Dough Zone Dumpling House Overlake — Restaurant in Bellevue

TL;DR: green onion pancakes are a must.

Parking: shared lot that is a bit cramped and smack dab right near Dough Zone;s entrace is an egged green van with flat tires that seems like it's been there for years. Totally out of place for a "nice" area. Also, strange that no one has done anything about it.

Atmosphere: open area with cafeteria like seating.

Menu: pretty straight forward. You will get a paper slip with the menu items on it to mark how many of each dish you'd like.

Kid Friendly: high chairs, plastic water cup, plastic spoon and plastic fork.

Service: wait to be seated, you will be given a menu slip to fill out, you will be watered, check brought to table.

Pan Fried Ground Beef Cake: I don't know about you but the name of this dish sounds like an insult you would shout while gaming, hahaha. It was a bit on the sweet side and I though I did like the pan fried outer dough, the beef cake filling didn't impress me too much.

Green Onion Pancake: My favorite. Not every greasy and flavored just enough to be eaten on its own or it can easily compliment some sauce. There is satisfaction with every bite because it is crispy, flaky, and chewy. I just wish they provided more slices! The order itself is small, so if you want more, order one for yourself because if anything you can take them ToGo for later. I can snack on these all day.

Jianbing Guo Zi (w/ Crisps): pretty good dish with great textures but I was not aware of the hidden spice dragon inside. I reached for the water with each bite. I'm a spice wimp so this may be fine for all you normal people out there but I was breaking a sweat on my schnoz. Don't judge me, haha.

Five Spice Beef Shank: ehhhh the flavor is all there but the meat texture is like cardstock paper. I was expecting round and tender slices of cold cut beef like how most places serve. Instead, I got marinated cardstock. Not gonna lie, it tasted good but the texture just wasn't for me.

Pork Xiao Long Bao Soup Dumplings: yummmm. A bit on the sweet side for me but easily fixable with the dipping sauce. I prefer soy sauce and crushing the ginger slices with my soup spoon to get out all those spicy ginger juices, haha. Gotta love slurpin'...

Me and husband absolutely love this place! We are regulars here since almost a year now. And I absolutely prefer them over DTF any day.

I have only good things to say about them so I'll get to food recommendations straight away.

Dumplings/Bao's:

1. Chicken Xia Long Bao (1000/10) You must must get these! This is one of the few places which has chicken soup dumplings and frankly I prefer them over the pork and pork+crab version. Seriously don't miss out on this one!
2. Q-BAO (10/10) These are like little pockets of heavenly juicy pork. Absolutely delicious, specially when paired with the ginger, chili oil, soy sauce and vinegar mixture.
3. Chicken Steamed (8/10) Really good. The wrapper is very delicate just as it should be.
4. Beef steamed (9/10) These are my husband's favorite. Very flavorful and juicy.

Noodles:

1. Yi Bin Noodles (10/10) I like these noodles the best out of all the options here. They have extremely simple ingredients but the flavor is really nice.
2. Spicy Ma La Noodles (8/10) These are my second favorite. The broth will leave your tongue fuzzy because of the szechuan pepper heat. Love them on a cold day. They will leave you feeling warm and your nose all runny, in a good way :P

Specials:

1. Pan Fried Ground Beef Cakes (10/10) These are the juiciest beef cakes I have ever had. Extremely tasty! The juices ooze out on every byte and the flavors are just amazing.
2. Spicy Beef Pancake Roll (8/10) These are a good break from dumplings. I love the pickled cabbage and chili it is served with.

Other dishes worth a mention are Spicy beef sandwich, veggie potstickers, beef potstickers, veggie chive dumplings, chicken wonton with spicy sauce and all versions of the soup dumplings. Their service is good. Its not the best service you could get but good enough that it doesn't take away from the experience. I also love that they started using the yelp waitlist because they do tend to get busy. Ditch DTF and go here. You'll wait much less, pay much less and will find the food...

We stumbled across this store based on reviews but also got a recommendation to it from a stranger on the street. Food/Taste/Flavor: 5/5 - so GOOD!!! We've been in areas without good Asian food in a while so not only did it satisfy our cravings, it was just so delicious overall

Pork Xiao Long Bao was juicy and had such a nice texture for the bao. Little delicious bites of soupyness with a side of vinegar and ginger to clean your palate for the next bite

Pork & Shrimp Pot Stickers had a really nice fry with crispy bottoms. The dumpling itself was okay but the outside texture was wonderful

Marinated Pig Ear was one of the more finely sliced version of the dish we've seen but we really enjoy the texture and love that the pieces were marinated all the way through rather than just the flavoring on the outside. Slight kick but the SO added even more chili oil to get to his liking

Noodle with Minced Pork has such good flavoring and the noodles were cooked perfectly to have a nice bite without being overly chewy

Beef-Stew Noodles has the flavoring and smell even without the soup. The noodles were cooked well also and the beef was so tender it practically melts in your mouth. It was the perfect portion size to complement the other dishes

Ambience: 5/5 - crowded parking lot so may have to drive around to find a spot. Open windows so we can imagine a lot of natural lighting during the day. Simple design with lots of space between tables. Very bright lighting

Service: 5/5 - we arrived around 8:15 PM with a closing time of 9 but they were still willing to seat and serve us. Service was quick but still friendly and we didn't feel rushed at all during the meal... but we also inhaled the food :3

Value for price: 5/5 - great and speedy service, and absolutely delicious food. Expect to get 2-3 dishes per person and it's great to have a slightly bigger group so you get to try a bit...