Baozilnn is a Chinese restaurant in Soho serving all day dim sum. I’d been intrigued by Baozilnn for while because of the mouthwatering pictures of their dim sum on Instagram, so when Shiima mentioned on Thursday that she was craving dim sum I was quick to suggest Baozilnn.
Baozilnn has very casual vibe with a distinctly Chinese character. The service is very active, but lacks attention to detail which is really important especially when you don’t have a mental picture of the particular dim sum you’ve ordered.
What we ordered
Shiima was so keen on dim sum that she hadn’t really looked through the menu when I suggested Baozilnn. As it turns out most of the dim sum is pork which she doesn’t eat, and prawn which she doesn’t like… supposedly 🙂. Still, we braved it and ordered a ton of dim sum. We also ordered three flaming skewers and I ordered sweet and sour spare ribs.
Not Dim Sum
The spare ribs were “okay”. Neither particularly sweet, sour, or spicy. Wasn’t particularly succulent either. That’s the last use of particularly, I promise.
Pork Belly Skewers in Caramelised Sauce 
Chicken Skewer in Caramelised Sauce 
Cumin Lamb Skewers
The skewers were really good. Especially (see, no more particularly 😁) the chicken and pork skewers. Both really tender and spicy. The lamb was a tad tough, but still full of flavour.
Dim Sum
So, Shiima shared all the non-pork dim sum with me and enjoyed the prawn dim sums. I guess she does like prawn 😄. The best dim sum was the prawn wonton in xo sauce. The xo sauce was perfectly delicious and spicy.
I also really enjoyed the pork and prawn shao mai. The filling was rich and spicy, and the pastry itself had a good kick to it.
Now, to be frank, none of the other dim sum were especially delicious. They were all just varying degrees of middling, with the custard baozi being the best of the lot. The custard filling didn’t ooze though, but maybe we’d left it in the basket too long.
Verdict
Baozilnn was “okay”. It certainly satisfies the urge for dim sum, but nothing more. I mostly recommend for a casual dim sum meal with friends or family, and a casual date for lovers of dim sum like Shiima and I. It’s also very fairly priced.
Cuisine: Chinese (all day dim sum)
Dress Code: Casual
Star Dish: Prawn jiaozi in XO sauce
Price: £20-30pp (excluding alcohol)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Baozilnn
24 Romilly Street
London
W1D 5AH
Reserve at OpenTable,
Or call 0207 287 3266
