Ugly Dumpling - Holmdel, NJ — Restaurant in Holmdel Township

Really cool, hip take on classic Chinese/Taiwanese foods! It's not a made-from-scratch-in-the-back-room, super-fresh dumpling place like you might find in Edison, but that's not what it's trying to be either. For a quick, efficient counter-service take-out place, Ugly Dumpling Express hits the spot when you're craving a consistent soup dumpling or comfort rice/noodle dish on the go. The prices are reasonable, and the taste is surprisingly authentic for an "express" shop.

I've gotten it to-go as well as dine-in. The soup dumplings do indeed have soup, which is better appreciated when dining in. The food comes out piping hot and well-steamed in the classic bamboo steaming baskets. The popcorn (salt & pepper) chicken is a must-order for us. It's well-seasoned, crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. We also had the beef noodle soup and were very pleasantly surprised by the fullness of the broth's flavor. The beef was quite tender; it did have a bit more tendon than I like, but this was to my wife's taste. The cucumber salad is cut in large chunks, but well-marinated, and the cold side dish complemented the hot dishes well.

We also ordered the sesame noodles to-go. They do a great job at packaging the sauce and noodles separately so the noodles don't get soggy or oversaturated. These dishes (saucy noodles, dumplings, etc.) aren't traditionally great when not immediately consumed, so I do appreciate that they take extra measures to preserve the texture and flavor for a take-out option.

All in all, we're very happy to have a local dumpling spot in Holmdel. It's at least 80% as good as the authentic hole-in-the-walls in Edison or Chinatown, but 100% worth it to avoid the crowd, traffic, and wait times trekking out there! Would definitely recommend - and give dining-in a chance for...

People complaining about the food being in cardboard boxes and utensils being plastic don't seem to understand that this is a counter service restaurant meant to be convenient for taking the food to-go. If you want a finer presentation of the food, try their Edison location where it is table service.

I tried three kinds of XLB (chicken, pork and crab, and pork) and they were all good in my opinion, especially with the side of ginger and soy sauce. I also tried the steamed pork buns, which were two for $4, a reasonable price for the size of the buns. The filling is similar to the pork XLB. The scallion pancakes and spring rolls were pretty good, just up to par with similar Chinese places in the area, but a bit too oily for me. As for the service, it seems like most of their employees just need to get used to the work. When we went for dinner during their opening week, my family ended up waiting for about 40 minutes, but that's to be expected for a new business people are excited to try out. I went with my friends a few days later for lunch and the food came out really fast despite them having a lot of take out orders. We could tell on both occasions though that some of the staff are not yet super familiar with a lot of things, such as the ordering system, drink recipes, etc. I don't think they'd be my first choice for when I want take out but I'll...

Ordered takeout, this review does not include Isabella who helped me, she gets an A+ We ordered a few different things to try, soup dumplings was one…gotta find a different way to pack them, they were stuck to the paper they were packed with and when I tried to pull them off they ripped open, losing all the soup! Peanut sauce for the noodles was very bland, and the noodles were in one big clump! Braised baby back ribs tasted good, but there was mostly all bone, (huge pieces of bone, I’ve never seen bones that big from baby back ribs), in the little cup that I got and paid $12.50 for! Sautéed bok choy was okay, and the spring rolls were good. I also ordered pork & shrimp dumplings which were okay, though very tiny. I know they just opened but this is not a brand new concept for them, there are other locations! Overall, not enough to make me go back, definitely not...