Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings — Restaurant in Denver

I'm sad to report a disappointing experience at Nana's. I emailed the restaurant 10 days ago to share this feedback directly and they never replied. Sharing that same email here. This is the first time I've ever written a negative review anywhere, but the experience was that rough that it felt important to share it.

"Hello,

We were sad to be disappointed by our experience on Friday night at Nana's. We appreciate how busy your restaurant is and for good reason, the food was delicious, but we felt it important to share this experience because unfortunately we left with quite a bad taste.

The first person in our group arrived at 4:50pm to put our names in for a group of 6 arriving at 5:30. The hostess let us know there was no wait currently- that our full party would need to be there to be seated, but that she could let us know if it was getting near full. I let her know we would wait at the bar and would sit at a table with whoever we had at that point if it was filling up. At 5:30 when we were all there- I came back to let her know. She came back to me after and seemed exasperated and let me know she had forgotten and there weren't tables now and the wait would be till past 6. At that point all 6 of us were huddled in a small spot at the bar and we let her know we would wait- as already over an hour had passed, but we weren't given any clear timeline of how long that wait might be.

Between 4:50-7:30pm we checked in a number of times hoping a table would come available- we ran up a bar tab for hours waiting - and we were told we weren't far. We would have gone elsewhere if someone had leveled with us and said "we forgot you guys and you didn't get seated and now it may be hours". More than 2 hours into waiting when we were quite hungry and it became clear that we may not get a table- one of our friends who is a new mom had to go home hungry. At that point the rest of us decided to order food at the bar- 5 people standing and hovering in a spot meant for 3, and while the food was delicious, the dining experience at that point was rough. Midway through, we got a text that our table was free, which we missed because we were eating and the phone wasn't out. The hostess and manager knew where we were and didn't come grab us at the bar until 5 mins after the text to let us know they gave up the table.

We appreciated the hostesses, bar staff, and manager trying to problem solve with us, but will admit that when the check came and what the restaurant did to make it right for us was take $39 off one of our two tabs, this didn't quite do it for us after experience we had. We appreciated something being offered but between the 6 of us that came out to less than $7 / person on hundreds of dollars spent total for a 3+ hour rough experience. We live in the neighborhood and are restaurant people, we were so excited to come to this restaurant, but must admit we left wishing we had been handled with more care by the manager we were communicating with. (An aside*- the bar staff was so kind to us- we loved them and thank you!).

I can appreciate what a challenge it is to be a new very busy restaurant on a Friday night and these things happen. It's stressful trying to fit everyone in and I really get it- I worked in food service for years and I know how this goes. But from that service perspective, with a bit more care and tending, it could have been solved and righted for us and we would have left happy. We felt it was important for you guys to know to consider this sort of thing for next time - we love dim sum and hoped to leave wanting to come back all the time and to tell our friends and neighbors to go and that wasn't what happened.

Thank you for hearing us.

Best,

Liz G and the Dumpling Damsels...

Dim Sum? Or "DidweGetSum? " [ Disgruntled Server, to only receiving half of our orders, leading to half the experience. ] A question you may ask when going to, "Nanas Dim Sum & Dumplings" Me and A group of friends arrived a nearly a half empty establishment (given the super bowl was playing!) We ordered lots of food to try almost 2-3 items per person! The 1st round food rushed over and was fantastic. The atmosphere was beautiful, complimenting the people and the food full of beautiful cultural ambience! We enjoyed our food! Each expertly handmade, talented chiefs who work tirelessly! And so for the dishonorable parts of out experience , and yes I use the word dishonorable , the only thing that is a major complaint is, our specific server, I will keep their name disclosed. But small Blond individual , who had very much been a pleasure at first! But unfortunately, we never received half out order! For order we DID receive , it was gorgeous. Fantastic. Absolutely delicious, to DIE FOR. I reccomend the shrimp Dumplmings 4pc, Absolutely divine! Unfortunately upon ordering more, we never received our 2nd round of Those Dumplings, along with many other items, we waited nearly 30-40 minutes, under the impression we would receive the rest of our orders, but unfortunately as common as the service in our server, we where left with only empty baskets, with empty hearts and stomachs, as we wait, and understandably give. The craft, we all watched our server sit but the cash register staring into the sunset, just as we wished to walk out to see the sunset to end our day. But unfortunately we felt we waited for food that would never see the our hungry eyes. We waited endlessly to a point we even received the tab ! But in disbelief we had only received less than a quarter of our initial order unfortunately. After flagging down our very accommodating and kind server asking about the food sent out, they had informed us our food woild he comming, So we waited. And waited, drink orders took just as long, as we stare into the decor, we contemplate our plans to wlak over to the next McDonald's for potentially a much more accommodating server. Upon flagging our server once again, it was indeed confirmed there would be no food sent, as we initially thought. The prices where proplely priced for this divine craft, but if only we could have had our full experience than half experience + our slowly passivly agressive rude server. Perhaps we underestimated our expeditions of service in fine dinning experience, but we also underestimated how amazing the food was , as it was fantastic every bite. YUM.!! We left the restaurant feeling satisfied with the food, but we left with unsatisfactory in our stomacks and rushed over to scavenge food the way home. Do I reccomend? Oh Yes fantastic! Do I reccomend the food? ABSOLUTELY. Where we unlucky with our server? Only time can tell as I will come back again, and this time with keen eyes on service, but will know I will enjoy the food. This has been your hungry everyday lovely person...

An excellent meal - kudos to the kitchen and our server - was marred this past weekend by a bartender on a power trip.

We ordered 22 ish items to eat for our group plus a couple rounds of drinks. Things went south when the second round of drinks were completely different (made incorrectly and even had a different color…) from the first round. No biggie, it happens, so we sent back the drinks (3) to be remade. We were informed there was a shift change and a new bartender made them. Again, no biggie, please just remake them. All good.

About 5 minutes later after receiving the corrected second round drinks, we were laughing and indulging in the fantastic food when accosted by an overly aggressive female bartender named Britney with what can only be explained as having zero EQ or a complete lapse in judgement.

What followed next was the most inappropriate interaction from restaurant staff I’ve ever encountered.

Britney approached our table and decided to take matters into her own hands.

Not only were we questioned and scolded as to why our drinks came back - direct quote “I’m just trying to figure out why you guys keep sending drinks back and what we can do to make you stop sending drinks back” - coupled with a high school bully attitude problem. In what world is it appropriate to harass a table who just spent over $500 on dim sum? Never is the answer. She also felt it necessary to tell us - and I quote - “our juices are pasteurized and we don’t squeeze our own juices so that’s why the color is off.” Yummy! Because who wants fresh squeezed juice anyway at a $15+ cocktail price point? Lol.

We told her to bring us water instead since we were all out and she grabbed one of those pre-filled vessels and just set it down on the table and walked away instead of being of service and pouring it.

Our server came back over after witnessing the whole thing and was clearly mortified and apologized all over the place. It wasn’t her fault that her colleague came unhinged on her table. She was apologetic and we asked to speak to the manager.

The manager then swung by and tried to patch things up by apologizing for her unnecessary behavior. We planned to order more food and drinks (they have a great sake list) but like I said, the meal was ruined by the last 5 minutes or so.

We left and moved onto one of the many other watering holes in the area that make consistent and high quality drinks. It’s a shame poor service and lack of customer care ruined our...