Dumpling Library — Restaurant in Belfast

I am not normally one to criticise a restaurant and their food as I know how much hard work goes into running and managing a restaurant. However…

I will start with the good part first. The people working at the Dumpling Library are fantastic. From the very beginning they were kind, attentive and very quick to serve us, look after us and help us.

The problem was the food. The drink. And the restaurant.

I think this place has been absolutely overhyped. We had looked at the reviews before we came. Some were good reviews and there were a good number that were not great reviews. We wish we had listened to those reviews.

We eat a lot of dumplings, this is probably my favourite type of food. I would go to a dumpling place in most towns or cities I visit.

It was recommended to us that we order a few dishes and then order more as we wanted them. I’m glad we only ordered three to begin.

We went with the soft shell crab. The fried wontons and the rainbow dumpling set. The soft shell crab was very oily, greasy and a little bit smelly. They were served on a bed of something indescribable. I think panko breadcrumbs and grapefruit. It made no sense. Three pieces that did not look appetising at all. Then the fried wontons came. Triangles of fried pastry and not much in them. Given these were about £9 on the menu. There was absolutely nothing too them. The sauce definitely came from a jar of something I have at home. There was a tiny parcel of prawn in the middle. But there was so little you could barely taste it.

The cocktails arrived next. We ordered a lychee Bellini for me and an old fashioned that wasn’t on the menu. The Bellini felt like it was Prosecco that had canned lychee juice poured into it. It was too sweet and too watery, the juice had killed any bubbles. The old fashioned arrived and that too was incredibly watery and not any flavour to it at all.

We had decided to get up, leave and pay before anything else arrived. We never tried the dumplings. Everything we ordered so far was severely lacking in flavour and substance.

The team came over to check on us and they were absolutely great. They asked how they could help and what they could improve. We told them. They also allowed us to leave without needing to pay for what we ordered. We had barely touched it anyway.

I think this venue is a place where you want to go if you want to look like you are having a good night out. But don’t go expecting to eat or drink anything that is any good or of good value.

I think the food is far to expensive for the amount and the quality you get. We live in London and we have eaten much better dumplings which had much more flavour, substance and were cheaper.

We had been really looking forward to this so it was a real shame that it never lived up to anything. It was a real washout. We have never left a restaurant before in the middle of dining. But very glad that we did.

Sorry team - thanks for all your...

Distinctly average. At best.

I approached this knowing very little about the restaurant and was very excited when I read the menu.

Unfortunately the standard of food was not up to it in my opinion.

The fried bao buns were terrible, the filling was great. We had the beef and duck buns, but the buns... They just didn't work, very hard and the flavour after being fried was just a bit off. I've added a photo of the food I didn't eat, you can see most bao buns are untouched.

My next issue was the dumplings. We ordered the rainbow dumplings to try and get a taste of everything. I've arranged what I didn't eat in order of preference. The steak (blue) one was probably the best, but it was a close call with the pork and sauerkraut(yellow). That said, there was no hint of sauerkraut in mine. The prawn (black) was very odd. There was a prawn flavour for sure, but the whole thing had been minced and mixed to death. The chicken (brown) took me a long time to actually work out that it was chicken. The egg (green) does just not work. The flavour isn't terrible, but it's not great. The problem is the mouth feel. It's nothing like a standard dumpling, falling apart more like a mince in your mouth rather than a dumpling.

The Taiwanese fried chicken was no better than a local battered chicken takeaway on the Dublin Road. Seaweed was mentioned in the menu, however non-existent in the dish. It was fine, but that's it really.

We had a smattering of other dishes, but I think I've made my point. The food is average and overpriced. From the length of time we had to book ahead, I can tell that the marketing team has done an amazing job, shame the kitchen couldn't keep up.

I know this review has gone on for a while, but it's not often I give 2 star reviews and I feel I need to justify it. Some final points not about the food.

The beer selection is non existent, there is a single 'craft' beer (lager), which is an in house concoction. The rest are the standard selection of Tiger, Heineken, etc. The wine and cocktail selection does however redeem things somewhat.

The service was excellent. All the staff were very attentive and there were plenty of them.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, it's very expensive for what it is. If the food was a higher standard I would easily excuse this. But its just not, it's as if they've created a great sounding menu and given it to your local takeaway to try and produce. It's just not worth the money. The dishes are all heavily fried or deep fried, the dumplings are very much form over function, being a different colour does not improve the filling. The 'library craft lager', is an average to above average lager. But it's £5.25 for 2/3...

I went to Dumpling Library last June for my birthday with a group of friends. Upon making the booking I asked if we could have one of the outside pods which I was told we could only have if our bill would be over £100 which i confirmed it would be as there were 6 of us ordering food and drinks. The food was lovely, service was good and the drinks were great. 10/10 experience and couldn't complain about a thing except maybe the fact that you only were entitled to a pod if you were spending enough money. In my opinion if the pods are available why not allow customers to just book them? Fast forward to my birthday this year and I made reservations to attend with my partner. I asked if we could have a table by the window as it was my birthday and we would of liked a nice view and I didn't want to request a pod again incase our bill didn't reach the amount they were happy with. I booked the table months in advance. Upon arriving we were shown to our tiny 2 seater table squished in a row beside other 2 seater tables. Our drinks were lovely but the food was extremely disappointing. We ordered multiple dishes each some from the main menu and some from the deal. We both ordered the fried beef bao buns which were a bit chewy and i struggled to cut into it with cutlery. We also both ordered the crispy duck pancakes in which the duck was very tough and overcooked. I ordered the crispy shredded salt & chilli duck which was lovely but my partner had the fried chicken dumplings which consisted of only mushy bland chicken in a crispy shell. A lot of food was left on our plates and not once did the waiter ask how our food was. Between having our bao buns and waiting on the rest of our food arriving a waitress tried putting someone else's food on our table. We had to tell her twice it wasn't our food and she took it away in a strop. To top the night off the couple beside us had happy birthday played and a slice of dessert brought out free of charge as the friend had told them it was his birthday. I also informed them upon booking that it was my birthday and the same gesture wasn't offered to us. Very disappointing experience for a meal we were so excited for. It appears unless you visit with a large party and are willing to spend more money they aren't...