UPDATED: Hugos Bacco "Sticks & Sum"

UPDATE: I have heard the new adverts for this establishment which advertise the recent refurbishment effort. This is good news and we look forward to visiting again!

When I started this blog, there were some guidelines, let's say a playbook, that I tried to establish. Which is why I started by writing about places I had been to often, and over a period of time. The New York Times restaurant critics visit an establishment 3 times, with different dinner companions, over a prolonged period of time. This is to see how the restaurant handles differently sized groups of people, and whether standards and output change over time.

I strive to follow a similar system of writing about tried and tested places here.

This is my first break from that rule. I only visited the establishment being reviewed once. Which means that I will visit it again, and post updates following the revisit. I will do this whenever I review a restaurant after only visiting once.

So it came to pass that a group of about 10 ladies gathered at the, new to me, Hugo's Bacco. Located in the Paceville stairs, I was intrigued by the promise of the place because checking out its Facebook page yielded the strap line "Sticks & Sum". Well apart from intrigued, I was also confused, yet excited. Excited about the prospects of a night of dim sum and potstickers; confused by the name "Bacco" being an obvious nod to Bacchus, the god of wine, theatre and ritual madness.

Entering the place compounded the confusion. Don't misunderstand me, the place is sleek and modern. However there are some touches, such as a bar which is made of wine corks, which do not reconcile with a "sum and stickers" sort of place. One of my dinner companions quickly shed some light: she had visited the place about a month ago and it was a wine bar. It appears to be transitioning. UPDATE: In fact adverts in February 2017 confirm that the establishment has recently been refurbished.

Let's come to the object of my excitement: the dim sum and potstickers. Potstickers being the friendly name for Chinese dumplings, or gyoza/jiaozi. The menu is varied, with steamed, grilled and deep-fried dim sum offered. I was also expecting boiled dumplings to be on the menu. The menu also includes a variety of noodles, soups, skewered meat, and some "chef specials". One thing that caught my eye, and which I really love thanks to visits to Momofoku in New York and Fat Choy in Las Vegas, is the bao. The menu at Bacco has a couple of bao (steamed bun) in the steamed dim sum section, but funnily enough the other bao was not labeled as "bao" at all. The chef signature dish is called, in a rather cringe worthy manner, "new style open pocket sandwich" when in reality it is a bao, even though purists may call it a new style steamed bun. The description starts with the even more cringe inducing, "steamed burger". I shudder as I recall this. If the aim of this establishment is to educate the masses in the different sort of foods the world offers, then please label food correctly. Yes, you have full liberty to name dishes as you please, but the rest of the menu is serious and sleek, so this just sticks out like a sore thumb.

Everybody ordered a few things on the menu, some people shared. I partook of the steamed prawn dim sum, steamed duck dim sum, and the "steamed burger" (shudder). The "steamed burger" was every bit as delicious as its name is puzzling. It will be a definite repeat on my next visit. The steamed prawn dim sum was superior to the others tried, and many people re-ordered it in fact. My one point to pick on with this dish however was that the steamed pastry was a little bit too wet, which meant that picking up the dim sum with chopsticks saw the filling pop out instead of having it all stay together as a neat little package. One of my fellow diners, reported to me that the mushroom dim sum was much too spicy. While the grilled prawn dumplings was reported by a number of us at table as being too oily - which was puzzling since this is a grilled dumpling.

Overall everyone was happy with the food. Personally, I am happy to see another establishment offering dim sum and dumplings and bao. There are a few things that still need to be ironed out, for instance the name/decor needs to be more consolidated - and we understand that this was the subject of a recent refurbishment. The server assigned to our tables was attentive, even though there was one mix up in particular which we think is attributable to people ordering at different times and receiving food destined to others at the other end of the table. The drinks were boozy and juicy - sometimes a bit heavy handed, but my Lychee Martini was well balanced and I would have ordered another if I had the time.

The seating area is large, and has an indoor and outdoor option. The prices are decent and the service prompt and friendly. It is also one of the only times I tolerate the use of photographs of the food being used on a menu - and this is simply because not everybody may be familiar with the terms or what the food they are ordering would look like. It is a decent place for a quick bite to eat in Paceville, accompanied by a good cocktail.

First published 9 Jan 2017
Updated 14 Feb 2017