"Take a Bao", Studio City

life is all about new experiences, fun discoveries and fine dining. And even though I realize that this first sentence looks like a bad headline for a dating profile, I am always eager to try a new restaurant. So when a friend asked me if I wanted to try the new Vietnamese place that opened on Ventura, "Take a Bao", I immediately accepted.

We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by a friendly staff. We looked at the menu, dazed and confused, and had a hard time deciding what to get for our first experience there so we decided to share a few plates....and grab a beer of course.

After the cashier gave us a quick rundown of her favorite items, we chose the "lemongrass caramel chicken wings", the pork and leek potstickers and their chicken basil stir-fry (grilled chicken, udon noodles, chinese long beans, bok choy sum, thai basil, bean sprouts, finger chilies, garlic chives, scallions, sesame seeds, xiao xing glaz). She gave us a magnet with a number on it to stick to our table and we went out to the patio.

We waited for our order while sipping on the delicious seasonal draft beer that they offered that day and the first dish came relatively fast. The best item was by far the chicken wings. They were some of the best chicken wings I ever had, perfectly crispy, with a tasty marinade that doesn't overpower the taste of the chicken or make your lips burn so much that you end up crying like a five year old kid. However, these wings did not come with big breasted blond waitresses. The staff was professional and they even plated the main entrée in two separate bowls.

We sat outside on one of the windiest days of the year, so it was a bit chilly and the noodles ended up getting cold very fast so it probably wasn't as good as it was intended to be but It was lacing flavor and they definitely didn't put enough finger chilies in there. I was also not a big fan of the potstickers but go there for a beer and some chicken wings and you won't regret it.....except maybe when you find a piece of meat stuck in your teeth half an hour later.

http://www.takeabao.com/