Nice to finally have an alternative to Banh Mi Boys (BMB) outside the downtown core, but it needs work.
To start, the location in my opinion is definitely not ideal for a brand new restaurant. Located at the back of the Commerce Valley Drive restaurant plaza, "It's a Bao Time" (IABT) set up camp at part of the space which was once occupied by Go For Tea. If you didn't know that Go For Tea had closed in that location (like I did) and didn't stumble upon the restaurant by accident, you'd probably have a hard time trying to figure out where IABT was located.
The restaurant itself is nice and very clean with a very modern and casual vibe to it. Menu board on top of the register/pick-up window with lots of seats. I visited on a Friday night and it was fairly empty save for another family dining in. I hope it was only busy due to them being a new business..
Selection was just what I'd expect from a BMB style joint, with pricing I believe to be relatively close to their Toronto counterparts. I ordered the Pork Belly Bao ($4.69) and a Beef Bulgogi Banh-mi ($6.89) as well as a Jarrito ($3) and waited about 5-10min for my food to come.
The bao was first and I felt it was a fairly decent size. It was definitely packed in nicely with the toppings as per the menu board, however I did find that the meat was clumped together fairly tightly. Same thing happened for my banh-mi, as I ended up finishing all the meat before I could finish the rest of the sandwich and its other toppings. I do believe that a single banh-mi alone could've filled me up though, as I had some slight regret eating two sandwiches around halfway to finishing my banh-mi...
Overall not a bad place to go check out if you're craving baos or banh-mi's if you've got cravings you need to cure AND don't wanna travel downtown if you're not from the area. I'll probably be back once my cravings return!