Tiger Dumplings — Restaurant in Arlington

I randomly found out about this restaurant last night after doing a search on vegan-friendly places in Arlington, VA. I never heard about the place before, and saw that it is only a month old so, we thought we would try it out. I was optimistic because on the website, I could see that there were clearly marked vegan options. Ambience: the place looks really fancy and cozy at the same time somehow. I’m really digging the decor. Service: The host was very nice and very attentive. The server doing his best to give me recommendations, but there was one snag. I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt because they’ve only been open for one month but I just wanted to put it out there that if you advertise on your menu that you have vegan items, you might want to be a bit more clear when you tell the customers that the vegan items have egg in them but you can get ask the kitchen to take that out… vegan item shouldn’t have egg or any animal products in it in the first place so it was very confusing. That being said, I was pretty sure that I shouldn’t have a problem ordering the Hot Chili Oil Peanut Noodle, which was marked spicy, and vegan. When it came out, it looked so delicious and I was about to take a bite. Then I saw some brown chunks near the peanuts. I asked my husband to take a look and he is not vegan so he took a bite and he told me that it was pork!! The main reason why I became vegan was because I witnessed my friend who fostered orphaned piglets, so out of all the non-vegan things I could be accidentally served, this was kind of a big deal. Anyway, when I brought it up to the staff, they were very apologetic and I was just curious as to how that would happen in the first place and they just said it was a mistake, but they also didn’t really know why that would happen since it is not supposed to be a meat dish. It was all very strange, but eventually they fixed my order and everything else was really good. Food: The cucumber salad was perfectly seasoned and refreshing and the cold shredded potato appetizer was unique and flavorful. My husband enjoyed his tiger signature dumplings, and his soup dumplings very much. The jasmine tea was delicious and the Lotus Sesame Balls we had for dessert were amazing. They kept apologizing about the mistake with the noodle dish, so I’m not gonna be “that guy”. I just wanted to write this review to warn other vegans that if they want to order something don’t assume that everything is set the right way just because it is labeled vegan on the menu, and make sure you ask questions and to check things before eating. This is a fairly new restaurant, so I completely understand that this kind of stuff can happen. I do have a feeling that the servers and kitchen staff did not inform the host/manager about the mistake, because he didn’t say anything to us as we were leaving. Maybe they didn’t want to get in trouble, I don’t know. We still gave them a very generous tip and we both generally had a pretty pleasant experience and will...

3.2 stars

TL;DR: new dumpling spot with a good selection of dumplings and other appetizers and main dishes

Came here in the early evening on a Friday and luckily was able to snag a table, as they were all booked out with reservations. The interior is very modern and cute with a variety of tables and booths.

Service was nice and attentive (lots of runners/water re-fillers/bussers), but had a few awkward interactions with our main server. The food comes out very quickly, so that was nice.

FOOD:

~Thai tea (4/5): was well balanced and not too sweet

~Five spice marinated beef shank (3/5): didn't expect it to be a cold dish, but had a good meaty taste but needed a little seasoning. The meat was tender though

~Shanghai braised roast duck (3/5): sauce flavor was good, but wish there was more to dip/add, as needed. The duck was a little overcooked and had dry pieces

~Scallion pancake (3.5/5): I'm coming to the realization that this dish is just naturally greasy. This was was oily, but not terribly greasy/retaining the oil. It didn't have much scallion or scallion flavor, but I liked how crispy it was while maintaining a nice chew.

~Braised beef noodle soup (2/5): was very disappointed in this dish. The beef was tender, and the noodles were decent. However, the broth was lacking depth and flavor. This dish usually has that bold full-bodied broth, and it was just missing here

~Hot Chili Oil Peanut Noodles (3.8/5): I personally loved this dish, but I have a bias to peanut flavor. Wish it just came with some type of protein or another textural component. Noodles were nice and chewy though

~Tiger signature pot stickers (4.5/5): my favorite dish of the evening. They are pork and shrimp dumplings with a starch skirt on it. The rectangle shape was surprising, but the ratio of filling to wrapper was great.

~Chengdu spicy chili oil wonton (4/5): I always order this if I see it on the menu. The sauce was on the thinner/watery side and is sweeter than most I've tried, but overall, I enjoyed it

~Spicy pork soup dumplings (2.5/5): wasn't really spicy and had that somewhat gamey pork flavor in the filling. Soup was underwhelming

~Shanghai soup dumplings (3/5): I liked the meat filling better in this one, but again, the soup (which to me is the most important part of a soup dumpling) was just so disappointing. I did like how the soup dumpling wrappers kept their integrity and didn't rip though.

Credit where credit is due. The have mastered the texture of their wrappers, wrapper to filling ratio, and cookery of their dumplings.

This place is worth trying once, but personally, wouldn't go out of my way...

I celebrated my birthday here on 2/1/25 and it was great! I made a reservation for 11am so we could enjoy the bottomless brunch. To start, I changed my party size 3 different times. I went from 9 people to 12 people. They were very patient and nice over the phone, but don’t be me and continuously change it. I felt bad and was prepared for them to let me know that I wasn’t able to change it AGAIN. Luckily, there were no issues and I was able to include everyone I wanted.

The service was great. At no point were we ever waiting for food, except when we placed our very first round of the brunch menu items. It was busy, but our orders came at a nice steady pace. I recognize my table was pretty chaotic when it came to ordering, so I truly appreciated our servers patience with us. At the time, I went in thinking it was bottomless mimosas, but it was $1 every alcoholic beverage. It was still SUPER cheap and VERY worth it. I still consider that bottomless, given the prices of bottomless mimosa options at other restaurants in the area. Everyone enjoyed all of their drinks and food.

The food was GREAT. I love dim sum and this hit the spot. Out of everything I personally had, I loved their signature dumplings and braised pork belly the most. That pork belly was SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Even if you don’t eat pork, which some of my party didn’t, there were still great options. I would keep in mind that pork is in a lot of the dishes though. Everyone that doesn’t eat pork, still really enjoyed their food and said they’d be back.

I hadn’t seen pictures of the booths prior to going in and I was pleasantly surprised when I walked back to my table. There was a lot of room for people and it was very pretty. The atmosphere was great!

All of the staff were very nice and patient. I will 100% be going back here. It was great and I am so happy I chose to spend my birthday brunch here! My entire experience went very smoothly. So, if you’re thinking...