Da Bao 打包 @ City Centre, Kuala Lumpur

Address: 145, Jalan Petaling, City Centre, 50000 Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur

Hours: 

Monday	Closed
Tuesday	12–3pm, 6–10pm
Wednesday	12–3pm, 6–10pm
Thursday	12–3pm, 6–10pm
Friday	12–3pm, 6–10pm
Saturday	12–3pm, 6–10pm
Sunday	12–3pm, 6–10pm

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Da Bao is the da bomb: This is the modern mantou maker we've been waiting for in KL, stuffing steamed buns with beautiful ensembles of intriguing ingredients, yielding sumptuously rich, satisfyingly nuanced Asian flavours.

We visited Da Bao Restobar today. The two of us have been in the area since 10 am – had to walk around Chinatown for a bit, in the look out for some souvenirs for an upcoming event end of this month. By the time it hit noon, we were exhausted from all the walking around and decided that it would be best to go ‘makan’. It hasn’t been long since we last visited the area but it seemed like several eateries has popped up since , one of it being Da Bao.

Pork Bao, 15 ringgit + Soft Shell Crab Bao, 15 ringgit

As its name suggest the specialty/main offering here is Bao/steamed buns. There are 6 available options with the most popular being Pork and Soft Shell Crab bao, which was what we decided to go for.

The latest opening in Petaling Street is well-deserving of the hype. Da Bao is a funky Chinese restaurant and bar with a lively, contemporary setting just down from Four Points by Sheraton Kuala Lumpur, Chinatown.

Offering two levels and two entrances, you can enter via Jalan Petaling just up from Hawker Chan or via the back door from Kwai Chai Hong Lane. The bottom floor has an open kitchen and it’s fun to watch the bao pounded and steamed in bamboo baskets. Upstairs has more of a cocktail bar vibe with lively music and the sound of shakers whipping up cocktails all night long. It’s a happy place.

The hits keep on coming with seafood: Beer-battered perch fillet is fresh and flaky, fabulously in sync with herb-infused tartar sauce, tobiko and a citrus salad, while soft-shell crab demands sinking your teeth into, with crowd-pleasing chilli crab sauce, pickled acar, salted egg yolk and deep-fried curry leaves.

Da Bao's founders and culinary team have successfully honed their craft both in Malaysia and abroad for much of the past decade, with a head chef who spent years working in restaurants in New York and Florida, never losing touch with his Asian roots (as Da Bao's offerings prove). Each bao is assembled to order, so while our orders took longer than expected to emerge, the wait was worthwhile, showcasing a sense of skilled, confident cooking.

Quality also seems prized here - the sole dessert is the the matcha bao, a fried bun sandwiched with a scoop of ice cream with a pleasing, understated umami that elevates it above the conventional green tea ice cream (RM14).