Peng Dumplings Basel — Restaurant in Basel

Last year we went to Peng Dumplings about once every 6-8 weeks as my boyfriend likes the food although the menu is quite limited. They also only have a few specials, which strangely don’t change often either… For example, the soft shell crab bao, which I do like, but has been a special for probably 6 months now! I really wish they had more choice, we would go more often although their prices are quite high for the small portions as others have also commented. I understand everything is handmade but this is the case with such restaurants in general, so I think the criticism is fair. They are the only place in Basel that serves this type of food (to our knowledge), however, so they have the advantage of being unique. The team works hard and is typically attentive but service is uneven and sometimes I think they can do more in the way of customer service. One time we went for a romantic dinner to celebrate a special occasion and the server splashed the beer all over our table and our clothes as she was serving it. She apologized but we had to move table, try to dry our clothes with whatever napkins we could find, smell of beer the entire evening and in the end we were still charged full price for our meal (not even the two beers were taken off our bill) despite this mess. I think this should have been handled differently. Last September we won a 50 CHF voucher when one of our pork baos had gold leaf on it when we opened the steaming basket. The employee said this was quite rare, so we were excited! We specifically asked about expiration date and were told not to worry as it would be valid on our next visit. A few times we tried booking but they were closed for special dining events that we weren't interested in instead of their regular dinner service. We also had quite a bit of travel at the end of year, and were away all of December as were many other ex-pats here. My boyfriend just had his birthday on 18th January and we decided to try booking again for this evening, so we could take advantage of the voucher. It turns out despite what the employee told us, the voucher somehow had an expiration date of December 31, 2023. We emailed and were told sorry but nothing can be done for accounting reasons. Shouldn’t the restaurant take responsibility for what the employee told the customers? Apparently there was an expiration date on the emailed voucher (which we also had to chase for after our visit as we didn’t receive it promptly). We will cancel our reservation and go somewhere else. Again, some nice items on the menu but quite pricey and choice is limited, and from my experience having lived in many countries and cities before, the customer service needs to improve. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that customers are happy and return.

30/01/24: The manager has requested that I edit the review to make it more favorable and mention that we have been offered a free drink each on the next visit. This is a good thought and appreciated yet doesn’t invalidate the experiences detailed above given that there is clear room for improvement. It is my belief that this platform isn’t only for leaving 5-star reviews (though I understand why businesses wish it were), so I stand by my ratings. Food quality deserves 4/5, the rest can definitely improve. Thanks for your input Max, and all the best to...

Food is excellent, prices fair, and perhaps most importantly, service is friendly and faultless.

I was very excited to try this restaurant as it had been recommended to me, and good dumplings are hard to find! We were not disappointed on arrival - staff were very friendly, took our coats, and introduced us to the dining concept. The atmosphere and layout is great, modern and stylish. The waitress recommended us to try the mixed set (one vegetarian and one meat) of dumplings to see what we liked - a great idea and we all enjoyed trying the many types - we like them all! Sauces that accompany are also great.

We also ordered the pumpkin bao and pork bao - both were excellent. We finally wanted to try and xiao long bao (soup dumplings) - one of my friends had never had them and I was very excited for them to try, as they're a favourite of mine. Unfortunately, when they came - they were flat! They had no soup. We tried a couple but they were dry as anything. Thankfully the staff were super understanding and agreed to bring us another batch. Unfortunately, about half of that was flat too, without soup. We ate these as we were hungry, but staff was very attentive that we hadn't had the true xiao long bao experience - and explained that when being made, something must have gone wrong. Without any complaint, and without my request, they removed these from our bill. This type of attentive and friendly customer service impressed me deeply - though we were disappointed that we didn't get the full experience, I am very, very impressed that they were so attentive to the issue.

Any place with such incredible service, and also such amazing food in every other category - certainly will have my service again, and I cannot recommend highly...

The atmosphere is very nice but the food absolutely overpriced and doesn't remind me of anything from real Asian-dumplins and Bao Buns. The dumplings were relatively ok, but the Bao was a big disappointment. The meat comes outside of the Bao-Bun (and not inside as indicated in the menu) and there is even lettuce and carrot slices on the side; a typical German/Swiss serving choice.. Also, the chinese cucumber side dish was nothing more than a small piece of real cucumber with soja sauce on top and sesami (for chf I can buy 5 whole bio-cucumbers). I wouldn't recommend this restaurant and this is unfortunate as I had high expectations from all reviews and...