Baodega 小杨生煎
Dim sum restaurant · Flatiron District ·
Peking duck, braised pork, coffee, Shanghainese fare
Peking duck, braised pork, coffee, Shanghainese fare
"Flatiron’s Baodega offers lunch specials that attract office workers in the neighborhood, and a coffee bar as a further convenience. The restaurant sells four types of soup dumplings, on a menu that partly specializes in Shanghai cooking: pork or pork with crab (either steamed or pan fried), chicken, and vegetarian. Pick the pork with crab, which is thin-skinned and bulging with a medium-weight broth." - Robert Sietsema
"A Brooklyn-based Sichuanese supper club run by Charlene Luo, where sausage making is a central, familial practice: Luo plans her year around producing spicy, savory links that always appear alongside her signature mapo tofu at gatherings, often curing large batches on her rooftop in winter and sometimes cold-smoking with applewood for extra depth. Her method is steeped in family memory—from bringing grandmother’s sausages from Sichuan to improvising tools and drying strategies—and she’s willing to make sacrifices (rushing home when it threatens to drizzle, emptying refrigerators) to preserve batches, while also sharing practical hacks for home curing in warmer climates." - Jess Eng
"In the Flatiron district, Mehta opened Baodega as a Shanghainese restaurant, part of his broader NYC restaurant portfolio." - Tanay Warerkar
"I adore the Grandma’s braised pork served on a bed of steamed bok choy with white rice on the side; it’s rich and gooey in the best way with a subtle taste of star anise and is one of Flatiron’s Shanghai catalog dishes that travels extremely well (the soup dumplings, however, do not)." - Robert Sietsema
"Punning on the Latin American corner grocery, Baodega recently opened in the Flatiron District at 7 West 20th St., and offers a Shanghai-rooted menu that also stretches into other regional Chinese cuisines. The brick-walled space has an independent Indonesian-sourced coffee shop out front, a glass-walled kitchen, and a dining room that looks into a derelict back garden that should become a pleasant accoutrement in warm weather — outdoor dining is a nice bonus. Weekday lunch specials ($12 or $15) pack a voluminous meal — soup, a large main, a big hump of rice, a side vegetable, with optional dumplings and tea — though many of those dishes read like good Cantonese carryout; grandma’s braised pork stands out there, with dark, wobbly fatty obelisks of pork belly on bok choy brightened by shaoxing wine. From the regular menu, a hot scallion pancake ($7.50) arrives flavored with bacon for extra oomph, and the lion’s head meatball stew ($18.95) presents three large, water-chestnut-studded meatballs perfumed with star anise and sweet spices. Chefs Salil Mehta and Kenny Yie shine on duck: chao mai feng ($17.95) tosses thin Singapore rice noodles with chewy duck and pickled cabbage for a pleasant sour aftertaste, while the crispy duck noodle soup ($15.95) is a generous, family-size serving of soft, fat wheat noodles and plenty of duck. I most enjoyed the Huang Feihong hot chicken ($18.95), a beguiling Chongqing-style riff with lightly breaded boneless chicken, breaded (and therefore edible) dried red chiles, spicy peanuts, and fresh green peppers. There are four kinds of Shanghai soup dumplings (pork, pork-and-crab, chicken, vegetarian); when a couple of friends and I tried the pork-only they were deflated and a bit dry, but the pork-and-crab (six for $8.95) were near perfect — thin-skinned, bulging with soup, and properly crabby. Overall, Baodega is a very serviceable spot that hits Shanghai standards while adding regional specialties; the very large, family-style entrees and casual-yet-comfortable setting make it a great place to gather with friends, and you can even have coffee and a European pastry afterward, though there’s no beer for now." - Robert Sietsema