The Bao

"This St. Marks institution serves a menu full of Szechuan, Hunan, Cantonese, and Taiwanese specialty dishes. But your focus for snacking should be the xiao long bao with delicate, nearly-translucent skin and a loose, light-brothed center. Our favorites are the pork and the pork-and-crab varieties, both of which have a meatiness that nicely contrasts the thin broth. You can call ahead and order them starting at 11:30am every day, and you should eat these soup dumplings quickly on your stoop before you climb five stories to your apartment since they’re best hot." - hannah albertine

"Beyond the Bao’s “near-perfect” classic pork-filled pouches, there are also ones filled with spicy pork, shrimp, chicken, and a dubious chocolate and banana mixture. The East Village Chinese restaurant is a spin-off of Flushing’s Kung Fu Xiao Long Bao, serving a further menu of dim sum, Sichuan dishes, Cantonese classics such as beef and broccoli, and other dishes from Hunan and beyond." - Robert Sietsema

"This St. Marks institution serves a menu full of Sichuan, Hunan, Cantonese, and Taiwanese specialty dishes. But your focus should be the namesake xiao long bao with nearly translucent skin and a loose, light-brothed center. The pork and spicy wasabi pork varieties (with a thinner skin and a bit less soup than what you’d find at other Chinatown faves) both have an extra savory meatiness that nicely contrasts the light broth. If you’re looking to expand beyond the classics, The Bao offers a whole variety of soup dumpling flavors, like “super spicy xiao long bao,” salted egg yolk, a semi-sweet black sesame, and one filled with pork and black truffle." - hannah albertine, nikko duren, carlo mantuano, molly fitzpatrick

"The Bao makes some of best soup dumplings in Manhattan, and they’re available for delivery and takeout." - hannah albertine, nikko duren, bryan kim, arden shore, matt tervooren

"When you want late night dumplings, you could defrost the Trader Joe’s ones that you forgot are behind the stack of Ben & Jerry’s in your freezer, or you could order delivery from The Bao in the East Village. Besides the dumplings (they offer vegetarian and meat, and steamed and pan-fried varieties), you should get some spicy wontons or pan-fried noodles with beef." - bryan kim, matt tervooren