Lunch Break: Enjoy a Daytime Escape at Bao Brewhouse

While some people are still working from home, many are back in the office, which means the lunch break is making a big comeback, too. For those working near the 16th Street Mall, options for a solid meal at a good price from a local spot are getting easier to come by (even if you have to navigate the ongoing construction to reach them). This week, opt for brews, bao buns and more. 

What: Bao Brewhouse

Where: 1317 14th Street

When: Bao Brewhouse is open for lunch Tuesday through Sunday. The downstairs Tap Room is open from 4 to 10 p.m. on Mondays, noon to 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and noon to midnight Thursday through Saturday. The upstairs Tea Room is open from 5 to 10:30 p.m. all week.

For more information: Visit baobrewhouse.com
Why we love it: When you enter the Tap Room at Bao Brewhouse, the dark, red accented, neon-filled eatery makes you feel as if you stepped far out of Denver. Because of this, it's a great place to forget, at least for a while, that you're in the middle of the work day. Instead of checking emails, this is an ideal spot to check out for a while — although you will need your phone, since that's how you'll access the QR code menu and place your food order from your table.

It's also a lunch favorite, because here, happy hour begins at noon and runs until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with specials that end in $0.88, since that number is good luck in Chinese culture. Happy hour drafts run from $2.88 (for the FlyteCo lager that's made specially for the restaurant) to $7.88, and cocktails are $8.88.

Bao Brewhouse's decor and daytime drink deals make it perfect for lunchtime dates, too, especially if you can score the two-top in the nook next to the cityscape mural. And if that meetup goes well, you can head back for an evening in the upstairs dining area dubbed the Tea Room, which serves dim sum and family dining-style entrees.
What's for lunch: The menu at Bao Brewhouse boasts more than just bao buns.

The dim sum menu ($10.66 to $22.88) includes a number of shareable dishes that are small enough to enjoy solo if you're dining on your own. There are DIY lettuce wrap veggie rolls, cheese rangoons, pork and beef dumplings, shrimp shu-mai and mushroom dumplings. Each bao order ($16.88 to $19.88) comes with two buns plus a side of togarashi-dusted shrimp cracklins to snack on, making it ideal to share. Bao options include pork belly, tofu, the cleverly named In-n-Baout Bao and a Soft Shell Crab Rouliamo with buttermilk fried crab.

There is also a menu of skewered meats and prawns marinated in flavors like maple miso and garlic ginger glaze ($11.88 to $15.88 for a small; $19.88 to $26.88 for a large), a spicy duck soup ($18.88), vegan mushroom sweet-and-sour soup ($9.88), drunken noodles ($16.88) and garlic fried rice ($14.88).

The prices really range, allowing diners to go affordable with a happy hour item (most are $8.88) and a side of shrimp cracklins for $5.88, or splurge on the dozen breaded dry-rubbed wings with your choice of sauce, or spicy beef tenderloin skewers, both on the higher end at $22.88.

Similar Places: The more casual sister restaurant of ChoLon and LeRoux, YumCha Dumpling & Noodle Bar, at 1520 16th Street, serves a variety of dumplings, bao buns and other shareables for $12 to $19. New addition Chopstickers, at 1617 California Street, also serves bao buns, soup dumplings, potstickers and more.