Super Bao started off as a food stall around the Canberra markets scene, and have now opened its own shop in Dickson. My foodie friends and I went to check it out one night.
We spotted a mocktail carafe on the drinks menu, and ordered the strawberry fauxito carafe. Tasty but with all the ice, it only made about 4 glasses.
Of course, we had to try a bao. We considered the Super Bao sharing plate as it seemed better value for money ($30 for 4 baos) and came with fried chicken, calamari, eggplant, onion and some greens. We all wanted other fillings so we decided to order the individual baos instead. Three Shanghai duck baos ($7.50 each) and one braised pork belly bao ($7.50). The duck bao came with some shredded duck meat and a whole heap of shredded carrot. In all honesty, I didn’t think the duck to carrot ratio was good enough to call it a duck bao, rather it was a carrot bao with some duck. And an expensive one at that.
On the other hand, my friend who had the pork belly bao loved the melt-in-your-mouth pork and was happily paid another $7.50 for a second one. Perhaps I will try that one next time.
We ordered the lobster spring rolls ($7 each) stuffed with lobster, mushroom mozzarella cheese and served with a miso beurre blanc (French butter sauce). We couldn’t taste any actual lobster which was disappointing and expensive. But cheesy hot spring rolls are tasty, especially when dipped in the beurre blanc.
We ordered some lamb and chicken skewers ($3 each). The chargrilled cumin lamb was well seasoned and my favourite of the two. The chargrilled teriyaki chicken thigh and spring onion skewers were tender with a lot of sauce basted on.
The beef tataki ($14) was a rare eye fillet with sliced onion and house made ponzu sauce.
The half serve of sticky fried chicken ($16) was a Sichuan pepper infused fried chicken covered in a sticky sweet and sour sauce. It actually wasn’t too spicy, but very saucy with a smothering of sweet and sour sauce. Perhaps we took too long taking photos, but the fried chicken had gone soft and lost its crunch.
The braised pork rice was my favourite dish of the night. At only $12, it comes with slow cooked pork, steamed rice and pickled radish. The stewed pork was so delicious, rich and full of flavour. I haven’t had one this nice since Taipei. I could easily order this bowl again and have it all to myself.
The beef noodle ($16) came with a slow braised beef brisket, with a sautéed garlic pickle topping. The soup was very spicy and numbed my lips. The dish was too spicy for me but there seemed to be a decent amount of noodles in the dish, with a small portion of beef.
There was only one item for dessert – the Oreo ice cream bao ($7), and we ordered four of them. This was a great end to the night. The bao had been fried and came served with a scoop of cookies and cream ice cream, with some caramel sauce over the top. It was quiet for a little while as we all enjoyed our dessert.
Staff came out with a bottle of Saito Shuzo liqueur and let us have a sip. I tried it and it was actually pretty nice! We also got to attempt the chopstick game – if you can balance chopsticks in a ‘T’ shape on the table, you get a free shot. This is harder than it looks.
Some other dishes I would like to try include the baoger
Service was friendly and staff asked if we had dined in before. When we said it was our first time, the menu was explained to us. It didn’t take long for the food to arrive and we all enjoyed ourselves. There was no pressure to leave the eatery and we could take our time. I liked that we were introduced to the chopstick game – something fun to do to finish off the night.
Super Bao
6 Cape Street, Dickson, Canberra
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday: 12.00pm – 2.30pm; 5.30pm – 9.00pm
Saturday – Sunday: 12.00pm – 3.00pm; 5.00pm – 9.00pm
Foodgasm: 7.5/10
Value for money: 7/10
Service: 8/10
FPJ score: 22.5/30
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