"Duck N Bao, a popular Cypress Sichuan restaurant known for its crispy Peking duck and soup dumplings, has finally opened a long-awaited location near Memorial Park. The restaurant, at 5535 Memorial Drive, opened on October 23. The location has been in the works for nearly a year, following the success of Duck N Bao’s first location, at 17333 Spring Cypress Road, which opened in 2019. (Another location, in Katy, has since closed.) The restaurant quickly gained a following for its thin-skinned soup dumplings, which are made fresh in-house daily and filled with pork, chicken, or crab soup. Co-owner Darren Ren said it took “hundreds of tries” to come up with the current recipe. Also on the menu is Peking duck, which regularly sells out. The crispy-skinned roasted duck takes about 48 hours to make, and is served with thinner hand-made crepes instead of bao buns in order for the texture and the flavor of the duck to shine through. Other dishes include egg rolls, orange chicken, cumin lamb and more. Ren’s co-owner Leo Xia, who is from Sichuan, told Community Impact in February that the restaurant focuses on three principles: food that is handmade, served fresh, and authentic to how it is made in Sichuan. “We try to bring original Chinese food, not American-style Chinese food,” Xia told the paper. Ren said the company decided to open a Memorial Park location because they’re always wanted to open inside the Loop. “We are confident in our food, that Memorial locals and surrounding suburbs will love our food,” Ren says via email. “Not only is it a test for ourselves, but also a testament to all the hard work we have put in to craft our recipes.” Duck n Bao Memorial is open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m." - Brittanie Shey
