China Queen — Restaurant in Carrollton

UPDATE 2: Been regularly coming here and it just gets better and better. Service is fantastic now. Very attentive and friendly. Our go to is the soup dumplings, chive pocket, radish pastries, green beans, and the house pan fried dumplings Kao Fu was a yummy new addition They also have glutinous sesame rice ball soup for dessert UPDATE: Came again yesterday and service was way better! Seems like they really took the feedback to heart. Updating to 4 stars.

+They got new high chairs which were clean. Finally got to try the soup dumplings and they were much better. They also have radish pastries which were excellent. Chow fun noodles were good as well. Just recently heard about this place and was excited to see a new authentic Chinese restaurant opening up nearby, and particularly because they have xiao long bao aka soup dumplings!! Went tonight with the family, and it was surprisingly packed for a Monday.

Ambiance: new and clean (except for the high chair which was a bit sticky)

Service: Staff was friendly but I think they were overwhelmed with the crowd. Had to wait a bit to be seated, and food came out veeeeeery slow (I think some of our order may have been forgotten or something). They barely passed my water refill test.

Food: quality of food (that was actually available) was all good, but a bit pricey for what it is Pork and chive dumplings: we got the pan fried ones which were nice a crispy on the bottom and still juicy inside (took about 1 hr before it got to us though) House special bun: very good. Nice and juicy as well yet still fluffy (these came out first so we were excited) Chive crepes / pockets: good Shanghai braised pork belly: good but never seen one with pineapple around it before.

The downside besides the really slow food, was that a lot of the food options were unavailable ... I'm guessing it's still in soft launch mode. We ordered 2 of the xiao long bao which were the main things we wanted, and somehow between the time we ordered and the 40 minutes later they said they ran out of the filling. Apparently a lot of to go orders came in. I would've thought we'd get first priority since we sat in to eat but guess not. The noodle dishes sounded great (e.g. beef noodle soup, Singapore noodles), but apparently they also didn't have any of the noodle dishes other than spicy glass noodles... Unfortunate for our kiddo and wish they would've just told us at the beginning before ordering.

The waitresses we're super apologetic about the wait times and availability for the food. I'm sure they just weren't prepared for the crowd, but still this was definitely one of the worst soft launches I've seen. Overall I think this place has potential, but hopefully they work out the supply and service issues.

I definitely plan on going back again and hopefully trying those...

We went on Saturday 4/16, which was the very first day they opened for a soft opening. Being that we were the first customers in the door in the morning, it's understandable that the service would be spotty, and I don't hold it against them. They were probably surprised that someone would come in so early to eat. The service will hopefully, and also likely, get better over time once they've done a hard opening. My experience that particular day included slow service, lack of table menus, missing sauces, as well as unavailable dishes. Unfortunately, the dish I most wanted to try there, the tang cu li ji sweet and sour pork loin (糖醋里脊) wasn't available. Being an authentic and classic Zhejiang style Chinese dish--the restaurant specializes in Shanghainese and some Sichuanese cooking--it was pretty disappointing. Then again, they're probably short-staffed at the moment, so this sort of hiccup is understandable.

As for the food that was available, it was delicious. The mapo tofu was incredibly tender with a flavorful sauce, and the fish fragrant pork shred (鱼香肉丝) was balanced and tasty. The beef rolls are also sublime. They're like crepe pockets that have been griddled and stuffed with a Chinese burger. Most of all, they're so juicy. When you bite into one, the juice explodes out almost like a Xiao Long Bao soup dumpling. The Chili wontons are also delicious; they taste handmade, and have a subtle yet lingering flavor to them.

The restaurant décor inside is simple and very clean. It's nice white-centric palette of color, along with a lot of natural sunlight due to the plentiful large windows nearby.

Overall, the restaurant is worth going to for authentic Shanghai style and Sichuan style food. The portions of food you get are plentiful, and in line with the price. Although the service here is lacking some ways, it's only their soft opening, and it will likely improve. In the meanwhile, the servers here are still quite friendly. I will likely return to try some of their other dishes, and update my review if the service improves--which...

Came here last weekend and got seated immediately with a waiter who took our orders for drinks, apps, and entrees. We got served our tea and water by our waiter within about 5 minutes....then he DISAPPEARED. We waited for about 35-40 minuted watching as people who came after us, including large groups, were being served their food. None of the waitstaff bothered to check on us idly sitting and waiting until I eyed one of them with a look and he came rushing over asking if we ever ordered. We notified him that we did and have not seen our waiter ever since. This guy checks the tablet they take orders on and informs us our order was never put in...like you've got to be kidding me. Then another waitress rushes over and apologizes and as my partner asks for some kind of compensation on our bill for this ridiculous wait and lack of service, she cuts him off saying "oh, I'll give you soup." We were like no, just please bring us the eggrolls, eggplant, and pork belly we ordered. She rushes over with two small bowls of soup and stale wontons, basically trying to comp us with the cheapest menu items at $3 a piece. About 15 minutes after we receive the soup, we finally get our app and entrees. The eggrolls were piping hot but good. The pork belly was tasty. The eggplant was overcooked and fibrous, making it difficult to eat. We had a lot of the eggplant left over, so we asked for a to-go box and some extra rice and the check. It took an additional 20 minutes to get those things met with some sass from the waiter who reminded us the extra rice we asked for "was on the house." The terrible customer service and long wait have made me decide not to come back here. And best part is...we never saw our original waiter again and no one explained what happened with him...the act of the disappearing waiter, only at...