Zen Dumpling — Restaurant in Alafaya

First and foremost, food is great. (Highly recommend)

The two servers we have had were awesome.

Hostess, I would give three thumbs down and I don’t understand how Management allows her to still work there.

First time at establishment: I requested can we get a booth? There was two open. I was told that day. “No, because they were only for a party of four and more”. However, we were quickly sit at a table design for four people which was fine. However, those two booths she sat two people at each booth.

When we were leaving, I confronted her about the situation and asked Her “why did you lie to me about saying it had to be a party of four?” She replied, “oh you must’ve misunderstood me” I said, “I didn’t. My comprehension is elite. You said, it has to be a party of four or more you lie lied.”

Second time at this establishment now bringing my nephew. (Same Hostess)

There was a little bit of a wait, which was no problem. We gave our names. We rated it outside for a bit, but we decided to go back into the Air Conditioning restaurant since it was blazing hot. When we walked in, she immediately (Hostess) said, “oh your table is ready right here is the first table to the left. She said, give us a moment they’re grabbing another chair and wiping it down.”

We sat down my husband and I and my nephew. Right when we were replacing our drink orders with the server who is very polite by the way, The manager came up and says, “this is not your table. This belongs to the other people waiting”

I said she looked at us. “We were the only ones standing here and she said your table is ready you now want us to get up and cancel our drink order?”

The manager just looks at me and says she said (referring to the hostess) “she said that she gave you the name of the party and you said yes” I replied, “That is not true. I said, that’s a bald faced that’s lie”

The manager looked at me instead of apologizing. She makes the comment, “I wasn’t there, so how would I really know?”

We proceeded to order our food and my nephew thought this was such a weird experience as well.

We had a great lunch and we didn’t think anything else about it after we left.

Third (Hostess) this was our last time.

We get there there’s a little kiosk where you put in your name and it gives you a number with a letter so that you’re on a waitlist.

We looked on the kiosk, and there was five people in front of us. No problem. We both wanted some dumplings since we drove across town.

Some time goes by and my husband goes to look to see how far down the list we are now and then there was now eight parties in front of us!

They can’t be! Very odd.

Mind you my husband, when he walked in the hostess is coloring on her hand. A grown woman coloring on her hand like she’s five years old. She doesn’t look up, doesn’t get involved and when he asked about the list, she simply shrugged her shoulders and continues to color on her hand.

I tried to figure out why we kept getting bumped down and the only thing I could think of that makes sense, all the tables are pretty much design for a party of four. They make more money off the party of four, so the people who have parties at 4 are going to take priority over a party of two.

Maybe, that’s an assumption, but I kept trying to understand how that happened.

However, if you wanna have great soup dumplings, I give it a triple thumbs up but if you want poor Customer Service and it starts with that hostess would not go...

Next time I come back here, I would order the combination soup dumplings plate again and try the onion scallion pancake and Shanghai bao.

2/24/25: I tried the following Pros: Combination soup dumplings - that's my favorite of all the items ordered today. Their soup dumplings have a soft thin skin. There are different fillings in the center. I highly recommend ordering this to try the different types of soup dumplings they offer on one plate. Now is it the best soup dumplings I have aten? It's delicious but no. The meat filling to me is more on the lean dry side compared to the more juicy tender meat fillings in soup dumplings I have had at other dumpling restaurants.

Noodle with pork belly - the pork belly is very tender. This is something I would order for my kids but not for myself because I prefer aromatic herbal broths Thai or Vietnamese style better.

Neutral:

Steamed vegetable dumplings - my friend ordered this and liked it. I tasted two and meat-lover me doesn't like the veggie fillings. 😂

Cons: Dumplings in the hot chili oil sauce - forgot the exact name but my friend liked it. I definitely do not and will not order this ever again. There is a particular spice that I am not fond of in the chili oil sauce.

Noodle with the braised beef (muscle) is something I can not recommend. I have tasted similar Chinese- style beef noodle soups and the beef muscle here is dry and chewy, not anywhere tender like the sliced beef shank I have aten at many Chinese noodle...

Zen Dumpling is a great restaurant option within Waterford Lakes Town Center. The restaurant is located to the right of the movie theater in between Pizzeria Valdiano and Light on the Sugar. They did a great job on the restaurant. its very open and clean. As others have mentioned its cool to see them making the dumplings via the window into one of the kitchens. They are very popular (rightly so), so you may have to wait 15-20 min for a table. We had to wait 20. We took a little while to get back to the restaurant and we actually got a text saying our spot expired. However, the staff was extremely nice and still sat us when we showed up (5 min late). They have a great menu, with a lot of items to choose from. I liked how they had different protein option for the different items (chicken, pork, beef, veg). We ordered a good range of items and everything was really good. The only thing we didn't care for were the signature bao. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't a flavor we loved. Maybe we didn't have the right dipping sauce or something. The spring rolls were amazing as were the soup dumplings (we got chicken). We will definitely try the pork soup dumplings when we go back. One thing that stood out was the vegetable fried rice. It had a really wide range of veg in it (even corn - which was a nice touch). The wait staff was fantastic. They were very helpful and attentive. I never had an empty cup and everything came out very quickly. We will definitely be going back to...