Baodega

Summary

This little spot closed to the edge of Flatiron is a decent place if you’re into Shanghainese food and are not close to Chinatown.

The passion fruit lemonade was good. You can taste the passion fruit, and it mixed well with the lemonade.

The chilled marinated cucumbers were also good too although I felt the cucumbers were not marinated long enough. They were crunchy with an OK kick to them.

The Grandma’s soup dumplings were good. The skin is a little thicker than other places, but it still tasted good. The soup has some pretty good flavors in it, but I just wish they served more. They do also serve a side of black vinegar with ginger, so it’s pretty decent for this area.

Lastly, the braised beef noodle soup was actually fairly decent. The broth was soy sauce based, and it came with bok choy and various parts of the stew meat including tendon. The one caveat is you can tell the meat wasn’t really braised for a long time because it was very chewy and lacked much tenderness. The tendons themselves were all very chew and crispy in a not so great way. Again, it’s a sign that they weren’t properly braised for a long period of time. The noodles were good too. They were the flat consistency, but just slightly overcooked. All in all, this reminded me of home, although not as good. Tip: take some of the black vinegar from the soup dumplings and pour it into this broth for more flavor.

I felt service was prompt, and the food in general was all pretty decent.

Final Verdict

I would come back if I was craving Shanghainese in Flatiron. Otherwise, go to East Village or Chinatown in Manhattan.

Yelp Jabs

Mealpal Review

Although this Elitist gave a positive review, I feel these reviews simply don’t belong. Reviewing a takeout order just doesn’t help much when deciding on a restaurant. Even the best restaurants in NYC have misses on their takeout and deliveries.

The braised beef noodle soup was full of cartilage, with strange cuts of meat.

This Elitist apparently doesn’t know much about beef noodle soup.

This review is for the customer service and for mealpal.

Maybe Mealpal should have a review section for this kind of trash.

The free snack was AMAZING! It’s fried dumpling skin and I literally couldn’t stop eating it!

They serve this kind of stuff at many Chinese restaurants. Although, now I’m sad that I wasn’t served this in my experience dining there.