Bao Bao Cafe

Bao Bao is conveniently located in the Financial District and easily accessible in the neighborhood. Their dishes mainly focus on noodles and they also have light appetizers. We got the popcorn chicken, baby octopus, and tea eggs and they were all made quickly. The breading was crispy and flavorful - we definitely would get them again. They have the option of being spicy or regular. The tea egg was steamed perfectly! The mini octopus sauce was delicious and it was over a bed of seaweed. That was my favorite!

We had the popcorn chicken with rice, BamBam noodles, and a little hot pot. Everything was super flavorful. The popcorn chicken was crispy, the noodles had the perfect kick, and the broth in the hot pot was rich and comforting. Friendly service and a cozy vibe made this a great meal stop during our trip!

Baobao Cafe is a hidden gem for weekday lunch! 🥢 The food is delicious, with just the right portion size — flavorful but not greasy, so you feel great after eating. The service is fast and friendly, and everything comes out quickly, which makes it perfect if you’re on a lunch break. The space is clean and calm, ideal for a quick, satisfying meal. Definitely a place you’ll want to come back to!

Great place! Easy to find and close to popular attractions such as 9/11 memorial etc; a good place to visit while touring around… ! :-)😀😀 beef noodles; limited seating though! :-) 😀😀

The food here was great for lunch. My whole family enjoyed the food. I ordered the Veggie Ramen with medium spice. When restaurants say they have spice levels for their foods I’m usually disappointed but the spice here was amazing. It was delicious. Seating can be limited though so keep that in mind if you come with a big group.

We tried a couple of the lunch specials at the café - popcorn chicken bento and pork belly bento. For the popcorn chicken bento, there's an option to add a bubble milk tea from the shop next door for an extra $3, which is a nice deal. The rice was cooked well with a pleasant texture. The popcorn chicken had good flavour, though the texture was a bit on the harder side. The pork belly was tasty with a nice texture, though we would’ve liked a bit more seasoning for a stronger flavour. Both bentos came with some sides like veg and chips, making them great value for money with generous portions.

Quick Chinese Taipei type cafe style. Mostly bento noodle and Taiwan street food. Great pork belly or cooked perfectly it's tender and juicy. The popcorn chicken is crispy and yet the meat still juicy. The soup is really flavourfull. Overall great bang for your buck.

the moment we walked in, we were hit by the delicious smell of pork and eel. the prices are very fair and the esthetic is fantastic. 10/10 recommend the eel and bambam noodles.

Bao Bao might be the kind of cafe you would just walk by and not give a second thought to. Don't make that mistake! The food is so good here and so reasonably priced for the area, I had to give it a 5-star review. Bao Bao is a five-minute walk from the Millenium Hotel. It is a tiny place with a few tables behind the cashier. While not everyone's cup of tea, I kind of liked the ambiance because it felt like a stall in one of the outdoor food markets we visited in Osaka and Kanazawa last year. Nothing fancy but who cares. I don't! I'm an unagi fan and theirs was excellent, prepared to perfect doneness, not overcome with sauce (unlike a similar dish I had in Seattle recently which was the same price and so underdone, I couldn't even finish it. Gross!) Hubs ordered the pork belly plate which was impressively loaded with meat and even more impressively prepared. Delish.

Great overall experience. Food very affordable! Service was great. Space is limited. Menu very straightforward and has pictures.

Bao Bao Cafe definitely deserve 4.5/5 stars. My family and I were traveling to NY. Our Marriott Hotel is couple doors down. The cafe is pretty small. I decided to order to go and bring it to our room. Jay is the front cashier. He was very nice and informative. He recommended the R4 Pork Belly rice plate 4.5/5 stars $13. The pork belly was very soft & it literally melt in your mouth. The flavor was good. My kids our R5 Popcorn chicken rice plate with egg (non spicy) $11.50 4/5 stars. The popcorn chicken was big, tender, & juicy. Flavor was pretty. My husband order N1. Bao Bao Noodles with ground pork & adding slice beef $12.45 4.5/5 stars. I really like the slice beef. If I was to come back to the Financial District. I would definitely come back here. It is very close to the World Trade Center & the Oculus. Highly recommend.

Pleasantly surprised with this little place in the Financial District! I originally wanted to have lunch by the piers but my husband wasn't feeling it and my 4 year old wanted rice so Hubby found Bao Bao Cafe. The menu is posted on the window with photos of the entrees and we ended up going with the Eel over Rice for my husband, Pork Belly for me, Popcorn Chicken for our younger 3 and Beef over Rice for our oldest. We did not dine in, but found a place to sit to enjoy our meal. The pork belly was flavorful, filling and delicious with equal parts of sweet and savory all around. There were perfect amounts of meat-to-fat ratio in my pork belly cuts, and my husband couldn't stop reaching his chopsticks over for a piece. My oldest enjoyed his beef and rice and chose it because there was bok choy (he likes his well-rounded meals!) and the Popcorn Chicken were very good. My younger 2 are 4 and 2 years old, and anticipated American popcorn chicken but didn't stop them from eating their meal.

Haven't been here in a while but I remember enjoying their little hot pot noodle years ago. Decided to add beef to my little hot pot noodles and ordered the popcorn chicken. The noodles were just like how I remembered them, mildly spicy, packed with veggies, and made with sweet potato noodles. I really enjoyed their popcorn chicken and was surprised at the portion size. They were larger chicken chunks with an incredible crunch. I didn't expect the takeout containers since I was dining in, but the food was as good as I remember and at a reasonable cost.

Really good Korean food for the price. It has some seating, but you should really pick this place as a grab and go.

Cozy restaurant service a mix of Asian dishes. The cashier was friendly and I originally wanted to try a noodle dish but the pork belly and popcorn chicken combos looked so satisfying. I split them with a friend. Food wise, they both were impressive. For a low-key restaurant they really did both dishes right. The chicken was seasoned well, made with thigh meat, and maybe one or 2 pieces were on the drier side but still fantastic. The pork belly was super tender, gelatinous, and full of that braised soy flavor. Overall would give this place a 4.5/5 for their food. Prices seem reasonable as well.

I got the Bam Bam noodles and popcorn chicken. The popcorn chicken was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. You can choose whether you want it spicy or not. The Bam Bam noodles were okay, although I expected them to be spicer, like dan dan noodles. Instead, they have a pretty strong soy sauce flavor. It's pretty small inside with only a few tables so I recommend getting this to go!

Solid spot. I think their popcorn chicken meals the best thing they got. Usually get it nice and spicy. Perfect texture. Solid portions. And comes with rice. Hard boiled egg and few pieces of broccoli. Excellent all aroubd

Cheap, greasy Chinese food with chintzy servings of protein and Times Square branding.

My fiance and I were in lower Manhattan looking for something delicious to eat that wasn't far from One WTC and wasn't expensive. We found this place online. It was less than 10 minutes walk. It wasn't busy when we arrived on a Saturday at 2pm. Upon entering, I'll see the menu is on the wall. It's not extensive. There were about 10 meals to pick from. The pork belly meal caught my eyes but my partner chose it. So of course I had to pick something else so we could try each other's food. I chose the bao bao rice. Both meals cost $9.75 each. We did not have to wait long for our meal. We sat at the small table near the counter. There are more seatings in the back. I wasn't sure we could freely go back there and sit. The staff in the front told us to sit in the front. Maybe the back was full. I didn't get to see it so I can't tell how big or how many seats there were. Back to the food. The food was absolutely delicious! Great portion for the price. Definitely filling. The food was flavorful, nicely seasoned. My partner and I really enjoyed our meal. Definitely will be back next time we are in lower Manhattan.

Stopped by here to get a quick bite after work I ordered the eel over rice and a side order of baby octopus. Both items were average and what you expect of the items with nothing being phenomenal or subpar. The reason this place gets a boost in rating? It's a decently priced place with an assortment of delicious items on the menu, and in this area it's a godsend

Wish i knew about this place sooner! EXTREMELY AFFORDABLE asian/Chinese staple dishes- noodles, rice dishes, and unagi over rice for $15!! Super great deal. Also very nostalgic of homemade ground beef stir fried rice and coconut milk drinks.

This is a hidden gem. Everything we have tried has been great. It may have me fooled but some of the dishes are really authentic.

Really tiny place near WTC. Bare minimum decor. The cashier was pleasant and polite. The service was efficient and no-nonsense. The menu was quite simple with only a few items; the prices were very inexpensive and affordable. Yet it offered some fast, authentic and delicious noodle soups and meal boxes. It's amazing that for the price of simple haircut, one could get a great meal in the expensive NYC financial district. The competition must be intense for a hole in the wall restaurant like Bao Bao to earn its place and survive. We ordered: 4*Popcorn Chicken 盐酥鸡：crispy fried chicken was tasty and delicious. 4*Bao Bao Noodles 宝宝面--noodle soup with minced pork and veggies on top: I ordered medium spicy which turned out to be perfect, the soup was flavorful and mild spicy. 4*Little Hot Pot 麻辣烫--Glass noodle with veggies, tofu skin, Chinese mushroom: I could add more ingredients but I decided not. The soup was tasty and it gave the dish a zesty flair. 5*Bam Bam Noodles拌拌面: Stirred & seasoned dry noodles with minced pork on top; very good, must order dish for me. 5*Pork Belly with Rice五花肉盒饭 Marinated pork in five-spice and brown sauce, served with tea egg and veggies: it was perfect, tasty, juice, and delicious. If you like pork, order it and it won't disappoint. 4*Veggie Ramen w/Pork Broth 蔬菜拉面Ramen noodle soup with bok choy, cabbage, Chinese mushroom & egg. It was pretty good. It wasn't spicy enough for me because I ordered medium. So I added some spicy sauce and it tasted better. Next time I should just order spicy hot. For cheap eats, I believe it deserves a 5* rating.

Delicious bao bao noddles, and dipping buns, will definitely come here every time I'm in the district area.

It's a great lunch spot in FiDi, but I still gotta look at Google maps every time to find its exact location. There's always construction around, but once you get to this little hole in the wall it's great. They keep their menu simple with probably a maximum of 20 items. The fatty pork belly that's red braised is my go to. It pairs well with rice and there's some vegetables so you don't feel like 1000 lbs after. The other favorite is the popcorn chicken rice combo. It's Taiwanese style fried chicken that has a different batter than other fried chicken. The spicy one is also very flavorful. Depending on inflation, the chicken is a much better deal since the portions are quite large.

Ordered Eel over rice for delivery with others and food was still warm. $18.00 for this bowl of eel over rice. Gave two big pieces of eel was definitely worth it. Very delicious with a side of seaweed.

I got the pork belly plate. It wasn't bad but it also didn't excite me. The tea egg was neat but looked better than it tasted and seemed overboiled

Stopped for dinner here after reading about it on Yelp - it seemed to be a good, inexpensive Asian restaurant in the neighbourhood, so I was eager to give it a try. Definitely not a lot of seating available (only a handful of tables in the front and a few larger tables in the back) but when I arrived there was only 1 other couple eating. They don't have table service - you order at a counter and take your food to your table - so there's a lot of takeaway/delivery orders (as opposed to dining in), too. I ordered the Bao Bao Noodles - a simple noodle soup with minced pork, and veggies. Overall, quite yummy - noodles were well-cooked to a nice hardness, and the broth was rich and flavourful. I ordered the lowest spice level, so it was not that bad - but I can definitely imagine that the higher spice levels would be quite strong, so be careful! I was also pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive this was for the area - quality Chinese food in FiDi is definitely rare and a welcome sight. It's just too bad they close at 8pm, because I'd definitely drop by a lot for late-night eats :)

Like a breath of fresh air for the Wall st area! I've always struggled with finding great places to eat here that aren't American or pricey. This is probably one of the best Chinese/Taiwanese places around to grab a casual, yet comfortable meal. The menu has the usual pork belly, braised pork, and Taiwanese popcorn chicken. I got the grilled eel over rice while my boyfriend got the popcorn chicken with rice. Both were sizeable portions and tasted like Chinese comfort food at its best. I was delighted to see the eel comes with seaweed salad to pair with the rice. There was so much popcorn chicken in my boyfriend's dish that he gave me a quarter of it. It's salt/pepper rub is so addicting that we almost finished all of it despite being way too full. As an added bonus, every order of popcorn chicken comes with a free bubble few of choice from the place next door! It doesn't get any better of that. What a delicious meal we enjoyed, seated at the comfort of one of their tables. This is quality food at an excellent price point. Compliments to the staff and chefs for a great experience.

This cute little place is located conveniently downtown if you want to stop by for a quick meal. My sister and I came in the middle of the day during lunch. There are a few seats both inside and outside. We ordered at the counter and found a seat inside. The server brings the food to you as they're ready. We ordered the popcorn chicken, baby octopus, bam bam noodles, and the little hotpot. The popcorn chicken was fried perfectly but there weren't enough flavor. I wanted to drench it in hot sauce. The baby octopus was delicious and refreshing - the sauce was tangy and sweet. The bam bam noodles is a dry-mixing noodle while the little hotpot was soupy. Both noodle dishes were mediocre. I loved the way the noodles were cooked, very chewy and absorbed the flavor, however, they were both toward the bland side. We had to add a lot of soy sauce/hot sauce. When I cook, I lean towards blander flavors to stay "healthy" but these dishes were blander than my home cooking! I would love to give the other items on the menu a try, but I definitely will specify to add more salt/flavor.

The food is not tasty at all. I had the seafood Ramen soup and it had no flavor. I don't know too much about the service because it was delivered. I probably wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anyone.

This did not disappoint. Great food great price. If your in the mode for noodles and/or soups, definitely worth it!

Went to get food, and saw this. Any resto that takes care of their staff like this gets my vote!

Small shop but was definitely worth stopping in for some hot food on a cold day! The cashier was very nice and patience with me while I had an extremely difficult time choosing between their 12 items on the menu that day. There is a big table for 6 people and 2 small tables for 2 in the front of the restaurant, but there are more trackers in the back for more privacy. I ordered the little hot pot and added pork and my partner ordered the pork belly. It came out quickly and was steaming hot. I thought my little hot pot was good, but I felt that it was missing a little more saltiness. It had the pork, noodles, bok choy, mushrooms, and tofu skin, so it's understandable that it needed that extra bit of salt to cheer up the tastebuds. I honestly still really enjoyed it because it was so delicious and really well cooked, maybe this just wasn't the right plate for me. Would love to come back another time to try another plate!

Super fast and friendly, great price and super yummy!! Near World Trade Center. Ended up going twice!!!

My first time here. I ordered their eel over rice. It was tasty. It took about 15 minutes for my order to come out. I will definitely come back to this place.

SO GOOD! SO VALUE (12 ish total)! the popcorn chicken was very crispy and had great flavor, wish there was more broccoli tho

Great option around the area :) I get lunch here pretty regularly if I'm craving noodle soup and something spicy. I usually get the bao bao noodles and I ask them to switch regular noodles to glass noodles. There's a minimum of $10 for credit card so bring some cash! I used to order on the ritual app 10 minutes before I go pick it up but realized the price is a dollar more on the app now :( They're very quick in getting the order ready. If you want to eat there they also have some tables in the back. Use my referral link for a discount on the ritual app if you sign up! https://invite.ritual.co/RITA46072

Love the Bao Bao rice!! Plus, they are super efficient the food is always waiting when I get there.

A personal 3/5 for the veggie ramen dish! Probably don't come here if you're vegetarian, but if you aren't, could be worth a shot. Things of note: * their veggie ramen doesn't have a veggie soup base, so that rules it out for strict vegetarians. i usually try not to have meat based broth, but i was very hungry and grew up eating my mom's broths so i am personally okay with making an exception from time to time, as long as there's no meat in the dish itself -- to each their own! * the toppings were pretty disappointing in the ramen :( the egg was just hard boiled (wish it was a tea egg like the rice plates had), and one of the toppings was just raw lettuce. bok choy & woodear mushroom not bad though! * the taste overall really just felt like something i'd make at home -- boil up a pack of instant noodles & add some chopped lettuce/cabbage + hard boil an egg. really wasn't anything special, probably wouldn't recommend as is Caveat though is that this meal was Very cheap (~$9 post tax), so I guess it's kind of you get what you paid for? Don't think I'll come back soon thou

The egg in pork belly was super cold and the vege in my friend's dish was just stick, wdf? Have to say the dish I ate is shit. I certainly believe they mucked me today.

I was looking at new places to try for lunch and this popped up as a suggestion on Yelp. After reading the reviews while craving some good old noodles, I decided to come here for an early lunch. The place wasn't crowded at 12pm and it seems to be visited by locals and tourists alike. There are a few seating options in the front but the place can definitely get overcrowded during a rush lunch hour. After you order, they give you a buzzer which was nice. I ended ordering the Bao Bao Noodles to go, with a mild level spice flavor. The texture of the noodles were amazing and the mild flavor was just the right spice level for me. The soup looked quite staining from what I saw in the bowl so I'd be careful while eating. Despite the tastiness of the broth, noodles, and veggies, I was very disappointed by the lack of minced pork, compared to all the other images I saw on Yelp. I had to fish around with my spoon and was barely able to scrap up two full spoonfuls of it. However I would still be interested in coming back in the future to try their other noodle and rice dishes because of the location and fast service (and lack of noodle places in the area).

We were visiting New York from Arizona. We were hungry and weren't sure of what to eat. As we walked along the street we see the sign, of course we look up reviews, not going to waste any calories on something that doesn't taste good. Thankfully the reviews were good, so we decided to give it a try. So glad we did, it was delicious! the service was great, friendly service. we sat outside and did some people watching. I would definitely recommend stopping in if you're in the area.

I've ordered delivery here and I've ate in. Definitely just order. Don't eat in. The food is good. Their little fried buns with condensed milk especially! The menu is small and limited but it packs all the guilty pleasure Asian snack foods in. It is a lot of carbs and sugar and salt but in the best way. We ordered two ramens. I got the seafood. We also shared eel over rice. We enjoyed them in the plastic containers with the plastic utensils they served us with. The reason I say not to stay in is because you almost can't. There are a few tables in the back, but the restaurant is so small, the seating is an afterthought. It was with supplies and the utensils you were eating with in bulk boxes. Just do yourself a favor, order your meal, take it home or a hotel. Also know, if you are asian, re enjoy the guilty pleasure food of an Asian childhood at whatever age you happen to be, and get that condensed milk toast or the little buns!

Imagine this :: you're a Floridian - it's a cold New York night. All you want is ramen , that's vegetarian, that has good yelp reviews and doesn't cost $$$. This place hit. The. Spot. It's not fancy. Ramen is served with plastic soup spoons. I didn't care. It was delicious ramen- done right. My friend and sister both loved the food as well. A perfect spot on a cold night. Also- their dipping bun is a MUST. I dropped one in my soup and still ate it cause it was so dang good -- think warm doughnuts. FYI :: the vegetable ramen isn't made with vegetarian broth- but they do have vegetarian broth they can substitute.

Cute little place to get a quick meal from! I really liked the popcorn chicken - it was my first time ordering it. Crunchy and peppery, it was a great addition to the meal. The bam bam noodles are dry mixing noodle. The noodles itself are already sauced which makes it compliment the ground pork well. It's a solidness! Dipping buns are soooo good. Crunchy outside, soft inside. The condensed milk brings it all together so well.

Yummy and reasonably priced lunch. Seats in front and rear, clean and quick self service.

I happened to find this small place really close to where I was staying. The prices are super reasonable and only about $9-13 per person depending on what you order. I got the Taiwanese fried chicken and it was really good with generous portions. There's a bubble tea place next door that's super convenient as well.

Personally a 3.5. most of their dishes are pretty simplistic, the veggie ramen is very bare imo and they intriguingly put iceberg lettuce in both the ramen and the bento. In terms of the ramen and the veggie sides on the pork belly bento, the only thing I was impressed with was the pork belly. Really good flavor on that and tasted very good with rice. The sides were definitely lack luster, more iceburg lettuce and then two pieces of broccoli with what I assume was oyster sauce. Also a very lightly flavored tea egg. The skin on the pork belly was also extremely chewy which was interesting since I'm much more used to a soft and tender skin so I was a little suspicious of that. Overall I think the food here is very simplistic and could be good for a quick bite of Chinese food, but with China Town a 10 min walk away you might be happier if you tried over there.

Cozy little snack stop! Good price and spot on taste. Always love their tea eggs and salty pepper popcorn chicken!

for what you get with the price, this place is AMAZING if you're hungry and want something hot to slurp on what we got: n1. bao bao noodles: 5/5 with a slight hint if szechuan peppercorn flavor, it wasn't really mala but you could taste the mala flavor. it was piping hot when we got it and super flavorful. They gave a good amount of toppings and for only 9 dollars, this was amazing. n5. seafood ramen: 4.5/5 this was really goo:z There was so much additional toppings like the fishballs and shrimp and fish tofu that were all so good. they gave a lot of veggies and it was super flavorful. also, the soup was really nice, almost like a slight tonkotsu flavor. the only complaint is that the noodles used were ramen noodles from packages probably and they got soggy faster but it really complimented the soup. A1. tea eggs: 4.5/5 super good and flavorful. once peeled, you can see the tea really soaked onto the cracks. i've definitely had worse tea eggs in taiwan. this was one of the best ones i've had, especially in america. a5. popcorn chicken: 5/5 so crunchy and stayed crunchy for a long time. the spicy seasoning was perfect and there wasnt too much breading over the chicken which was a plus. it was very good. overall, recommended for the price, value and taste!

Moved to NY from SF and I haven't found a lot of places that have popcorn chicken. Glad I found this place! Chicken was delicious, juicy and crispy Recommend to get the popcorn chicken here and get some boba next door then walk over to the park and eat it on the benches! - A+ meal

Quick, clean and casual noodle place in the Fidi-Tribeca area. Did a Ritual pick up here to try their bao bao noodles. I asked for the noodles to come on the side which was great so I wouldn't get soggy noodles. The soup was quite flavorful with a hefty amount of vegetables and ground meat. The noodles were also very good with the soup. They also have a drink fridge upon entering, supplying a variety of chinese drinks like Aloe juice. Overall, a satisfying quick noodle joint in an area that doesn't have many other noodle options!

Haven't found anything I haven't liked here! My favorites are the popcorn chicken and pork belly! Bam bam noodle is also good but needs meat to noodle ratio to be equitable lol food is always quick and service is always friendly. Wish they open on Sunday too!

Solid and great flavors! Prices are a bargain too for what you get. My only critique though, why is everything plastic? You can do better than that! Have proper bowls. Proper spoons at least.

This place has great reviews so my girlfriend and I decided to come in for some warm ramen. I ended up getting the Little Hot Pot medium spicy and she got the N1 mild. Hers came out a lot more red than mine and mine wasn't that spicy. In terms of the food, mine was really plain with very very tiny amounts of tofu skin and some vegetables. The noodles were good but the soup tasted like typical instant ramen soup and they were really stingy with the toppings. I think I would like it more if they gave more toppings as that is what makes ramen after the soup base. There also wasn't a lot of noodles so I was still hungry when I was finished eating. Overall, it's okay but not great if you're hungry or craving really good noodles like what you'd get in Asia

Super happy we ran into this place while walking the streets of NY, I was craving ramen and man this place is a hidden gem. Everything was so delicious and the staff were friendly and helpful. The food was cooked to order and prepared perfect. Oh I'm drooling just remembering the flavor our veggie ramen had. If your a soup lover or not definitely stop in and try this place, you'll be craving it on the daily lol.