Recent Openings in Urbana
In addition to the McDonald’s opening in Urbana last month, a new New Your J&P Pizza opened in the Giant Shopping Center a couple months ago.
I’m not sure when exactly it opened but it’s very recent that Babao Fusion opened in the Turning Point Center. We got carry-out from there last night. I don’t know about you, but when I hear Fusion in a restaurant name, I think of a menu like the one at Acacia. Babao Fusion seems to be a more typical Chinese restaurant, with a few Thai and Japanese dishes included. They also have sushi. It’s a small restaurant, but I think they will do well with carry-out and delivery, considering all the new homes there are in the area.
Babao Fusion
8927 H Fingerboard Rd. Urbana
301-874-4950
Open Sun-Thurs 11-10, Friday and Saturday, 11-10:30
They also have lunch specials.
I tried Babao last night. Not a great experience, I think they are still finding their feet. When it was advertised as fusion cuisine I was expecting East meets West type of thing, but it was East meets East.
Menu was extensive covering Chinese, Thai, Singaporean and Japanese food. It makes you wonder how they can hope to cook such a wide variety of food well. Food was OK, not great, not bad, just OK. Some dishes came out hot, some warm and surprisingly the beef satay was chilled rather than hot off the grill.
Service was so bad it was almost funny, with a totally inexperienced, overwhelmed waiter who hadn’t a clue what he was doing. A comedy of errors let’s say.
Restaurant is pretty bare and not the sort of place you would want to linger in.
There was entertainment provided by an elderly gentleman who took several phone calls during his meal. Unfortunately he had the speakerphone on and the person at the other end was incredibly loud and we were forced to endure a tedious conversation until we heard “So dad, how was your doctors appointment” at which time we hotfooted it out of there.
I hate to slam a restaurant when it’s still finding it’s feet, but I probably won’t be back there anytime soon, and if I do go back it’ll probably be just for take out.
OK, a day has passed since my previous comment and I reheated last nights leftovers for the kids dinner tonight. They were pretty good! So I reckon Babao would be a good place to order take out from, but as yet lacking in atmosphere for dining in.
Ags
Agatha, I agree with you. I expected an East meets West type of Fusion, a la Acacia. We’ve only gotten carry-out once. It was ok and we will probably try it again after it’s been open a bit longer.
Thanks for letting us know about your experience!
I’m guessing a lot of people just do not get “fusion”. Every Asian fusion restaurant I’ve been in has never been “East meets West”. It has always been a mix a of foods from different Asian countries. The carry-out I ordered was very good. Much better than the other place next door.
My wife, mother, and I just went to Babao this past weekend (Saturday Dec 29) for lunch, in hopes of just trying some decent asian cuisine (namely Thai). I actually saw this page a day before going, and I was fearing for the worst.
I’m glad my fears were misplaced. The food (the three of us, all got Thai) was spectacular. Portions were definitely large, and presentation was good. Reminded me of good Thai restaurants we used to frequent in Rochester, NY.
The only downside, even though we were there 1pm Saturday afternoon, they still charge dinner prices all weekend. Their lunch prices are only during the work week, so while a little more expensive, I feel it was worth it as everyone else had a full meal to take home. (not myself, I eat a lot, but still had a small bit to take home).
We are DEFINITELY going to go back and try other items on the menu.
Thanks for letting us know about your visit to Babao! We’ll have to get back there again soon.
Try the teriyaki chicken it comes with a salad (with this awesome Asian dressing) and steamed rice it taste amazing plus the portions are so big its enough for two meals!