By Drunken Noms 
Special to The Post

I’ve been meaning to try the Gastown location ever since it opened. I was excited to see how this new menu fared.
We started with an order of the Spring Rolls which came served with two baos, a thai chili sauce, and a spicy chili sauce. The rice wrappers were blistered and crunchy, and gave way easily to the soft center. I wasn’t a big fan of the filling. Despite the fact that we could see vermicelli noodles and veggies, it tasted almost like canned tuna, which was a little off putting.
For my main I ordered a Massaman curry featuring chicken, crispy shallots, birds eye chili, and basil. This is a thai curry that is an interpretation of a Persian dish. It has a very different flavour profile from your typical yellow, red, or green curry. It’s made with a broth, coconut milk, and peanut base, and in this case was relatively thick. Flavour-wise it was quite sweet and heavy on the peanut. I didn’t detect almost any heat, which I felt it needed to counteract the sweet base. The best part was the almost half chicken which was charcoal grilled giving it a light smokiness and nice crisp skin. It was so moist and juicy. I’m tempted to order it again.
The Halibut Yellow Curry featuring potatoes, bird’s eye chili, and basil was really good. It had a really nice heat to it which was balanced nicely by the light sweetness of the coconut milk. The halibut was also gorgeously cooked. It was super tender and flaky.
Even though this new location was completely different from the original Gastown location, it was still pretty good; we left stuffed. I’m still curious to try the bao sandwiches that they’re known for.

Bao Down Gastropub & Raw Bar
115 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC

Drunken Noms is composed of two bloggers 'Drunken Master' and 'Food Wench'.  – www.drunkennoms.com