Wow Bao image

Wow Bao

Restaurant Cafe Fast food restaurant Chinese restaurant Asian fusion restaurant Steamed bun shop

Inventive baozi (steamed, filled buns) & other Chinese dishes ordered via touch screens. People often mention good, chicken, order, bowl, noodles, baos, rice, quick,


Address

835 N Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60611, United States

Website

www.wowbao.com

Contact

+1 312-642-5888

Price rating

$ $$$

Rating on Google Maps

3.90 (453 reviews)

Open on Google Maps

Working Hours

  • Friday: 11 am to 8 pm
  • Saturday: 11 am to 8 pm
  • Sunday: 12 to 6 pm
  • Monday: 11 am to 7 pm
  • Tuesday: 11 am to 7 pm
  • Wednesday: 11 am to 7 pm
  • Thursday: 11 am to 7 pm

Featured Reviews


Frequently mentioned in reviews: good (18) chicken (15) order (11) bowl (7) noodles (6) baos (6) rice (6) quick (6)
Reviews are sorted by relevance, prioritizing the most helpful and insightful feedback at the top for easier reference.
  • 2/5 Jerry K. 2 years ago on Google
    My wife was hungry and this was the nearest restaurant. She ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Bowl with noodles. We brought it back to our hotel where my wife ate it. She thought the noodles were over cooked and didn’t enjoy the meal overall. We initially tried to order online because there was a 20% discount, but we tried and the discount didn’t appear. We opted to go order in person. The service was fast and the gentleman who served us was very nice.
    4 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 3/5 Steven M. 1 year ago on Google
    The Bao was delicious, but my main meal was disappointing. There was a lack of chicken in my bowl and the noodles had no flavor. I would recommend coming here and just getting bao, don’t waste your money on anything else.
    2 people found this review helpful 👍

  • 3/5 Don T. 2 years ago on Google
    The sign said to eat in or take food with you. Let's go ahead and clear it up now.... there is no where to sit. Pick up is your only option (not sure about delivery). I ordered a few things, the noodles are tasteless. The toppings were not really enough to even cover the water taste. The bao were good from the 2 that I bought. Employees are very nice
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 4/5 kaira 6 months ago on Google
    Not a big fan of baos, but my fiance is. He says they were good. I only liked one of their flavors. The service was good; the staff gave us two free baos since we asked about a flavor. Can't give it 5 stars since I was not fond of it that much.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 5/5 Jacque “Jacques” P. 6 years ago on Google
    If youbwant fast Asian food Wow Bao is the place to go. They have great steamed Asian dumplings with great flavours. Use the self serve kiosk for fastest service. It was very easy to use and explained the menu very well without having to interact and be put under pressure of somebody in line behind you. Get you order and find a spot to enjoy the Watertowe entrance water feature and people watch. Very busy spot.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 2/5 Alaina D. 1 year ago on Google
    Pros: I was very happy to have a gluten free bao bun and it was very yummy! Cons: The service was absolute trash. The person at the counter ignored me for several minutes before acknowledging me. She was very unpleasant when she took my order. While I was waiting for my order she was eating behind the counter and did not wash up before returning to the orders.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 1/5 Michael C. 1 year ago on Google
    Welcome to air plane food served on land. I'm in town for a few days and didn't want to go far to eat so the closes place is Wow Boa and Wow it's terrible. I knew something was bad when I show up to find little to no kitchen with this restaurant. The rice is over cooked and maybe reheated. The grain tastes like mush and came from Uncle Ben's rice. The noodle is ok but not great with the sauce lacks authenticity so the orange chicken tastes only citrusy and pretty bland. I added on 3 pot stickers for $3 and that was actually decent but not worth $3. The Boa for a 6 cost $24. It didn't tastes like $24. Also there's no place to sit, it's a carry out only unless you want to stand or sit outside and eat the dusty air. Conclusion, any Chinese restaurant that screws up on rice should probably close shop.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 5/5 Wes M. 1 year ago on Google
    I had a couple bao buns.. delicious. Wife had dumplings and she was less happy. Very quick to order via the kiosk and done quickly. Oh wife had the love potion drink and it was AWFUL.
    1 person found this review helpful 👍

  • 3/5 elise d. 3 months ago on Google New
    The mongolian beef bun was really bad. The kung pao chicken and orange chicken are okay if you are in a stitch and very hungry. I would rather get panda express if I wanted fast food chinese in the future. The thai tea is good though!

  • 5/5 Karen R. 5 months ago on Google
    Bao is really really good and food is packaged neat and they take extra care in making sure nothing spills or gets out. Boba is really good and so is the fried rice. 10/10

  • 3/5 Adriana A. 5 months ago on Google
    This asian fast food place was good as a quick meal fix while browsing the stores at this mall. The rice didn't have a lot of flavor to it but the baos were nice. Their hibiscus tea is really really tasty though. I liked that they had a little screen display where you could choose your order and pay for it. Unfortunately they dont have seats near the store but you can visit the food court on the next floor and eat your food there.

  • 4/5 LB C. 7 months ago on Google
    Snagged a mid-day snack on the way out. Thrilled we could get a 4-pack assortment! Spicy Mongolian beef, chicken teriyaki, cheeseburger, Thai green curry chicken. I loved how they labeled them individually; the paper on the bottom had the name. For the price, they were good. Hands-down, everyone preferred the chicken teriyaki. I was the only one to like the cheeseburger. Loved the automatic ordering process.

  • 5/5 Jerry The Pigeon And Mike L. 4 months ago on Google
    Fast, efficient and always friendly.. this might be my favorite Wow Bao location. Demeon and Cisco are 🔥!! They go above and beyond! I give this location 5⭐️ Jerry (the pigeon) gives it 5⭐️ Follow #JerryThePigeon in insta for more food recommendations. ❤️

  • 5/5 Samruddhi K. 1 year ago on Google
    Great place for a quick bite, lots of options to select from. Few vegetarian options are also available. Service is quick, the express kiosks are a bit difficult to navigate. I tried the whole wheat vegetable bao, it was good.

  • 2/5 clarisse c. 8 months ago on Google
    Their Baos have been steaming all day and are mushy. The thai chicken filling looked and tasted like regurgutated baby food. Their flavors are all mixed up confusing fusion of Thai and Chinese. Worst Asian food in Chicago.

  • 5/5 it_is_me B. 1 year ago on Google
    just visiting chicago and we saw this place inside the mall and decided to try. It taste good and it is a wow indeed.

  • 1/5 Sarah T. 1 year ago on Google
    I ordered the citrus chicken bowl with noodles and it was not good. It reminded me of those microwave Chinese dishes you get in the frozen section of the grocery store. Service was fine and the employees were nice, but that did not redeem the food. After reading the other reviews, maybe I should have just ordered the baos.

  • 4/5 Inga J. 1 year ago on Google
    The baos were really good! I tried 4: Mongolian beef, BBQ, coconut custard and teriyaki. The beef and coconut ones were soo yummy, the other two were pretty good too. Small place with no seating area but you can take them upstairs and find a place to sit.

  • 2/5 Jake H. 1 year ago on Google
    Got the orange chicken bowl with 2 bao. Service was fine 👌. Food was pretty meh. Not gross, but I wanted to stop eating about halfway through. Just wasn’t interested anymore. Thought the bar would redeem the bowl, but to no avail 😩. Maybe my hopes were too high

  • 2/5 Clay K. 1 year ago on Google
    We were in the area and needed a quick snack in between stops. I had seen the advertisements for this stand all over the city, so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the orange chicken bowl and bao combo meal along with a tea. The bao was actually pretty good, although you really need several per person to have a good snack. The orange chicken bowl, however, was terrible. The noodles were soggy, there was hardly any chicken, and the flavor was super watered down. It probably would have been better to just order more bao and skip on the bowl, because it was far below even a Panda Express level of quality despite being more expensive. I would probably skip out on this place in the future, though, because there are plenty of other options nearby.

  • 5/5 ZYD .. 2 years ago on Google
    First time I order from there and I was passing by I stopped because of the amazing smell , I order every type of Bao and let me tell you I been eating this almost daily (order from Uber Eats) Don't miss it Add hot sauce to it to make it even better 😉

  • 5/5 Julie M. 2 years ago on Google
    Noodles was so tasty and price was good!

  • 2/5 Gabrielle P. 2 years ago on Google
    So for my lunch break I went to this location around 430 ish and I got two bao and some dumplings and a ginger lemonade. I remember hearing the person saying that the dumping were still a little frozen so she steamed them for a little longer. During lunch I notice that the dumplings were not all the cooked through and the baos I had were barley warm. So now in the 9pm hour I started to feel nauseated I knew it was what I had. I like this place but I'm disappointed that my food at least was not cooked all way the way through. For future reference just make sure things are DONE COMPLETELY before handing it to a customer.

  • 4/5 Joe C. 2 years ago on Google
    Love coming here when in Chicago. Usually quick service and friendly staff. Such a shame they don’t have the Thai chicken boa anymore. The teriyaki is now my favourite. The kung pao was also decent but could use more flavour. The spicy beef was a bit salty. Love the bone broth soup. Shame the seating inside is gone but I’m guessing that’s the typical COVID reason.

  • 5/5 Aminah S. 2 years ago on Google
    This was my first time trying Wow Bao. I must say it was very good I had the teriyaki chicken with Jasmine rice, vegetarian dumplings, and a gingerlemonade. Everything was very good!!!


Call +1 312-642-5888 Open on Google Maps

Amenities


  • Payments
    • ✓️ Debit cards
    • ✓️ Credit cards
    • ✓️ NFC mobile payments
  • Offerings
    • ✓️ Quick bite
    • ✓️ Comfort food
    • ✓️ Small plates
    • ✓️ Healthy options
    • ✓️ Vegetarian options
  • Popular for
    • ✓️ Lunch
    • ✓️ Dinner
    • ✓️ Solo dining
  • Accessibility
    • ✓️ Wheelchair-accessible entrance
  • Dining options
    • ✓️ Lunch
    • ✓️ Dinner
    • ✓️ Dessert
    • ✓️ Seating
    • ✓️ Catering
    • ✓️ Breakfast
  • Service options
    • ✓️ Dine-in
    • ✓️ Delivery
    • ✓️ Takeaway
    • ✓️ No-contact delivery

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