Ma's Dumpling House — Restaurant in Anaheim

This review is more like 3.5 stars but will round up since we can't give half star reviews. Coworkers were looking to take me out for my birthday lunch and we decided to try this place. As with many Chinese restaurants, they have a large extensive menu, but there may only be a couple of dishes that they are better at making. This place is no exception. We definitely ordered some good dishes and some A-OK dishes. I think the reduction in stars is mostly due to the long wait despite there only being one or two tables. They might have been understaffed, but the table behind us had to follow up with their order as they noticed that we had almost finished eating our meal and their meal was nowhere to be seen.

|| L O C A T I O N / P A R K I N G || -Located in the same shopping plaza as 99 Ranch and many other eateries such as Seasons Kitchen, Chung Chun Rice Hot Dog and Ten Ren. -Cross Streets are N Euclid St and Crescent Ave. -Parking can be a hassle if you're here during peak hours. Would recommend not dining in at prime lunch time hours at any restaurant in this plaza

|| F O O D || Salt and Pepper Chicken - This reminded me more of a popcorn chicken rather than the Salt and Pepper Pork Chops that I'm used to having. It was a generous amount of chicken, but I did feel like some pieces were overly fried and it felt like I was eating fried chicken jerky. Perhaps if it wasn't overly fried, this might have been one of our favorites. The seasoning was pretty good though!

Mongolian Beef - Hard to mess up this dish but it does look very bad if there are more onions than beef. In this case, there is a decent amount of beef but I've seen a better ratio of onions and beef at other places. Despite that, the flavors of this dish were outstanding. It was our favorite dish that paired so well with rice. There were no leftovers at all.

Wontons in Chili Oil - Honestly hard to mess up unless the chili oil isn't flavorful enough or if the wontons aren't fresh. There was a decent amount of wontons and the chili oil gave it a little spicy kick to it. Good but nothing outstanding.

House Fried Rice - There was potential in this dish but it was just way too bland. I think they forgot to season it? At least compared to the other dishes, I might as well be better off eating regular steamed rice rather than pay 10+ dollars for fried rice. I would not recommend this dish. It didn't have that wok hay...

This shop's been around for a minute and I had lunch with one of my best friends here and it's only gotten better with time.

We ordered some BBQ pork buns, juicy dumplings, shrimp fried rice, and Kung Pao Beef- it was delicious and one thing I'd like to point out was that it tasted light and fresh- even after finishing we didn't feel that "heavy" malaise that you get eating tons of greasy food. It was very well made and for the price we paid it was a FEAST in terms of portion sizes. I had to skip dinner, I'm still so full ahaha!

5/5 would recommend (also try the herbal iced tea you won't regret it).

The service was professional, prompt, and super friendly. The auntie running the joint was a sweetheart and really made us feel welcome but also had tact: my friend and I were having a great conversation and not once did they intrude or bother us, which is something I've come to appreciate from people in service. We also had a fun yet brief chat about Chinese medicine and now I'm craving ginger tea so I'm gonna wrap this unsolicited yapping and move on with my unsolicited review.

The ambience is exactly what you should expect from an OG authentic Chinese takeout shop- yet with a more refined overall vibe. The seats were comfortable, the air pleasant, the decorum fits the bill and had good lighting. Honestly not a bad spot for a chill date or catching up with friends. Most importantly it was CLEAN- no harsh smells from the kitchen, no sticky floors, tables wiped and polished to the point that you forget the place was busy with a group there right before you. It was a refreshing experience.

Tldr: food was fantastic for the price, service is excellent, facilities clean, pleasant, and comfortable. What more could you possibly want from such an establishment? Probably my favorite Chinese joint...

The seafood noodles came out OK. Noodles tasted like the dumpling dough rolled out and cut into strips. A little on the too al dente side. The pork and chives dumplings came out great! Tasty and not overly salted like some places. Fish and chives dumplings were tasty as well. Pumpkin mochi was mochi with a dab of red bean that is fried into disks. They were pretty good. Spicy chicken with woodear fungus and bellpeppers was just spicy and without too much flavor. Just an OK dish. Next came the free shao long bao. That came out raw on the inside. Sent those back and got a replacement which was raw as well. Third time was the charm. They little juicy packages were tasty! Next we ordered chives omelettes which was not an omelette at all. It was a dough filled with chives. Before we ordered the dish, we asked to see if it really was an omelette of eggs and chives and the waiter confirmed with the cooks that it was. Order came and it wasn't an omelette at all. Not the American omelette anyways. While we waited for the next dumpling order, they gave us free onion pancake which was great. The dumplings came out raw. We were done. People around us got raw dumplings too and had to send them back. Service was great! Food was good to...