Mr. Bao, a Brooklyn-based restaurant known for its handcrafted dumplings and rice bowls, is looking to open its first Manhattan outpost.
The “Asian kitchen” currently has outposts in Park Slope and Williamsburg, however, the team has submitted an application to open up shop at 14 Elizabeth Street in Chinatown. Its current menu offers chef specials including prawn with thai basil and szechuan sweet and sour chicken, soup dumplings, handmade dumplings, gua bao, homemade dim sum, rice and noodles, rice bowls and an array of drinks, including sake and soju.
The restaurant also offers a special happy hour menu with cocktails ranging from their very berry mojito to their sake/soju bomb for $7 and beer for $3, as well as a food menu ranging from crispy tofu to veggie spring rolls for $3-$6.
“I love their soup dumplings,” one customer testimonial reads. “I am so glad I found a place in Park Slope that sells good dumplings. I finally don’t have to go all the way to Flushing to enjoy some quality Asian good.”
In the 1970s, Tawaniane immigrants established a foothold in Flushing, Queens. Downtown Flushing is still home to Chinatown, filled with Asian bakeries and speciality stores, billed by the New York Times as a place “where Asian culture thrives.”
Mr. Bao is one of a handful of small outer-borough Asian chains such as Nan Xiang that has brought their specialty cuisine to Manhattan.
