Carb-packed pockets are on a roll, with themed eateries devoted to kolaches, potstickers, soup dumplings, and calzones sprinkled across St. Louis. Add to that list bao, Chinese steamed buns stuffed with all manner of goodness—and paired with some of the area’s finest cocktails—at the titular restaurant in Clayton.
Executive chef RJ Xu spent a year researching the Chinese staple, traveling to Hong Kong, London, and Paris and across the U.S. He eventually developed a signature recipe for the dough, then created an inventive, accessible menu alongside general manager Benjamin Bauer, the mixology wizard with a loyal following from the former Libertine.
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At The BAO, the dumpling-style dough is baked into sweet, chewy buns and sliced to create handy Americanized sandwiches and sliders. The buns are piled with such combos as fried portobello mushroom stuffed with Gouda, avocado, and truffle mayo. (In fact, there are five styles of mayo dressing, demonstrating the attention to detail.) A whole soft-shell crab is panko-breaded, fried to a crispy rust-red, and nestled in a bao. A sampler of bao sliders includes a sleeper: tempura-fried yam and tofu, a mélange of sweet, crunchy, and savory. The traditional char siu barbecued pork bao is not to be missed, with fatty pork, sweet barbecue sauce, crunchy greens, creamy mayo, and snappy cucumber slices.
Looking beyond bao? A fresh salad starring locally made Mofu tofu is the exemplar, with luxuriant clownfish-orange roe and tangy sesame dressing that give the tofu a pop. The Thai soup’s coconut milk base curbs the heat that can induce hiccups at some Thai restaurants. Skinny fries are served with sweet, zingy Thailand-meets-Belgium aioli.
A Seven-Day Brunch menu of fusion fare rocks. The bao in the various breakfast dishes soak up gravy, egg yolk, and more with all the facility of the English muffins in a Benedict. The On-the-Go Breakfast Bao is a delightfully déclassé trio of scrambled eggs, Swiss, and SPAM. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Bao beignets dusted in matcha powder and powdered sugar resemble doughy funnel cakes.
The BAO version of an ice cream sandwich confers instant happiness: Fried bao doughnut puffs bracket a slowly melting puck of green tea ice cream.
Don’t overlook the drink menu. Bauer concocts quixotically named drinks, such as An Uneasy Partnership of Coyotes—a festive mix of fruity yuzu Calpis (an uncarbonated milky Japanese soft drink), vodka, and mango-flavored boba tapioca balls. There’s nothing demure about these drinks. And the coffee menu—featuring pour-overs, cold brews, and beans from local roasters Blueprint, Sump, and Coma—is just about as au courant as a cuppa Joe gets.
The BAO’s menu is worth exploring in repeated visits—there’s just too much fun to be had here to do it all at once.
