Mason's Dumpling Shop - Lakewood — Restaurant in Lakewood

So this is my second review for Masons, the first at the Aurora location, and this one at the Belmar location. The food is delicious. The scallion pancakes? Like if a tortilla and a croissant had a baby. Insane. The pork belly boa? So freaking good. a fluffy, rich, crunchy, salty, spicy delight. We've been there twice in a month. The food makes me overlook what I'm about to say. I say it because I hope their service improves.

The service was not organized at all. Either time. The first time we went there on a Friday night, it was busy and I excused the the person who sat us didn't tell us how things worked or give us an ordering sheet. This could have been accomplished with one sentence. This particularly smarted since the table he sat after us got instructions and an order sheet. I definitely forgive this once. Sometime things are overlooked or missed.

We went again on a Sunday afternoon (after 2), and despite ten open tables, and at least three staff people were working, was told there would be a ten minute wait. While we waited, a couple came in and said they wanted to sit on the patio with their dog. The server told them that they weren't set up for outside service so it might be a minute. They sat outside, and then we were sat. While we waited, they were served on the patio and got food before the server came for our order.

(Keep in mind that the entirety of service at this place is bringing water and then taking a sheet that the customer fills out with their order. It isn't hard to wait tables here. You bring water and then food runners bring whatever dish comes up first. If you want a beverage other than water you have to flag someone down.)

I like communal service. I like efficient service. Some simple changes in training could fix this. A tiny bit of attention to the guest experience could vastly improve the service here.

Like I said though, the food is top notch. Maybe this is a...

This review is intended for the mgmt and ownership team at Mason's. We were excited to try this location, as it's near our home and we've often visited the Aurora and Boulder locations. Unfortunately, even with this location being fresh and new, we were very disappointed in the overall experience as compared to what we are used to at the other locations.

The interior of the shop looks like Mason's has done almost no work to improve it from whatever establishment resided there previously. The floors were dirty, there were boxes piled everywhere around the register, multiple plants were brown and dead. Overall, this looked like a shop that's been open for 25 years versus something that just opened over a month ago.

The staff seemed poorly trained, young, and without leadership. The shop wasn't busy but we found it challenging to get someone's attention to get us a table, to eventually bring us waters, to provide a menu, and to take the order.

Upon receiving the food, our normal array of steamed and fried dumplings and XLBs, we were very underwhelmed. The pan fried dumplings well all covered in oil and had a high shine to them, the steamed dumplings were all stuck together, tore apart, and in general the skin of all the dumplings was very very strangely thick.

The bottomline is this; we are fans of this brand and generally have had good experiences at the other locations. That being said, this location seems to be a total afterthought in most every regard. We waited so long for another location to open on the West side of Denver...and now that its arrived...it was very disappointing.

I would urgently suggest that ownership or management install a business leader, who can watch over and improve this location day after day and month after month. Without that TLC, I don't anticipate they'll even make it a year. You can do better Mason! I...

FOUND A MOUSE IN THE BATHROOM AND SEAFOOD WAS RAW Husband and I wanted to try something new a few days ago, so we decided we would try masons dumpling shop in Belmar, we are big dumpling enjoyers and are always looking for new places to try! Despite the 4.0 star review we decided to give it a go! When we walked in it smelled horrible, like sulfur? Probably something with there sewage pipes. Not a pleasant first impression but we had already made the drive.

We ordered our food, which was the crab soup dumplings, fried chicken dumplings, and seaweed salad. it took awhile but We were patient. The crab was undercooked and all of the dumplings were cracked-I'm not even joking you every single one! The pan fried chicken dumplings were flavorless and soggy. The seaweed salad, which came out at the same time as the entrees even though it was an appetizer, was okay but only good after a couple bites.

After a bit of sitting around and contemplating what to do, I went to use the bathroom. Only to find out there was a MOUSE in the womens stalls. I attached some photos of the mouse in the bathroom below. There was also dead flies scattered around the building. Absolutely disgusting how is this placee even open? This place definitely isnt up on there health code...

I have never left a review before but I have never been somewhere with this many issues. And these issues are serious safety hazards. raw seafood? MICE and critters?! This Place should not be up and running because they clearly dont know what they are doing.

My husband and I have already contacted the health department so hopefully it will get taken care of but in the meantime stay safe out there my fellow dumpling...