🥟 Best bao in Australia

14 cities ranked by the strength of their best bao. Follow any city through to its full ranked list.

● Updated September 2026

The verdict: on the numbers, Sydney has Australia’s strongest bao — led by Belly Bao (4.5★ across 1,067 Google reviews).

#	City	Its best bao	Rating	Reviews
1	Sydney	Belly Bao Newtown	4.5★	1,067
2	Gold Coast	Lucky Bao Mermaid Waters	4.5★	373
3	Adelaide	Mamachau CBD	4.8★	107
4	Sunshine Coast	Dee Den Restaurant Buderim	4.8★	2,205
5	Cairns	Malatang Noodles Cairns City	4.8★	2,016
6	Melbourne	Hanbaobao CBD	4.5★	758
7	Brisbane	Donna Chang Brisbane City	4.4★	1,788
8	Perth	Munchy Monk Northbridge	4.5★	301
9	Newcastle	Light Years - Newcastle CBD	4.7★	1,632
10	Wollongong	K.malu Kitchen and Bar CBD	4.8★	589
11	Darwin	Nonna dumplings Darwin City	4.8★	318
12	Hobart	Tasty Buns CBD	4.7★	272
13	Geelong	Bao Place Geelong West	4.8★	235
14	Canberra	White Chaco Braddon	4.6★	697

How this national table is built: it is not a separate opinion. Each city contributes the venue that currently tops its own bao ranking, and the cities are then ordered by that venue’s score — review strength above a 3.8 baseline weighted by review volume, plus community mentions where we hold them. Cities are only listed where we actually rank the dish, so an absent city means no ranking yet, not a bad one. Rebuilt weekly.

City by city: Sydney · Gold Coast · Adelaide · Sunshine Coast · Cairns · Melbourne · Brisbane · Perth · Newcastle · Wollongong · Darwin · Hobart · Geelong · Canberra.