Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Little Bao

This small eatery has become a hot-spot in town, serving bao burgers and other sharing dishes, influenced by the international cuisines but with a twist in the recipe, leveraging traditional ingredients in a fun and interesting manner.

Located in Staunton Street in SOHO, it is tiny in size and even arriving early in the evening there were already many people waiting outside. After around 30 minutes we were seated at the back counter facing the wall. Everyone was sitting shoulder to shoulder so it was not a place you would expect to dine in good comfort, but the atmosphere is good.

Ordering a cocktail to start, I had Chris' Lemonade ($85) while Ivy had the Yuzu Soda ($58). Mixed with vodka, chrysanthemum, honey and ginger syrup, my cocktail was highly refreshing and demonstrated the interesting fusion of the traditional ingredients in preparing.

For starter we had the Sesame Caesar ($78). This salad has Indian lettuce, fried dace, black beans and panko. From the list of ingredients you might wonder whether you are having the Cantonese dish. Seasoned well, the fried dace and black beans provided the savory taste to the vegetable with a nice dressing, and the panko further enhanced the crunchy texture. A really nice concept of using the ingredients in a modern western dish.

The other dish we ordered was Drunken Clams ($138), with the huge clams steamed with Chinese Shaoxing wine, on top of potato puree and having some enoki mushroom. Before serving I could already smell the signature aromas of the wine. The clams were smartly fixed in position by the creamy potato puree underneath, and were fairly tender. The enoki had absorbed all the flavours so were great in taste too.

Proceeding to the bao, I decided to try the Szechuan Fried Chicken ($78). With the bun replaced by Chinese bao, the burger contained Chinese black vinegar glaze, Szechuan mayo and coleslaw. The chicken is deep-fried nicely, with crispy skin and seasoned well to give the spiciness without over-doing it. The shredded cabbage was also great in taste with the vinegar glaze and spicy mayo.

My wife had the Fish Tempura ($78) instead. The fish was Black Cod and after deep-fried with crispy skin, served along with tamarind palm sugar glaze and pickled lemongrass fennel salad.  Even though I did not try it myself, from her feedback this burger was nothing short of spectacular. I believe this would be even better than the fried chicken I had. Next time I would need to try it out.

Finishing with a dessert we had the Salt Ice-Cream Bao with Caramel ($38 each). The mini-bao was deep-fried to golden brown and then sandwiched with a thick piece of ice-cream of salt flavour, with some caramel drizzled on the side. Apart from the interesting contrast of the hot bao and cold ice-cream, the salt flavor of the ice-cream was another highlight. However the bao was just a bit too oily for me.

The service was good, with the staff very friendly and helpful. Overall the bill on the night was $650, quite reasonable considering the amount of food we ordered. No wonder this restaurant is so popular for locals and foreigners.