Q Bao, Cathays, Cardiff restaurant review

Q Bao in Cardiff’s Cathays area certainly lives up to its name. When we visited at 2pm on a Saturday lunchtime it was pretty much a full house and we had to briefly queue up to get our bao hit. 

With a menu focused on Chinese cooking with a few Japanese, Hawaiian and Thai influences thrown into the mix, there’s a lot on the menu which caught my eye. 

Processing from the kitchen we saw chilli oil laced bowls of noodle soup, crisp plates of battered squid, chicken katsu curries and claypot stews with rice.

As the restaurant’s name incorporates bao, it would have been rude not to put some to the test.

A five spiced pork bao (£4.80) was generously stuffed with warming-spiced tender shreds of pork. It was made with a flatbread with a crisp-exterior, which was reminiscent of a toasted pitta bread. Whilst it was tasty, I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan of the more ubiquitous soft steamed Taiwanese bao.

Better were a portion of mini steamed pork bao (£9.80) which were anything but mini. The huge portion of soft steamed dumplings were stuffed with pork and spring onion patties, which were nicely balanced by a bowl of dipping vinegar.

The star of our lunch was a dish that had caught my eye on someone else’s table, which didn’t appear on the English menu but rather a separate Chinese menu. Wide slippery noodles were coated in a belting chilli oil with plenty of heat, a citrusy zing and a lip tingling hit of Sichuan peppercorn. Nuggets of slow-braised beef, coriander and spring onion completed the excellent bowl of noodles.

We had a really tasty lunch at Q Bao. With so many more dishes on the menu to work my way through, I’m sure I’ll be back soon. 

The Details:

Address - Q Bao, 90 Salisbury Rd, Cardiff CF24 4AE