Restaurant Review: Sun's Out, (Bao) Buns Out

Quirky bao-based food truck can't miss

Reviewed by Melanie Haupt, Fri., June 16, 2023

photo by Melanie Haupt

"I'm here, but I don't think the truck is open," my colleague texted as I parked at Oskar Blues. It was 3 o'clock sharp on a Friday afternoon, and we were meeting up to try Bunboy, the buzzy bao truck parked at the North Austin brewery. We converged on the small truck, unsure whether we were going to be able to get our bao fix that day. As I peered into the partially open window, listening to the hum of the generator, a tall guy who could be mistaken for a defensive lineman stood up from a picnic table nearby and asked if we needed any help.

Turns out this was the Bunboy himself, Donald Mullikin, who opened his Asian soul food truck in November 2022. I'd been following Bunboy's Instagram account since the fall, eagerly awaiting my opportunity to try a chicken and waffle bao, or some kimchi arancini, or some maple-miso Brussels sprouts. Alas, when I had finally gotten a visit on the calendar, Mullikin took a spill and had to close the truck for a little while. This late-May visit just happened to coincide with Mullikin's soft reopening. (The official reopening was June 10.) Lucky me, lucky us!

My colleague and I decided to order one of everything on the menu, since neither of us had had lunch and there were only six items from which to choose. Spoiler alert: It was all freaking delicious.

There were two bao on the menu: The O.G. pork belly bao and a chicken parm bao. Mullikin warned us that the chicken parm was "more of a kids menu thing," but we were game. When the bao arrived, my friend did say, "It's giving chicken tender," but it was nigh on perfect despite its kids menu ethos, a perfect balance of battered chicken to marinara adorned with a delicate toile of mozzarella. The O.G. bao was flawless, the braised pork belly dancing beautifully with the pickled carrots, cilantro, and hoisin sauce. The bao buns themselves were light and fluffy, perfectly cooked.

The sides on offer were fries, which you could get topped with pork belly (we did, because it was Friday afternoon and we were day drinking) and Korean-style corn cheese. The generous portion of fries came with an equally generous amount of chopped pork belly on top; it would have been a lot easier to eat them if we'd had some utensils, though. The corn cheese was similarly difficult to eat, as it was served with flimsy waffle-style potato chips that simply weren't up to the task of scooping up the deliciously seasoned thick cheese and fresh spring corn. This dish would be much more successful (and a lot less of it would go uneaten) if it were served with something sturdier, like kettle-cooked or ridged potato chips.

While everything was quite delicious, the star of the show on this visit was the pecan pie tempura with orange ice cream. I wasn't quite sure what to expect – we joked about whether we were going to be served a slice of fried pecan pie, Renaissance festival-style. What we got were four balls of tempura-battered pecan pie filling served with a scoop of ice cream dotted with orange peel and small pecan pieces. The pecan pie filling was oozy and not too sweet, and the batter was crisp and light. The ice cream was packed with orange flavor; I could have eaten an entire dish of it. Despite the fact that we were both quite full, we couldn't stop eating this innovative and utterly delicious dessert. Four very sticky thumbs up.

(We also ordered the kimchi fried chicken, a wing-drum-and-thigh combo fried Korean-style, served super crunchy with a daub of kimchi on the side. I took it home to my fried chicken-loving teenage son, who disappeared it within moments and declared it "very yummy.")

Now, when you go to Bunboy, don't expect to find these precise items on offer. Mullikin is clearly extremely creative, and as such, is always iterating his menu. The best way to know what to expect when you visit Bunboy is to follow him on Instagram, where he posts menu (and schedule) updates fairly regularly. But where there is uncertainty regarding what's on the menu on any given day, you can rest assured that it is going to, as the kids say, slap.