Osum! Kitchen + Lab: Baogers and MoNoodles in Steveston

Osum! Kitchen + Lab is a new fusion restaurant that specializes in making unique baos and noodles. Besides being a restaurant, they are also a food lab that experiments with new creations. They have hopes of having special tastings and collaborations in the future.

They are located in Steveston on Bayview Street. The restaurant is small and with only 2 tables. We noticed some people doing take out and smaller groups here. Wen we left, there was even a birthday party.

I was invited to OSUM! to give a few of their items a try.

Their main items are Baogers, MoNoodle, Osum!Noodle and Cha. There’s not a large variety of items, but you’ll find something to enjoy.

Baoger

OSUM! Pork has slow-braised pork belly, cucumbers, pickled greens, cilantro, crushed peanuts, and OSUM! garlic peanut & sesame sauce. Nice warm bao backed with ingredients but it is a bit hard to eat as there is the pork floss covering the top of the baoger. You’ll need to use the wrapper to keep those hands clean.

OSUM! Beef has tender braised brisket, pickled greens, crispy shallots, toasted pine nuts, and OSUM! spicy peppercorn sesame sauce. I hint of spice but not too much.

OSUM! Chicken has grilled cheesy chicken, cucumbers, cilantro, crunchy cheese puffs, and OSUM! Korean sweet spicy sauce. A very playful creation, but the cheese puffs ended up being a bit limp because of the sauce in the baoger.

OSUM! Nutella is a fun items for kids with a sweet tooth. It has all-natural Nutella, crushed peanuts, raw premium almond flakes, and marshmallows.

OSUM! Noodle

Hot Dry Noodle has tender braised pork belly, handmade thick noodles, bean sprouts, pickled greens, scallions, cilantro, crispy shallots, homemade chili oil, and their OSUM! signature garlic-sesame-chili sauce. I like this dish as it has a lot of complimentary ingredients that work well together and has a kick of spice.

Coco-Curry Chicken has grilled chicken, handmade thick noodles, cucumbers, bean sprouts, lemongrass, pure coconut milk, crispy shallots, and OSUM! lime coconut-curry sauce. It is also topped with slices of cheese. I found the cheese to be a bit unnecessary. It sure made it a bit more fun, but

MoNoodle

Multi Mushroom needs 2 days in advance to create. It has handmade kale monoodles, assorted mushrooms, pine nuts, kale chips, truffle oil, bean sprouts, cilantro, peppercorn oil, and OSUM! special mushroom sauce. What is unique about this dish is their noodle is a single 1m long handmade broad kale noodles that fits in a bowl. It’s a good dish if you are vegan or love mushrooms. This is one of the more expensive dishes on the menu due to the ingredients.

Drinks

They have a few drinks on the menu. They have bottled fizzy drink and hot drinks on the menu.

I had the Cocoa Ovaltine to warm me up as it was a cold snowy day outside.

Overall, my favourite item was the hot dry noodles as the flavours worked really well together and wasn’t as fusion as the other dishes on their menu. When it comes down to their food, it depends on your flavour palate. As they are still quite new, I am sure they will continue to work hard to work out the kinks.

We Rate OSUM! Kitchen + Lab: