Mesa Chinese restaurant serves handmade bao, dumplings and noodles
MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — If you’re craving handmade and authentic Chinese food with flavor that will put a smile on your face, one Mesa restaurant is the place to be.
Happy Bao opened six years ago at the Mekong Plaza in Mesa near Main Street and Dobson Road.
The family-owned restaurant serves tasty handmade bao, dumplings, noodles, and traditional Chinese cuisine.
Owner Matthew Ma says the recipes at Happy Bao are from his grandparents, who decided to modernize them and share them with Arizona.
“Now that Arizona has become more culturally diverse and more people are open to trying new things, we decided to open up this shop and kind of just specialize in our niche, which is handmade noodles, dumplings and bao,” said Ma.
Bao can be translated to ‘bun,’ and Happy Bao offers different variations.
Bao typically has a thicker, fluffier skin, while dumplings have a heavier, less fluffy skin. Bao can be steamed, fried or served with broth inside.
Happy Bao makes the dough and filling in the prep kitchen, where each bao and dumpling is wrapped by hand.
Some popular items at Happy Bao are pan-fried bao’s, which are bao’s with meat fillings like chicken, pork, or shrimp fried on the bottom for a crispier bun. Another popular item is the Xian Long Bao, or the soup dumpling.
Ma says there is a specific way to eat and enjoy the soup dumpling.
First, carefully pick up the bao with your chopsticks and place it in your soup spoon. You can dip it in vinegar or add ginger if you like. Then, use your chopstick to poke a small hole to break the skin; this allows the soup to flow into the spoon.
Next, slurp up the soup and finish the bao by eating it in one bite.
Bao is not just a savory dish. Happy Bao also serves dessert bao with custard or taro filling.
Another popular item at Happy Bao is its handmade noodles. The noodles are evenly cut and very soft, absorbing the sauce they are served with. Happy Bao has a variety of noodle dishes like the beef chow fun, dan dan noodles, which is a spicy noodle dish, and the pork 100 noodle soup.
Happy Bao also has fried rice, various appetizers and vegetarian dishes on the menu.
The restaurant has grown a following on social media for its niche of making bao and the upward trend in the popularity of dumplings.
“The public has responded to how much love we put into our food,” says Ma.
In the future, Ma says Happy Bao will soon offer chocolate bao and merchandise to share with the public.
“We share the culture behind the food as well and then the traditions in it as well. So, I think that’s what really sets us apart,” said Ma.
Happy Bao
66 S Dobson Rd, Ste 112, Mesa, AZ 85202Location:
Hours:
- Monday-Thursday: 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
- Friday-Sundayy: 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
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