We visited Da Bao Restobar today. The two of us have been in the area since 10 am – had to walk around Chinatown for a bit, in the look out for some souvenirs for an upcoming event end of this month. By the time it hit noon, we were exhausted from all the walking around and decided that it would be best to go ‘makan’. It hasn’t been long since we last visited the area but it seemed like several eateries has popped up since , one of it being Da Bao.

Parking: If you have been to Petaling Street, you’d know that parking is rather difficult here. If you manage to find a proper spot by the roadside, lucky you. If you are planning to double park – not a good idea during this time of the day as you’d see several DBKL vans scanning the area for potential folks to ‘saman.’ Good news for us unlucky peeps, with the completion of Four Points by Sheraton just down the road (opposite ATC), it is open to public for an hourly rate of 4 ringgit. It is a short distance walk from this stretch of shop, no more than 5 minutes away.

Da Bao occupies 2 floors. The restaurant is on the Ground floor (fully operational) and if you take the stairs up – there is the bar (officially opening after Chinese New Year). The setup for both floor are somewhat different ambiance-wise, while the bottom is rather colorful, artistic and playful, the top is more relaxed, chilled. Both are definitely inviting but with different appeals, I suppose.

So, the restaurant, it extends all the way to the back. As soon as you enter, you’d see an open kitchen. As you make your way inside towards the mid section, there is the seating area. After that, as you walk further inside, there is a ‘secluded’ section with one long table in it. This is perfect if you are in a group and in need for some privacy. This section connects you to the back door which links you to the popular back lanes of Petaling Street.

The bar is upstairs. Go up the stairway and you’d see it.

Pork Bao, 15 ringgit + Soft Shell Crab Bao, 15 ringgit

As its name suggest the specialty/main offering here is Bao/steamed buns. There are 6 available options with the most popular being Pork and Soft Shell Crab bao, which was what we decided to go for.

This may sound rather silly but whenever I decide to ‘hantam’ some steamed buns, the tell tale of how the rest of the meal would go solely depends on whether I like the bao or not. No matter the filling, if the bao is awesome – it kindda sets the mood for the dish overall. You guys work the same way or is it just me? I’ve been told I am weird, so ….

Anyways, the steamed buns here were real good. I loved it. It was soft, tender and springy, with a lil bit of bouncy effect. Niceeeeeee! The Pork Bao came with a juicy square chunk of sake braised pork belly. There is a layer of fat on the top, which I generally am not a fan of and so, I removed that and the rest of the meal was very pleasant. The pork tasted yummy, love the texture – not hard, a lil chewy, mostly tender. There also was a generous amount of preserved greens that looked a lot like seaweeds? Yea and it had a rather unusual taste but complimented the whole dish well. It worked.

The Soft Shell Crab Bao was yummy. The first thing you’d taste is the Chili Crab Sauce because they sprinkle quite abit of it on the meat. Having it with the bao was nice as the chili sauce resembled the watery ones that accompanies chicken rice as oppose to the thicker version of perhaps Thai chili sauce? Then, there is the beer battered soft shell crab + curry leaves + salted egg yolk. Imagine how that taste ?? a lil spicy, a lil tangy with the unique taste of the crab shining through. Da’ bomb, yaww. If you are a fan of this particular type of crab – you’d love this.