Zoe Ma Ma Boulder — Restaurant in Boulder

This is a long review, but if you're wanting the truth about the dumpling flavors and the service that I experienced, please read.

I was pretty excited to try Zoe Ma Ma out again after trying it out in Denver. This time in Boulder I wanted to try out their dumplings and bao as we didn't get to the last time. I'm quite sad to say that it was rather underwhelming.

I do want to make clear as an Asian-American, I want to continue to support small businesses in this time of need during the pandemic, especially in the Asian community as it has taken a quite a hit. Additionally, as someone who works in food service, I'm disappointed at how this situation was addressed and I hope Zoe Ma Ma can recognize the need for better customer service.

Taste aside to start, for an order of 4 dumplings and a bao, we waited 35 minutes for what we thought was an order of street food (as it states on the overhead cover). It was a bit uncomfortable when I went to check on my order and the front of house immediately said "I said Sam, not Leann." Which I knew, because we had been standing there so long at this point hearing Sam's name called as well as a few folks being called ahead of us, though they ordered after us. When I asked the server how much longer the food would take, he said a few minutes, which turned into 15 minutes. Had he been transparent in his communications, for example, we're running behind your order may take a bit longer, I would not have felt the necessity for such an in depth review.

We got 2 original potstickers, 2 vegan dumplings and a pork bao. None of the items had any flavor. The skin in of the original potstickers are more closely related to Westernized Chinese dumplings. If you're into that, then this isn't a bad place to go, minus the fact that both dumpling fillings were tasteless. The vegan dumpling skin to filling ratio made me feel as if I were just eating dumpling dough. Granted they do use a rice flour base dumpling wrapper which was a pleasant surprise, but again there was a sad teaspoon of stir fried vegetables and all you could really taste was the sesame oil they...

Sorry guys, but I really didn't enjoy this place at all. I really don't understand how the one in Downtown Denver could taste way better and different than this place.

My buddy and I wanted to give this place a second chance, so we revisited this place. The guy at the register was friendly, we ordered 2 baos, 6 dumplings, and I decided to share the Lion head special with my buddy.

Another customer gave us his vegetarian dumplings, he said since they took awhile to make it for them, they gave him a couple extras, and he was already full. Our Bao came within 5 minutes, the dough was chewy and the meat inside was really salty, I guess we're just spoiled by the BBQ pork buns we get at dim sum restaurants, but they really made the frozen ones at HMart taste gourmet.

Then the Lion's Head came out, it was a glorified meatball, with two shitake mushrooms, in a very salty gravy. There was no other aromas in the sauce. Being already disappointed, we hoped our dumplings would make up for our lackluster meal....25ish minutes later, and two extras because of our wait, we got our dumplings. I don't even have words to explain how disappointed we were by it, I even tried to be creative with the 5+ dipping sauces that they offered (different forms of soy sauce, but no distinguishable flavors), and we couldn't get them to be great. Like our previous neighbor, we paid our extra dumplings forward to the next customers. $35 and two still hungry peeps. Sorry for being a spoiled eater, where I am used to...

DO NOT COME HERE. Overrated, expensive and unscrupulous. I came to order take out and paid in cash. In addition to charging for take out containers, the cashier charged me 15% service tip without telling me and placed my change coins in her tip jar!! As I was waiting for my order, I wondered why 1 bowl of noodles, 6 pot stickers and 1 bun costed $30. So I asked for the receipt and... noticed the deceit. I asked the cashier about it and she said they're instructed to just deduct service tips without saying anything. I told her I ordered take out and paid in cash, and didn't even get to see what she was charging me for unlike someone who needed to sign a card so I wasn't given a choice. If I was dining in I usually tip at least 20%, but this was take out. She smiled sweetly and said I could tell them about it next time I come back to the restaurant, oblivious that what she did was completely unethical. Her colleague, noticing that the incredulous look on my face, quickly butted in and said he'll refund the extra charges right away. I got my cash back then tipped him some.

Also, when they give customers their take out, customers have to pack their own utensils, sauces, etc. They won't do it for anyone. Sigh.

And so how was the food? The takeout was for someone else. They said the food was bland and couldn't finish eating half of it.

So this place has successfully failed on all fronts. Do...