Mr Noodle and Ms Dumpling 御宴 — Restaurant in City of Syracuse

5/12/2023 Update: I swung by here again. There was slightly more people than the time of my original review, but the service was significantly better. The food was still delicious. A recommendation I would make is swapping out the curtains on the left hand side windows with something else. We were seated at one of the window booths and ended up being blinded by the sun through the curtains for the majority of our meal since the sun sets on that side of the building.

Original Review: This restaurant opened about a week ago according to the waitress. All of the food we ordered was excellent and the staff was very nice. I plan to come back in the future with some additional friends to try out more of their menu, which I am hoping will give them time to iron out the service issues it appeared most of the tables were experiencing.

While the attitude of my waitress was great, the service quality/speed was poor at best. I settled on 4 stars because of how much I enjoyed the food, and my belief in their ability to improve. Between not getting things that were ordered (which luckily didn’t appear on the check), trouble balancing the few tables they had (the restaurant was at around 30-40% capacity when I arrived), to general things like not noticing drinks were empty and always needing to be asked for refills, I got the impression it was the first time the two women working the floor were waitresses. As noted the attitude was great and I fully expect them to get better as time goes on and they learn the job more.

Some thoughts as a first time customer: If refills are a potential issue, especially with the small cup size, leaving a pitcher of water on the table could help alleviate needing to constantly be flagged down for refills. The menu could use some work. The pictures of the food come off like stock images and don’t match what was ordered which leads to some confusion. This is a complaint I read from others who had come to this restaurant before me and aligned with what I saw while there. Heat the building. Based on how cold it was it didn’t feel like they were running any heat and it was in the 50ish, maybe low 60 degree range. For just sitting it’s fine, but the rice that came with our meal was not brought out at the same time as it was not ready yet. In that 3-5 minute span my food went from hot to slightly warm/room temp by the time I got to pair any of it with the rice. It was all cold shortly after that with me relying on the heat from the bottom of the rice bowl to heat the meat...

Wow. The experience at Mr. Noodle was disappointing overall. It was our first time at this restaurant, and we had heard good things about it. We started with beef scallion pancakes and KFC buns, which were okay but lacked flavor. The beef in the pancakes came out in just one bite, while it was supposed to be multiple bites.

For our main course, we ordered Kung Pao chicken and hot pot beef soup. I ordered the Kung Pao chicken, but it was very spicy, and I didn't know this beforehand as it was not indicated on the menu. I tried to eat it by removing the chilies, but after three bites, I found it too spicy and asked to order a new dish, sesame chicken. The waitress was confused and had to check with the manager if this was okay. Which is an abnormal thing to do when a customer asks to order a new meal. When the sesame chicken arrived, it was disappointing and not very tasty.

The manager came over a few minutes later and asked if everything was okay. She went around the table and asked each person individually about their meals leaving long moments of awkward silence between talking to each person. When she got to me, she said I should have sent the Kung Pao chicken back to the kitchen, and they could have made it less spicy. Unsure how that is any different from just ordering a new meal as it's not possible to de-spice food without remaking the dish. She however, it was too late since I had already added rice to the dish. I apologized for not realizing that sending the dish back was an option, but the manager made me feel as though it was my fault for asking to buy a new dinner. She then turned to my husband and criticized him for adding rice to his hot pot soup (he'd never tried hot pot and didn't realize that was not customary), saying that only children do that. She then said he was eating cat food! Her comment came out of nowhere and was stated without any other context. It was a ludacris comment and unfathomable that she felt the need to say such an obscure thing to a paying customer.

The experience was unpleasant, and we were disappointed with the food and the way we were treated. We will not be returning...

The quick review: 5* isn't enough. I rarely review outside of starts unless the place is amazing - amazingly good, or amazingly bad so story time!

We'll start with the "bad": It isn't next door for me to go every day. And I need more room to eat this food. I'm stuffed and still want more.

The good: Everything.

Service: I got there, and there was a huge party. 20+ people and the front might have been slightly short staffed for that. Having said that, I was almost immediately seated and greeted. I didn't have to wait to place an order, or get a drink, or the waitress to make it over. Joy was great.

The "wait" time: none. Again, there was the massive party and I didn't feel like I waited on anything. From arrival to departure was 45 minutes, and that was with an appetizer, entrée, and desert. Food was prompt, still hot, to go boxes and check brought quickly. With how busy the one party made it I was expecting at least an hour and still would have applauded the service.

The food: Fantastic. Started with steamed dumplings and they were great, I've had plenty of dumplings at various places and this might be my favorite. Entrée was spicy ramen - I like spicy but not too spicy, this was right where I like it, so if you like it HOT maybe ask for extra spicy, or a little mild as needed. And finally, fried dumplings too (I was in a mood), my only complaint here was being too full to finish them while they're hot. (Still took them to go and sampled two first!), whatever they fry or season the dough here was delicious. I almost ordered another serving to go and couldn't finish the one I had!

And in spite of all of these compliments I have for Mr Noodle and Ms Dumpling, somehow Joy thought service was not up to their standards and brought me complimentary mochi ice cream. Which, unsurprisingly at this point, was also great. Stayed cold, didn't melt in the bowl.

Thanks for having...