Dumpling Daughter Brookline — Restaurant in Brookline

I came here to get chicken noodle soup because I felt sick and sad, but it made me feel more sick and more sad :(

I decided to come after my physical at the doctor office next door, because I had really good memories of the chicken broth 18 months ago, which was expensive but very clean and good. Last time it was an awesome and comforting pick-me-up after a different doctor appointment and I was sure this time would bring me up again too.

However the chicken broth was just too inherently flawed for the soup to be ok to eat. It's still visually delicious looking - perfect color, good amount of sheen - but it's a letdown. In a great chicken broth, idk how to describe it, I only know how to say it in a way that sounds stupid... But in a great chicken broth, it tastes sooooo much like CHICKEN. It has a good, chicken flavor. In a mid chicken broth, like maybe Campbell's or whatever, it just tastes like salt and is boring, doesn't taste like chicken. But it's fine. This chicken broth TASTES like chicken which you'd think would be good!! But it tastes like BAD ICKY chicken. It reminds me of the difference between poor people school fried chicken backs with the spine in in school lunch I had in high school in Kentucky vs like normal good fried chicken. Like, I associate the bad chicken flavor I'm talking about directly with the flavor of cooked spinal fluid. It's really flavorful and chickeny broth but it tastes BAD. Really sad because you can tell it's prepared in much the same way as great chicken broth? But they have to be using worse meat or something.

I took it to go and gave it to my smart chef boyfriend, who hates food waste. He dressed it up nice with sriracha (which another review said costs extra here???), rice vinegar, shaoxing wine, and soy sauce. Which they like definitely have in the kitchen here so git gud. It helped soooo much, made the flavor more complex and hid the jankiness of the meat itself. So I think they should either use better chicken or more condiments.

Also it cost too much for what it was.

No notes on the plating though, it...

We were so excited to try DD after hearing many good things. Sadly- it did not prove to be the lunar new year treat that we anticipated. The eggplant , bok choy , chicken cabbage dumplings and the bbq pork buns were good- tasty and simply prepared.

The rest of our order ranged from odd to inedible.

The vegetarian fried rice was edible but certainly not memorable.

Grandma’s Beijing noodles were a total disaster. The consensus was that they tasted like chocolate. Out of 7 people at the table- no one had more than a taste.

The small chicken dumplings with Sichuan sauce were slightly and unpleasantly sweet with an over abundance of raw garlic on top. Mixed reviews around the table but no one really enjoyed them.

The tea eggs were runny... and that was enough to turn me off... They were also left uneaten.

The tofu buns were throughly bland, mushy and disappointing. I ate one and tried to muster a few bites of the next one- but just could not.

Perhaps the worst experience was the Brussels sprouts. Deep fried to an unrecognizable, oily brown mess and topped with mayonnaise. I desperately wanted to like these... but even I (who adore b-sprouts) couldn’t force myself to eat more than a few bites. Another dish that went to the trash.

I’d also like to add that this is the first time - in my 53 years, that I’ve ever been compelled to write a restaurant review.

Throwing food away is just something I...

I really wanted to love this place, but I have to say it was a real letdown.

Let’s start with the positives: the chicken cutlet Taiwanese (open) bao was great, and worth eating. Nice cutlet, well sauced, overall a delicious dish. If I were nearby I would get it as a snack.

Everything else I ordered was kind of a bummer and paled in comparison to other restaurants in town doing the same dishes much better. The scallion pancake with beef rollup was not a good scallion pancake; just kind of mushy and crunchy, but not crispy or well fried. (I love the version at dumpling house on mass ave in Cambridge). The char siu (bbq pork) bao, which is my favorite Chinese dish, was really lackluster. The filling was flavorless, there was very little of it, and the bun was chewy and not nicely steamed. (For comparison, Great Taste in Chinatown does a particularly good version). The steamed pork and chive dumplings were fine, but no different than anything you’d get at a no name corner Chinese place.

I was very excited to try this place but with the hype and the price point, I have to give it 3 stars for the...