new but they had time enough smoothen things out, especially since this is their 2^nd location.
Sorry Bao Down, I won’t be back anytime soon at this location. But don’t worry, I’ll frequent your Gastown one more often to balance that out.

I usually here mixed reviews about Bao Down, but when I hosted my b-​day party there for 15 + ppl I was quite impressed.
The service was friendly and very helpful.
The oyster and sauces were very tasty and fresh tasting. Everyone was able to try and sample the variety that was available, but they did not stop chit chatting as it was an awesome atmosphere.
There is a bit of an suggestion when it comes to the Bao. I like the Bao … but I kind of grew up eating Bao … so I am cool with it… but it is slightly sweet and can be quite filling. Also, it is important to eat it hot. If it gets cold, it feel hard and dry.
We really enjoyed the BBQ Short Ribs and The Boss … well … what can I say … I am a big meat eater … but the awesome thing was I got a papaya salad with my dish, which was awesome cuz I did not feel as bad … but the papaya salad was a bit too sour as there was bit too much dressing … but the portions were huge … so I mixed it up. The meat came on a bone, but when I lifted the bone … the meat slid right off … it was crazy tender and the flavors were pretty nicely fused. I enjoy plates with multiple flavors and this dish was a great dish for me.
My buddy got «The Boss» and he loved it. He got half of it to go so he could save it for the next day as the curry was phenomenal. I will try this the next time I go.
The music was awesome as they played some great tunes.
My crew had a great time and we look forward to going back in the near future.
The location is very convenient and the food was great. There is a lot of street parking in the area and they are very accommodating in letting us stay late. The restaurant is clean and comfortable. The décor is interesting, may not be for everyone, but I liked it as it was very modern.
It was a good chao down at Bao Down … uh was that too cheesy?

Walking into the restaurant you know you’re in a hip restaurant. Tons of young people, loud music and just a cool vibe all around. My friend had made reservations so we were promptly seated with no waiting around. I was facing the wall but while the restaurant was full I think there was always spaces available. Maybe the high tops are communal? This place was almost a 4 star but if you’re called Bao Down, you really gotta nail those Bao dishes down.
For 3 of us I feel like we got a lot but I wanted to try everything.
The good:
Fried Chicken Wings
The short ribs — this was my favorite. The short ribs was a tiny bit on the dry side but so flavorful and delicious. I also enjoyed the garlic rice that came with it.
Decent:
Khao soi with braised oxtail — Khao soi has good flavor but we thought one more piece of ox tail would have been nice
Skipping for next time:
The big boss with chicken — this dish sounded very interesting to be as I really like curry but I found it to be a little too sweet
The special bao of the day — comes in an order of 3 which was perfect for us but this was the worst dish of the night. I don’t remember what was in it but the bao was not good. It was hard and felt like it had been left out instead of being hot and soft. We told the waitress but she just said sorry and didnt even try to rectify the problem. All three of us just ate the filling and tossed the bao

I tried their «three sheets» brunch bao and it was great! There was bacon in this bao. The bao itself tasted like a regular bao and it seems to be pretty authentic (imo)!
I ate one bao and it kept me satisfied! The meal itself costed approximately $ 5 plus taxes. So it was decent but I would have wanted around one more to keep me full.
I ordered take out and the service was amazing and pretty quick! I would come back again for any of their baos!
Overall I give this bao down a 4.5 because their service is great and pretty quick! And their food is great as well!

I wanted to check out the new BaoDown Olympic Village location. They seem to pull off a mix of a restaurant and full bar.
The menu has a South Asian fusion flare, with specials like Pad Thai and Laksa dinner items, and did I mention fresh oysters? Oh Yes, please. I went with a friend who also enjoys fresh oysters and went on a binge of oysters.
They have a rotating special menu, including buck a shuck BC oysters from Mon-​Wed. Monday’s is the best for specials and best day for bang for the buck.
Its a bit pricey for a casual dinner, also surprised to see an $ 8 (gluten free!) cotton candy on their dessert option… That better be a really special cotton candy for that price!
The interior setting seems to go retro with 90’s beats, and a short hallway of classic 80’s, 90’s framed movie posters towards the washrooms.
Initially I thought to give this place a 3 star, but service bumped up my opinion on the place.
Overall, I would go, good to go in a group and share a few dishes.

We had high hopes when news broke that a Thai restaurant with an excellent pedigree was coming to Olympic Village. A real restaurant would be a welcome contrast to the several large alcohol-​focused establishments in the area.
We went to Bao Down on a Saturday evening and found the many dishes we ordered to be very good. Service was generally good and one of the staff who had «emigrated» from Toronto was very outgoing and friendly. If that was the end of the story, I’d give four stars.
Now the BUT. The place was booming with 90s hip-​hop at a conversation-​compromising volume. Even the area at the back outside the toilets had a speaker. The interior is almost entirely exposed concrete so the acoustics are horrendous. During the breaks between songs the sounds from other tables ring throughout the restaurant. The place desperately needs some acoustic panels to curtail reverberation, and a more sensible music volume level. When we told our friendly server that we were locals but would be unlikely to return given the sound issues, she recommended we come back on a Monday or Tuesday. Not a satisfactory response, IMHO.

This new restaurant has a really cool vibe, great street views and TVs to catch an NBA game if you wish. The owners are often present and very approachable, friendly fellas.
The food here is unique, incredibly flavourful and reasonably priced.
The four of us sampled a number of entrées and left quite pleased with everything, not leaving a single morsel on our plates.
Bang bang prawns are so Good! Order a few more Bao’s on the side for more people and you won’t regret it. Singapore slaw was flavorful salad that everyone at the table enjoyed, even the picky ones. Fraser Valley Huli Huli Chicken is a great meal, excellent portion to share amongst two people.
Did not have a chance to try their beignets (English fritters) however if they are anything like their Gastown location, I am sure they are consistently awesome.
I can’t wait to visit this place for Happy Hour one day to see what they offer, can’t say enough good things about the range of pan pacific delicacies you can choose from here.
Thanks

The mother of the owner is a friend of mine i worked with her for few years in one of the hospital in vancouver, im so happy that time we came in to check the place she was there too having lunch with friends… my review is fair and honest it has nothing to do with frienship.
New hot place to visit i believed this is the second one the main resto was in downtown. and i heard they are expanding abroad now,…for me its more like filipino and hawiian inspired dishes… in the menu i admired the person who made this names of foods… amazing and if you are filipino you can really relate on every names of the dishes… Japayuki in my country Philippines we used this name to describe a female pinay working in Japan, Bao chicka Bao… chicka means gossip and in my country this word is commonly used to mean gossip, joke etc…
The three of us are all first timer and the server was very kind to really describe all the dishes in the menu… at the end we ordered the kimchi price, the big bang, ahi poke, bao chicka bao and other stuff that i cant remember… surprisingly they were all delish… food presentation was excellent to me, the portion of the serving were small for a big hungry guy like me, price very reasonable, its worth the waiting time,.
Not so big place, new, neat decors are classy and contemporary, one side of the wall was painted with an image of a buffalo actually thats a carabao the Philippines national animal and the other half is an elephant in a very bright colors that really suits the place… very genius design im loving it… wash room is clean, opppsss no free wifi the waiter says its only for their music at the moment, i hope they will have one soon…
Full bar pub havent seen the drink lists and the pricing coz its lunch time and none of us wants to have a drink…
Parking is by the street metered one could be busy and hard to find… The place is good for group, family and kids, Accept cash, debit and credit… noise level is morethan average.
Another pride for the Filipino…100% ill visit again soon and bring a lot of friends who enjoys food like the dishes of the Bao down gastro…

I believe their happy hour is the best deal in town. Amazing food, great prices, and oysters shuck for a buck with delicious condiments. Wait staff was also very friendly and attentive.
Had Bomber ipa, bang bang prawns, Royal miyagi oysters for less than 20 bucks. I was in a very happy place when I finished. Can’t wait to take my friends there again.

I would rate this place as follows: 5 star food, 3 star drinks, 1 star service. This place has a ways to go to get all 5 stars.
Came on a Sunday for lunch/​brunch. The place was packed with a wait a the front door. Our friends already had a table though so we didn’t have to wait.
Sat for a while before getting asked if we wanted something to drink. We ordered the Bloodsport as we read a raving review of it on Vancity buzz. Well, after receiving it, 15 minutes later, it was subpar. It’s $ 15 and you’re clearly paying for the prawn and piece of tuna it comes with. To be fair, it was a nice large prawn with sambal on it, but it really wasn’t anything to write home about. The drink was ‘meh’ at best. I even asked for it extra extra spicy and it was not spicy at all. I would suggest adding horseradish and siracha to the mix.
Now for the food, we had The Schwartz and The Hot Stuff. The Schwartz, crispy corned beef and potato hash served with 2 eggs and either garlic rice or toast with tomatoes. I went with garlic rice and had the eggs poached. The ‘hash’ are tater tots, but it works. It’s a good amount of food and they don’t chince on the corned beef. It was pretty great. My hubby had The Hot Stuff, chicken and waffles with 2 eggs and a macadamia syrup. The chicken is breaded and fried, menu says its spicy but it wasn’t. The chicken was generous and very juicy, and although I don’t like sweet chicken or waffles, my husband says he truly enjoyed his meal.
The service? Well, after our drinks came we ordered our meals and that’s one of the last times we had any real service. We weren’t offered a second drink, and after we finished our meals we were given the bill and felt like we were being pushed out of the place to accommodate the other people waiting. I understand completely that they want to turn the tables in a timely fashion, but it was the manner in which we felt rushed out by the server…
I would come back and try their dinner menu, but if I was being rushed, I would never look back twice.
Worth trying the food for sure.

Very skeptical is an understatement. I was trying to avoid coming here.
Meet some friends for brunch today, and it was great. Food was uniquely prepared without being overdone, service was reasonable despite a packed restaurant, and the atmosphere was perfect for a busy brunch spot (slightly loud, energetic) .
I had the beef hash, it was a good size, and served exactly the way I ordered. I also had their bao specialty, shock is really tasty and I would highly recommend. You could just have a couple of bao options and be satisfied.
Others at the table posted a variety of dishes, and sections was happy. I also had a taste of the chocolate pancakes — awesome.
Give this place a shot.

DC and I had dinner tonight at the recently opened Bao Down in Olympic Village. I was looking forward to trying their baos which are like steamed bun sandwiches but found out through Unilocal that they’re only served during lunch hours. Too bad :(
We arrived around 7pm and the restaurant was pretty full. We didn’t have to wait too long to get a table for two though.
The mood inside the restaurant was very energetic and the ambience had a hipster feel. I especially liked their wallpaper. We were surprised at how pricy the items on the menu were. Most of the dishes were at least $ 15, with a lot of them even going over $ 20. I thought the drinks were way too pricy too, especially the cocktails ($ 12-​$ 15). The service wasn’t great either. We had to ask twice to get a glass of water and we waited over 30 minutes for our first dish to come out. We wanted to order some fresh oysters too but their special ones for $ 1 were sold out. You need to order a minimum of 6 so we passed since the other oysters were around $ 2 – 3 each.
We ordered 2 dishes to share. The first was Fly Rice, which was basically fried rice with pork, slaw, crispy garlic, water chestnuts, and a fried egg. The egg was nicely cooked the pork was pretty good and flavourful. The water chestnuts were a nice addition too. However, the dish as a whole was subpar. Firstly, the dish was not hot at all when it came out — it wasn’t even warm… Secondly, bits of the rice were hard, not crispy. Not a very big portion either. The rice was probably less than a bowl.
Our second dish, the King Fish, was a fail. We waited about an hour for this to come out and we had already finished our previous dish. Even worse, when I cut into the fish to split it between the two of us, I noticed that the inside was a pale, grey colour… It was raw. :(You could see that it was still bleeding red at the top too. We showed our server and she apologized and sent it back to the kitchen, saying that she’ll bring out a new one for us.
By that time, we were already very unimpressed and wanted to just cancel that order and leave since we thought it would probably take another hour for them to cook up a new one. However, another lady, who was the manager/​supervisor (?) came to our table and apologized and explained what happened. Apparently the fish they had prepped for had been sold out already but there was a miscommunication between the kitchen and the servers so they didn’t know. We shouldn’t have been allowed to order it but since we had already done so, the chefs had to cut a piece from a new batch and it was too thick. She then offered to give us another dish on the house. We agreed and took another look at the menu. She was very helpful and friendly, which helped ease our frustration.
As soon as we decided on what to order, the previous server brought back the fish that had been re-​fired. They said we could still have it if we like, so we did just to try it. It wasn’t good though. It was the same dish we had sent back and they just grilled the fish again. They didn’t even change the papaya salad or the plate… :(By that time, the fish was already dry and didn’t really have much flavour left to it. We didn’t like the papaya salad either. It tasted weird because the acidic and spicy flavours didn’t mesh together very well, unlike other papaya salads I’ve had.
Anyways, moving on… The additional dish we decided to get was the Jumbo Black Tiger Prawns. This was much better. We had it with garlic fried rice but the rice still wasn’t hot. At least the prawns were hot and freshly cooked. They were seasoned generously, giving it good flavour and they weren’t overcooked, thankfully.
All in all, quite the disappointing experience here at Bao Down, given that we dined for around 2 hours waiting for our food, only to find out that it was not cooked properly. However, I am glad that they took steps to resolve our problems by taking care of our 2 dishes. We only had to pay for our first dish, the fried rice. They definitely have a lot to work on in terms of quality of food and timeliness of service, especially for their prices. Maybe their baos are better — I’ll have to go during lunch next time. But until then, here are my ratings:
Food — 3.5÷10
Service — 3.5÷10
Value — ³⁄₁₀
Ambience — ⁸⁄₁₀

My friends & I went there yesterday for Happy Hour. While we had no complaints regarding the food itself, the waitress left us wishing for more. When ordering, we either told belatedly that something was unavailable or the kitchen wouldn’t make it for us. If we had been told up front that dish was not available or that it was going to be a limited menu, it is taken differently than told no. She was inattentive. We had to search for another server to get our bill at the end & that was incorrect too.
This is an example of how much service influences the experience. Because of the food, my friends & I will give this place another try but that is the only reason.

Came here for lunch with coworkers. Would highly recommend ordering fries for the tables. There were 10 of us so we ordered both kinds — kimchi fries and japayoki fries. Both were so delicious I can’t pick a favorite.
I would recommend ordering 2 baos for lunch. There are so many to choose from you cant just pick one. I had the bao chicka bao bao (so fun to say!) and the Big Bang. I preferred the Big Bang — a bit more moist and more flavour.
One star off for pricing. Cheapest bao is about $ 6 and goes up to $ 10+. Given that one bao just isn’t enough, it can add up which leads to a pricy meal.
I’ll definitely be coming back for more baos and to try their poke bowls. They played all my favourite 90s hip hop songs so that automatically gets an a+ in my books. Cool art on the walls definitely gives this place good vibes.

Compared to the original bao down the place is trendier, more selections but also pricier.
The dinner is especially pricy but still yummy! The bao and fries are decent priced although some going to $ 10 per bao!
Value ²⁄₅
Atmosphere ⁴⁄₅
Service ⁴⁄₅
Quality ³⁄₅
¹³⁄₂₀

A solid 4.5 stars. They’ve just opened up tonight for their soft opening and I’ve been waiting for them to open as I live right around the corner and I couldn’t be more excited. Everything about my dining experience tonight was awesome.
My boyfriend and I came at 7:15pm and it was packed and we were lucky enough to snag the last available table. The menu isn’t complete yet and they haven’t got their liquor license yet, but that all should be completed shortly.
We ordered a few of the oysters to start and they came with 4 different sauces — a spicy mango, a citrusy jalapeño, an AWESOME cocktail sauce and a mignonette sauce with cucumbers. They were all so delicious and I loved every one. I put all 4 of them on and that was the way I enjoyed them the most.
For mains we decided the split the fry rice and the Fraser Valley Huli Huli chicken. Both were great. The fry rice came with crispy pork belly and squid and the fried egg on top was still ooey and gooey and this dish was my favourite of the night. The chicken dish was likewise also spot on with the flavours. The portion size was very good too, a big thigh and a breast. The sweet sauce of the chicken worked well with the crunchy slaw they put on top. The papaya salad we chose as our side to the chicken was also very tasty.
To top it all off, as we ended our meal, we were brought a plate of the bao beignets on the house. This is not something my boyfriend and I would ever order as we aren’t a fan of sweets but we were so glad we got to try these. My boyfriend devoured about 5 – 6 of them and couldn’t stop. It was so warm and fluffy on the inside and perfectly crispy on the outside and the cinnamon sugar wasn’t overly sweet.
For a soft opening and it being their first night, I’d say they have something special here. We were blown away by the warm welcome and how nice all the staff were and how they went out of their way to engage and interact and educate us on their food and concept. Yes, the food was a little slow but we were well aware of that and had expected it and it didn’t hinder our dining experience. Very cute little restaurant and the mural on the wall is pretty awesome.
This is a fantastic addition to the Olympic village area and I’m excited to try their brunch that they’ll be launching soon as well as come back to try some baos during their lunch hour. What a great dinner we had tonight. Thanks Bao Down!