Man did Bafang Dumpling generate lot of buzz when they opened at the end of December. Folks that I know who went talked about crazy lines and 30-40 waits for food. Funny thing, we thought about checking out Bafang during our trip to Taiwan, but things never worked out. We even had considered going to the City of Industry location, but ended up having not so great guotie and XLB at Jiou Chou Dumplings instead.
But now it was nearing the end of January and the rain has left San Diego a soggy mess, Bafang opens at 10am, and it was Monday. Sounded like a good time to see if the place wasn't too crazy, so I drove on over with a plan B (turo turo) just in case. I needn't have worried.
As the nice young lady opened the door telling me; "welcome, you're the first customer of the day".
Bafang is one of those fast-casual places, you order at the counter, pay, and are given a buzzer which will go off when your order is ready for pick up at the counter.
My coworker "CY" whose family is from Taiwan went to Bafang when they first opened (of course), I didn't want him to tell me what he thought of the food, so the only advice he gave me was "make sure to visit the sauce bar, it will come in handy".
Well, since I had ordered guotie and jiaozi black vinegar was a must. I also got the chili sauce and the garlic sauce.
Waiting for my order I had a little taste of each sauce, all of which I thought was terrible. The black vinegar tasted watered down, the garlic sauce had very little garlic flavor, at least to me and was overly sweet, and the chili sauce was quite weak as well. Before I had time to really wonder if this was an omen of what my meal was going to be like, the buzzer and bright lights went off.
One thing I did appreciate about Bafang was the ability to do half orders of pot stickers and dumplings, which meant I could try both without stuffing myself silly.
Because it is usually pan fried, I went for the guotie ($5.75 for 6) first.
Looking at the dumplings gave me pause. Look at the color; it's very "light", and as I thought, these hadn't been fried long enough and were hard and chewy, rather than crisp. The tops should be somewhat pliant with a slight pull to it. These were a bit on the brittle side. The filling was decently seasoned, but had too much napa cabbage for my taste.
Not very good.
One thing I really loved in Taiwan were the pork chops; like the Missus said, "In Taiwan you never met a pork chop you didn't like". So, of course I had to try the pork chop ($8).
These looked pretty good; but it was really chewy. While it had some five spice flavor to it; it needed more white pepper and salt.
It wasn't particularly crisp either.
Looking at the jiaozi ($5.75 for 6), I shook my head. I really looked like it came out of a bag pulled from the freezer.
This was pretty bad; the "skin" was hard and brittle. The filling seemed to be half cabbage, the pork mealy, dry, and was quite tasteless.
This wins the award for the worst jiaozi I've had in ages. I left shaking my head and thinking, "this is like college food court cuisine" and I'm probably not the target audience for this. Still, I needed to give the place another try. Another rainy Wednesday, meant another opportunity to not have to deal with crowds.
This time I went with the Niu Rou Mian (Beef noodle soup $16.75) and also the Spicy Fried Chicken ($8).
When I was summoned to the counter to pick my order up I was surprised at how large that bowl of NRM was! It took up an entire tray!
So, I hunkered down and took a sip of the broth and shook my head. It was really thin, lacking in beefiness, with just a hint of metallic-anise tones. It was in need of more richness. At least it wasn't salty….but on second thought it could have used more sodium and white pepper.
The hunks of meat and daikon were huge. This meant the meat was on the drier and tougher side and lacking in flavor. The hunks of daikon had retained its flavor but were not cooked all the way thru.
The noodles were overcooked, mushy, and lacking in the springiness….in other words, instead of "QQ", this was more like "DoDo"…..
Though if you're more into portion size, this might be the dish for you.
I was ready to be let down by the Spicy Fried Chicken ($8), but it ended up being the best item I had during my visits.
I would skip the "chili sauce" which wasn't particularly spicy, just kinda oily.
The coating of the chicken was crunchy and there was enough white pepper and savory seasoning on this. Hallelujah!
The chicken was on the tougher side but was adequately moist.
Well, that made one-out-of-five here. This kinda makes me think there must be a huge difference between Bafang here and in Taiwan, right? I read that Bafang has almost a thousand locations in Taiwan.
This sign made me laugh.
In my mind it didn't stand for Bafang Dumplings; I would use another word that starts with "B". But of course, that's just me. In all honesty, because Bafang opens at 10, I was hoping this would be a good place to add to my rotation, but as it is now, it's going to be a while before I return, if ever.
I'm hoping your visits to Bafang were better than mine; please tell me about them.
You can read Soo's post on Bafang here!
Bafang Dumplings
9690 Reagan Rd.
San Diego, CA 92126
Hours:
Daily 10am – 10pm
Man, this was a nice surprise. The pork was tender, not overly fatty, and braised well. Mei Cai Kou Rou can be overly sweet, but this was nicely balanced, good salty-savory-ginger-anise-sweet balance. It was also not overly greasy and we could taste the preserved vegetable, which added pleasant sour notes, and a slightly crunchy texture to the dish. This also had julienned napa cabbage, which one could complain is filler, but it added a hint of sweetness and a nice contrast in texture. This dish got the Missus to exclaim, "when we're done with the roast duck exploration, let's do Mei Cai Kou Rou!" Be still my arteries!
The yeasty, standard Amoroso roll stood up well. The meat was decently shaved, fairly tender, moist, and beefy, the mushrooms earthy, and the white American cheese added a complimentary, not overwhelming milky gooeyness to the sandwich.
Before returning to our table, right below the statue of "Lucifer". We had already placed our order. Our Server, Jacob was amazing, he encouraged us to check things out. Though I kinda wonder about working with all of this around you! The place was quite quiet, and to be perfectly honest, kinda spooky, before the crowds descended on the place.
I didn't care for the fries which quickly got limp and were over salted. 
