Sensei Bar: Inside the chef-driven bao bun and sake bar in Calgary

Sensei Bar, possibly because it’s a small setting, darkly lit, and has the feeling of an underground bar, still feels like a hidden gem.

It doesn’t feel like that once you’re seated and dinner service is in full swing, with small snacks popping quickly out of the kitchen, original cocktails being smoked and shaken in the middle of the room, and table-side sake tastings being a common occurrence.

Sensei Bar is a hip chef-driven bar specializing in fun Asian eats, like shareable platters, inspired appetizers, and a wild assortment of different bao buns.

It might be a bao bar, but it’s also one of the best restaurants in YYC.

Dished recently had the opportunity to sit inside the intimate space surrounded by Asian-inspired art and old-school hip-hop music.

We ordered many of the most popular Korean and Taiwanese bites, a few different kinds of sake, and of course every single bao bun on the menu.

We started with drinks, including the Japanese Old Fashioned made with shitake mushroom-infused whiskey and house-made umami bitters and the sake flight, which was poured and thoughtfully explained by Amane (the International Sake Sommelier).

Dished Calgary

For small plates, we shared the albacore tuna (foie gras, yuzu truffle, tapioca crisp, pickled cucumber), the truffle dumplings (pork, shrimp, cauliflower, chili oil, anise shoyu), Brussel sprouts (kimchi serrano kewpie, mimolette cheese, chili oil, citrus), and the creative ramen carbonara (guanciale, gochugaru, shitake and maitake mushrooms, egg, pecorino cheese, pickled shemiji).

We also had to get the gochujang BBQ chicken drumette lollipops which are a must-get, with gochujang tamarind glaze, sesame, and kewpie mayo for dipping.

Dished Calgary

There are a number of delicious mains and items that are made to share, and we had the massive char sui pork option. It came with kimchi bokkeumbap, Oaxaca cheese, and gochugaru cucumbers. The pork was coated with hoison, and all of it could be built by hand inside bib lettuce or bao buns. There were also two different sauces to dip or drizzle (miso pineapple mayo and gochujang kewpie).

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All of the food was seriously delicious and bursting with flavour, but it’s the bao buns that are the most fun to eat. Hot tip: they’re also extremely cheap during happy hour. We tried all five: ebi prawn, tempura maitake, chicken confit, BBQ pork, and Little Mac.

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The Little Mac, stuffed with Alberta beef, cheddar, secret sauce, onions, butter pickles, and lettuce, was as the name suggests, like a Big Mac from McDonald’s. The favourite, however, had to be the BBQ pork bao bun, made with pork belly, hoison, marinated chilies, and pickled cucumber.

Dished Calgary

The vibe here is fun because the food is, but also because even though it’s packed with happy diners and excited conversations, it’s dark and loud enough to always feel intimate.

Connected to Sensei Bar is the newly opened Olea restaurant, which has an entirely different vibe and only adds to the “underground” feeling of dining here.

The next time you’re looking for an excellent happy hour, some fun bao buns, a great date idea, or a guided tour of some incredible glasses of sake, try Sensei Bar.

Sensei Bar

Address: 1520 14th Street SW, Calgary

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