This place was kind of a disappointment all around. I went with a group of friends and will include their comments on the dishes they got as well.
From the outside it looks like a decent place. A majority of the staff are making dumplings and that always gets me excited, knowing I'm eating dumplings made specifically for the restaurant, not mass purchased frozen ones that you could get yourself somewhere.
A closer look shows dumpling prices that are a bit steep but if they're delicious then it'd be worth it. Other items on their menu seemed pretty comparable for their price.
You're given a buzzer after ordering to let you know when your food is done allowing you time to find seating (the restaurant is located in The Block and has communal seating with the other establishments).
The food... did not hit the spot. What we had:
Soup Dumplings (Pork) - 4* - these were the best soup dumplings I've had in Virginia. The flavor was there. The delivery could use some improvement. There wasn't as much soup in the dumplings as I'm used to, in fact a few of them felt like they couldn't even be called soup dumplings, but the flavor made up for that. The dumpling skin was also a bit off. I couldn't tell if it had been overly steamed or if the skin was just too thin, but something was off. Once again, the flavor made up for that. I've been craving good soup dumplings and am glad I got to eat these, though I don't think I'd pay for them again, the price was in the stroller end for the classes mentioned above and the taste can't make up for that. Half the fun of soup dumplings is the soup and if you're not making your dough strong enough to keep that soup in, or if you're not making enough soup to put in the dumplings, then you are making good enough soup dumplings for me to continually purchase.
Youtiao (chinese dough) - 5* it's hard to get fried dough and a sweet dipping sauce wrong, so it doesn't surprise me that this was delicious.
Spicy Ramen - 3* overall it lacked flavor. The two dumplings that came with were good, that was probably the best part. The noodles were anything fantastic and the meat was just so so. They're really expected better. I've had Korean instant noodles that were better and those don't come with all the extra add-ons that this bowl comes with (dumplings, boiled egg, meat slices, a white thing that I think was tofu).
Noodles (with Chicken) - 2* this was downright sad. After my first bite I regretted my choice. The sauce was delicious but it was mostly on the bottom and I didn't realize that till I was halfway through. The meat wasn't anything special and the noodles once again were boring. I don't know if I don't like the recipe they use to make the noodles, or if they just don't know how to cook their noodles well. All the vegetable sides were just meh.
What the friends ordered (I did not try any of these, so these are their comments):
Mini Bao with pork belly - they said this one was their favorite of what they got and that it was really good. (If I'm ever back in The Block I would personally give it a try.)
Spicy Pork Wonton (8) - really lacking flavor. My friend actually went around the other stores to ask for salt to season it. They said that helped exponentially, but also expressed surprise that dumplings could be so bland to begin with.
Scallion pancake with pork - while the concept was good the delivery failed. Both friends commented that the stallion pancake was too tough and very hard to bite into. One friend liked the stuffing, the other friend felt like they were only eating carrots because there was not enough sauce to balance the amount of carrots. read more