CLT Eats – A Charlotte Restaurant Review

Table with Bar in the background

Quality and Chinese food unfortunately don’t come together very often here in Charlotte. Most of the time you find small take out places that are pretty formulaic and stick to cheap ingredients. On occasion some of these establishments scale up to include seating or even attempt to pose as gin-u-wine restaurants! I’m happy to announce (in case you didn’t already know) that Baoding is an exception to that rule and may very well be the best Chinese restaurant in town. The only notable exception coming to mind being it’s sister restaurant Jo Jo China Bistro which is of similar caliber.

The menu is Americanized quite a bit so if you’re looking for an authentic experience you’ve come to the wrong place. However, you may have a little trouble understanding the staff since they all are of Asian descent and English is obviously not their first language. They’re always friendly and service is always top notch even if I can’t quite make out the answer to my question.

Lunch at Baoding is high quality on a budget. Dinner prices are a good bit steeper but at lunch you get a well-rounded meal, with beautiful presentation for around $8. I splurged on shrimp in garlic sauce with fried wontons in place of the typical spring roll and also opted for the hot and sour soup as an appetizer. This plus sweat tea and a tip set me back around $15 which is still quite the bargain in my book for the quality you get.

The atmosphere is a bit posh but not over the top and the crowd is typically business casual. You can get in and out fairly quickly most of the time and despite it being packed there often isn’t a wait.

Pros

• Excellent Service
• Excellent Food
• Excellent Bang for the Buck

Cons

• Occasionally missing the duck sauce packets and that weird sweet red sauce they have in bowls sitting on the table at the lesser establishments

Rating: Recommended