The Bao

With a crowd consisting mostly of the future of America (i.e., people who are about to graduate from college), The Bao feels right at home on Saint Marks. The menu is huge, with dishes from different regions of China, and the soup dumplings are the main attraction. They have almost a dozen varieties—including ones made with uncommon ingredients like salty egg yolk and chocolate—and we’re partial to the pork and wasabi ones. While you’re here, you might as well get some other things like the greasy-in-a-good-way XO sauce egg fried rice and numbing Szechuan chili fried chicken. If you live around the East Village, The Bao has probably already cracked your rotation of go-to spots—it’s the type of place that’s just good enough to keep you coming back for more.