Fortune House Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in Dallas

I decided to take my parents here since they love trying new Asian restaurants. When we arrived, we didn't have a reservation but we were able to be quickly seated within 5 minutes of arriving & checking in with the front receptionist. The table area was clean &we were quickly given water to drink & the menu. We weren't fans of the wicker chairs we were given to sit in, & would've preferred the higher wooden chairs that others were sitting on. I ordered: pork xiao long bao (pork soup dumplings), pan fried pork buns, salt & pepper pork, and cashew chicken. At 1st, we got the soup dumplings first, these were great! Lots of soup inside and the flavor was perfect with a nice thin skin. Then we got the pan fried buns. These were more disappointing. While they were nicely fried at the bottom and looked appealing, the meat filling was so tiny. I took a picture and if you compare the bun to meat ratio, there's a lot more bun compared to meat. It was juicy but my family agreed with me that there was not enough meat. About 10 minutes later we received the salt & pepper pork. This dish, while the texture was great, was way too salty compared to many other salt & pepper dishes you usually eat at other Asian restaurants. You must eat it with rice and drink water because it's just so salty. Lastly the most disappointing dish was the cashew chicken. While the flavor was good, it too was slightly too salty but this wasn't why it was disappointing. It was very clear the kitchen forgot our order and we waited at our empty table for over 20 minutes. My whole family was just sitting there twiddling our thumbs and playing on our phone cause we waited so long. It got to the point that I had asked the waitress multiple times where our dish was and she kept telling me "the chef is making it right now", but obviously he wasn't. In the end, a different waiter came by and my parents were so upset by the service that he told him if the chef hadn't started making the dish then we just wanted to forget it and leave, we were tired of waiting when it was clear they forgot us since people who came after us were getting their orders and we weren't. The waitress hurried over cause my dad was sort of raising his voice (which I apologized for), and again gave the same excuse that the chef was making the dish "right now", only this time we actually believed her, but only because my dad was making a "scene" now and they must've reminded the chef to actually make the food. Then we eventually got our final dish after another 5 minutes of waiting. The manager tried to make it right and came to our table to apologize and said they'd "take care of it" for us. Turns out, they nicely discounted the cashew chicken from our bill due to the long wait, which we weren't expecting, but it was nice of them to do. Also, another bone to pick with the service -- they give 1 small bowl of rice per dish, and when I asked for more so that my parents could each have a bowl of rice too, we were only given 1 bowl, so I had to ask again to get a 3rd. Then, when we had 2 empty bowls, a waitress came over and saw we had 2 empty bowls, and when I asked for more rice for us, she came back with 1 small bowl... Even though she saw and knew we had 2 people with 2 empty bowls. It took another while to catch another waitress to get another small bowl of rice. It would've been nicer if they just gave everyone a bowl of rice or provided the table with a big bowl of rice that could be shared among everyone instead of having to constantly request for one when it's difficult to catch a waiter/waitress since they were busy elsewhere. I don't think we'll be back. Overall, we weren't too happy with the service and food was only adequate, but not worth the price. The quantity given for the pork dish was low for the price while the quantity for the chicken was good. For the amount of meat and size of the buns, it...

I visited Fortune House with a coworker back in November while in town for a conference. He was chatted up a woman on his flight and he asked for suggestions in Dallas and she suggested Fortune House. So we grabbed our rental and headed over.

First off, Fortune House is located in a really cool neighborhood of Dallas called Greenville. Lots of restaurants and shops line Greenville avenue and it looked as if anyplace you went to would be a great meal. However, we were told the dumplings were awesome!

It was a beautiful day and we decided to sit outside.

The server was extremely friendly and welcoming and walked us through the menu. Unfortunately, they were out of a few items and that initially bummed us out as it was a Saturday afternoon and they were out of staple items already. However, we moved past this and ordered a few items.

We ordered the Pan Fried Pork Buns (so friggin good!), Shrimp & Pork Dumplings (very tasty), and the Pork Xiao Long Bao (also very good). They were out of all of their chicken dumplings. We also ordered the Shanghai Baby Ribs which were cut into small pieces and were just okay. We also ordered their Fried Rice which was also very good. All dishes were enough to share and all were very good.

The atmosphere was lively as a lot of young groups were sitting outside. A younger couple sat down next to us and we had a nice conversation with the local couple who began chatting us up as they overheard our convo and had some questions about our lines of work.

On top of all this, the prices were very reasonable including the alcoholic beverages we both ordered.

Fortune House is well worth the trip into Lower Greenville and if you have time after your delicious meal, stop and enjoy the shops and take in the...

UPDATE- Went here again tonight. They have the full menu and it is absolutely amazing. The service is exceptional. The food- delicious. We had the soup dumplings which were again so good!! Tried the orange beef- “Alan style”. Spicy and sweet and so so good! The string beans and beef- so flavorful and tender and the perfect balance of beans and meat. The house fried rice was also amazing! This is such a great addition to lower Greenville. Best part? Amazing food AND reasonable prices. Finally a delicious place were with most entrees under 20 bucks. You gotta try it!! Karen, the manager is so welcoming and the wait staff from TY to Alan- just so helpful and efficient.

Previous review:

Decided to give this place a try today and was pleasantly surprised! They are still operating on a “soft opening” menu so- more to come. Started with a cocktail, of course. Of the three we tried, the HiBaller was the best! Then we moved on the the pork soup dumplings, which were superb. Then- THE ABSOLUTE HIGHLIGHT- the hot and sour soup. It had a bit of a kick and was truly the best I’ve ever had. They get a 5 star review just for that soup- OMG- I mean seriously you have to try it. We had the beef and string beans which were very good, but also a little light on the beef, to be honest. BUT- the beef was tender, flavorful and delicious! The chow mein was very good. The fried rice was a bit disappointing. BUT… did I mention the soup? It was so good that they still get 5 stars… yes… seriously...