The recently opened Baoshi Food Hall is the epitome of destination dining.
Located in a nondescript mall at the intersection of Pines Blvd. and University Dr., it is well worth the trek. When the founder of Marquess, the Asian fine dining restaurant previously at this location, retired, their son, Filbert “Fil” Ip, kept the building but reimagined it for today’s generation. It is something you might expect to see in a trendier neighborhood such as Wynwood or the MASS District. There are five restaurants in Baoshi, each offering a distinct style of Asian cuisine.
Gold Marquess, the original restaurant at this location is still evident serving up a select menu of authentic Chinese cuisine and dim sum.
Gangnam Chikn serves up crispy and savory Korean fried chicken and wings, as well as several interesting side dishes such as sweet potato bean thread noodle salad.
Poke OG is a chef-driven concept using local ingredients to create tasty poke and sushi.
Temple Street Eatery, like the Fort Lauderdale location, offers Asian comfort food fused with other cultures, such as edamame falafel.
Boba Street Café offers the drinks you’d expect, but also dishes up waffles infused with boba pearls, ice cream treats, and western cakes and pastries.
For seating, you can choose inside, surrounded by all the restaurants and the action (and a live DJ who plays at a reasonable level), or go for quieter seating outside in the Zen Den, front patio, or bar patio (where smoking is allowed). The bar and lounge areas are for kicking back with craft cocktails, beer, wine, or sake while watching sports on one of the bar’s flat screens.
It operates the way many food halls do. Scan a QR code and order from your phone or walk up to the restaurant of your choice and peruse the menu (if you choose to sit inside you can see all menus from your table) and place your order. After you order, you are handed a pager-type device and when your dish is ready, you pick it up. We stopped in at 7 p.m. on a Friday and the place was bustling, but we managed to find a table easily. Friendly staff remove empty plates and trays quickly and efficiently, and clean tables as soon as they are emptied, and all seem to really enjoy their work.
As might be expected there were some hits and misses, but the misses in this case had more to do with personal preferences than with anything wrong with the food. For example, I ordered yummy sweet potato cellophane noodle salad and an order of chicken tenders from Gangnam Chikn. The chicken was nicely fried, crispy, and moist inside, but the coating was flavorless, and it was not drenched in the sauce that Korean fried chicken is known for. However, a neighboring table got an order of wings, and it looked exactly as I expected, and judging by the sounds that table was making, they were delicious.
Otherwise, each dish was outstanding, although I would have to say my favorites came from Gold Marquess (the dim sum platter and chow fun) and Poke OG (a spicy poke bowl and the Papa Chang roll). My husband’s favorites were from Poke OG and Temple Street eatery (kimchi quesadillas, edamame falafel, and smashed cucumbers). We over-ordered so that we could try a bit from each vendor and took home a grocery bag full of leftovers (enough for two more meals).
You can expect to pay about $25 a person, without cocktails, not a bad deal for such an outstanding dining experience. It’s early in the year, but I predict that this will be a Golden Spoon winner next year.
Baoshi Food Hall
8525 Pines Blvd., Pembroke Pines
786-898-8868
Baoshifoodhall.com