BAO

Dim sum on Valencia, made in the window an hour before it reaches the table.

590 Valencia Street at 17th

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Address

590 Valencia Street at 17th, San Francisco

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Cuisine

Dim sum and Chinese small plates

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Our Visits

Six since July 2025

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Booking

No reservations. Go early or wait

Twenty Minutes After It Opens

We arrived at ten to six, twenty minutes into dinner service, and the room was still empty. That is the only reason the photographs here show a dining room with nobody in it. By half past seven every table was taken and the parklet was full, which is what a Monday evening on Valencia actually looks like and what we have found on the other five visits since July 2025. The empty room is a photographer's hour, not the restaurant.

The Kitchen Is in the Window

The dough is laminated, rolled and cut in the street-facing window, and the dumplings are pleated by hand a few feet from where they are eaten. You can stand on the pavement and watch it happen. The xiao long bao lined up on the bench in front of the steamer stacks at six o'clock were in a basket on our table an hour later.

What We Ate

Six savoury dishes and two sweet, between two of us. Xiao long bao with red vinegar, shumai built around whole prawns, pot stickers joined in one lace sheet, bao marked with black sesame so you know which is which. The sweet bao come as a set of four shaped like animals. Nothing here arrives in courses; it arrives when it is ready.

The Other Half of the Menu

The dim sum comes on a paper sheet you tick with a pencil. The rest of the menu is a separate card, and it is a whole other restaurant: lettuce wraps and salt and pepper squid, sesame chicken and Mongolian beef, Shanghai fried noodles, four kinds of fried rice. There is a sake list longer than most Japanese places carry, plum wine by the glass and five teas. We have never ordered any of it. Six visits and we have gone straight to the pencil and the sheet every time, which is either loyalty or a failure of curiosity depending on how you look at it. It is there if you want it and we cannot tell you a thing about it.

The kitchen

The Kitchen

The dough is rolled and the dumplings pleated in the street-facing window, hours before anyone eats them.

Floured hands rolling a sheet of pale dough into a log on a wooden kitchen bench — **Rolling the Dough**A sheet of laminated dough being rolled into a log on the floured bench, in the window where anyone on the pavement can watch.

Row of freshly pleated raw xiao long bao on a bench in front of metal steamer stacks — **Xiao Long Bao, Waiting**Xiao long bao pleated and lined up on the bench in front of the steamer stacks, waiting to go in.

Open metal steamers of white bao against a yellow tiled kitchen wall — **The Steamers**Steamers open against the yellow tile at the back of the kitchen. The wall calendar and the bag hanging beside it are part of the working day.

Tray of hand pleated raw dumplings arranged in rows on a metal kitchen tray — **Pleated by Hand**Dumplings pleated by hand and set out in rows. Each one is folded shut in a few seconds and there are hundreds across a service.

Small plates

Small Plates

Six savoury dishes between two people, arriving as they were ready rather than in courses.

Six Shanghai xiao long bao in a bamboo steamer beside a dish of red vinegar — **Shanghai Xiao Long Bao**Shanghai Xiao Long Bao, six to the basket, with red vinegar alongside. The same dumplings were being pleated in the window an hour earlier.

Four whole shrimp shumai topped with orange roe in a bamboo steamer basket — **Whole Shrimp Shumai**Steamed Whole Shrimp Shumai, four of them, each built around a single whole prawn and finished with roe.

Steamed white bao marked with black sesame seeds, close up in a bamboo basket — **Steamed Kimchi Beef Bao**Steamed Kimchi Beef Bao, marked with black sesame so they are not confused with anything else in the basket. Kimchi, beef and onion inside.

Five pan fried pot stickers joined by a crisp lace skirt on a long white plate — **Kimchi Beef Pot Stickers**Pan Fried Kimchi Beef Pot Sticker, five of them joined by one lace skirt that comes out of the pan in a single sheet.

Three baked BBQ pork bao with crackled golden tops on a long white plate — **Baked BBQ Pork Bao**Baked BBQ Pork Bao, three with a crackled golden top. The same filling as the puff in a different pastry, which is why both are on the menu.

Two sesame topped baked BBQ pork puffs on a white oval plate — **Baked BBQ Pork Puff**Baked BBQ Pork Puff, two pieces of puff pastry under sesame seeds, filled with pork, onion and hawthorn sauce.

The sweet ones

The Sweet Ones

Two sweet dishes, both of which arrive looking like something other than dessert.

Two bamboo steamers of sweet bao shaped as animals and characters — **Sweet Bao Specials**Sweet Bao Specials arrive as a set of four, shaped as animals and characters. Sesame, egg custard, lava and red bean, one of each.

Three swan shaped pastry puffs in paper cases on a white serving dish — **Swan Puff**Swan Puff, three of them, layered pastry with a piped neck and mango custard inside.

The table

The Table

What is in front of you before the food is.

Place setting with a dish of chilli oil, a lidded ceramic cup and chopsticks on wood — **The Place Setting**Chilli oil, a lidded cup and chopsticks, set before anything arrives. The chilli oil comes to the table whether you ask for it or not.

Close view of a lit woven cane pendant lamp below a dark fretwork ceiling — **The Cane Pendants**One of the cane pendants lit from inside, against the fretwork ceiling. There are dozens of them and no two hang at the same height.

The room

The Room

Photographed at twenty past five, before the first other customer came in.

Orange Bao restaurant sign with a fretwork border seen from below against the building — **The Sign**The sign reads Bao, Dumpling and Chinese Cuisine, in orange inside a fretwork border. It is the one thing on this stretch of Valencia you can read from a block away.

Empty Bao dining room with woven cane pendant lamps and carved wooden wall medallions — **The Dining Room**Woven cane pendants hang the length of the room under a black ceiling grid, with carved medallions on the wall. Nobody had sat down yet.

Long painted plum blossom panel on the dining room wall beneath cane pendant lamps — **The Blossom Panel**A long painted panel of plum blossom runs along the wall beside the tables. The room reads as one composition rather than a set of separate decorations.

Bao outdoor parklet seating under a tree with Victorian houses across Valencia Street — **The Parklet**The parklet sits under a plane tree on the pavement, facing the Victorians across Valencia. It fills before the room does on a warm evening.

No reservations, so arrive within the first half hour of service. At ten to six on a Monday we walked straight in
Stand at the window before you go in. The dough and the dumplings are worked in full view from the pavement
The chilli oil comes to the table whether you ask for it or not. Use it
The parklet is under a plane tree and fills before the room does on a warm evening
If the sheet is daunting, the restaurant puts a picture menu on baovalencia.com. Sixty lines of pencil ticks is a lot to face cold

Frequently Asked Questions

Do they take reservations?

No. Arrive inside the first half hour of service and you will walk in; later than that and you wait on Valencia.

What is xiao long bao?

A soup dumpling. Pleated shut around filling and jellied stock that melts to broth in the steamer, so it arrives full of liquid. Six to the basket here, with red vinegar alongside.

What are the Sweet Bao Specials?

A set of four steamed sweet buns shaped as animals and characters, one each of sesame, egg custard, lava and red bean. Which shape holds which filling is not something we could tell from the outside.

Is there outdoor seating?

Yes, a parklet on the pavement under a plane tree, facing the Victorians across the street. It fills before the dining room does.

Is BAO only dim sum?

No. The dim sum sheet runs to about sixty items across bao, steamed, pan fried, boiled, deep fried, baked and dessert, but there is a second menu of small plates, wok dishes, fried noodles and fried rice, and a long drinks list built around sake. We order from the sheet every time, so everything we can tell you about is on it.

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BAO