District Kitchen — Restaurant in Malden

I love their food, but we stopped ordering from them after a really bad experience with an online order a few months ago.

The order confirmation said the food would be ready to pick up in 40 minutes. I arrived at that time, and stood in their foyer and waited another 50 minutes beyond that for our order, while people who ordered 30 minutes after me got their food. This was made even worse by the fact that there is literally nowhere to live park while you pickup the food, so my car was blocking a travel lane (with the hazards on) for almost an hour while I waited for our food. It's a miracle that I didn't get ticketed or towed.

When I asked their staff why our food was taking so much longer, I was told that it was because our order was so large, and they wanted to get the smaller orders done first. They completely ignored the time that their online platform told me the food would be ready. I wouldn’t mind the longer wait if I had been told that upfront, instead of standing in their foyer for almost an hour in the middle of a pandemic.

When I said “So, your customers who spend the most, get treated the worst?”, I received a blank, confused gaze. I watched them cook our order while I was standing there waiting, 30 minutes after I showed up. Mistakes happen, but the way the handled it was very unprofessional. We ordered $80 worth of food that night. Meanwhile, people who spent $30 or less all got their food long before we did. That's poor business.

Any offer of a coupon or discount code that they give you is completely useless. It feels like a scam to attract business. You can't actually use it. Because I had ordered from them so much before, I had an email with a code for $10 off my next order. When I placed my order that night, there was no place ANYWHERE on their online checkout to enter a coupon code.

The women who appeared to be in charge that night did tell me that they would give me $30 off my next order, but she just scribbled something illegible on the bottom of my receipt. (Even if there was a way to enter the code on their website, what she wrote on the receipt was too illegible to use). Edit: I just checked their online ordering site again today (12/29/20), and there is STILL no place to enter a coupon code at the checkout. Why offer coupons if there's no way for people to redeem them?

Nope. I miss their food, but the poor service is inexcusable. I've spent literaly hundreds of dollars here since they opened, but they’ve lost my business.

Edit: I appreciate the reply from the manager, but it's a little too late to do damage control now. You had your chance to make things right while I was waiting in your entryway for almost an hour for my order. Your kitchen did not even start to cook our order until 30 minutes after I arrived. (Again, I arrived 40 minutes after placing the online order, which was the time that the order confirmation said the food would be ready.) You gave me a blank stare when I asked why our order was taking so long. A younger lady on your staff told me that our order was being made last because it was so large. You then scribbled something illegible on the bottom of my receipt, telling me that you would give me $30 off my next order. As I already said, that offer is useless, since there is no place to enter any kind of coupon code on your online order checkout.

You've already had enough of my time. No, I'm not going to call you to "straighten things out". The time to do that was while I was standing there waiting in your foyer for 50 minutes. I'm not looking for a discount on a future order. I'm not interested in standing around for an hour again, waiting for an order that was supposed to be ready when I arrived, while I pray that my car doesn't get towed. No amount of a discount is worth that.

This order was placed online on September 18th. I no longer have the receipt or order confirmation email. (I was able to find the date through bank records.) I did not have time to write a review then. Your recent promotional email reminded me of the...

I was really excited to go here but it went downhill fast

We had a reservation at 7pm for 4 people

We arrived early and checked in while waiting for the other two people in our party. However, they refused to seat us at 7pm without the whole party there even though there were multiple tables available. This was not mentioned to us when making the reservation even though our table was reserved. So, we had to wait awhile until our members running late arrived. In the meantime they offered to give us a menu to look at while we waited for the others even though we couldn’t order anything off it or grab a drink.

When we got to the table, we had a round of shots that turned out to be $17 each. We also put in some appetizers and drinks. Do not get the crystal shrimp dumplings. They tasted like the dishwasher.

After about 20 mins we started to wonder where our drinks were. So I got the attention of the waitress and she told us she gave them away to another table and that they had to be remade. We then had to wait another 10-15 mins for the drinks and they still charged us for them even though they literally gave them away. I bet they didn’t charge the other table for them.

Then the waitresses multiple times came over and took our menus to give to other tables despite not having ordered main courses yet and expressing that only to be told that they’d come back to take our order.

The mains were good but the service was extremely lacking. When taking the dishes away, sauce was poured on me and all I got was a quick sorry. In addition, we were never asked if we wanted another drink or dessert and my friend had to ask for a canned beer twice after needing to flag someone down.

To top it off, when we got the check, they charged us $60 in gratuity without being told beforehand that gratuity was automatically added. This was really upsetting considering our issues with the service. They did give us another round of shots to make up for it but even then we just wanted to go home. This place is overly hyped.

I would suggest not going here unless you’re a party of 12. That seems to be the only time they...

I really went in with high hopes, but there was a lot of disappointment. Let's talk atmosphere first, the place is quite dark, almost club dark, with very loud clubby music. There is also only one bathroom.

For service, there aren't a lot of servers, from what I could tell. It was a bit hectic and took a bit to get our server back.

Food. I. Am. So. Upset. The business OWNS their own website and has the ability to update it. The business also went viral for a bit online for their giant soup dumplings. We went for those giant soup dumplings. Did not see it on their menu in the restuarant. My friend drove an hour and a half for this. We asked the waiter who, I kid you not, smirks and says yeah we haven't had those for a while. It is literally one of the reasons why the Boston Globe even did a piece on the place and they boast about being in the Boston Globe. They also do not have half of the desserts they listed online. But ok, we were all disappointed and little confused by the response, but decided not to write off the place without trying the food. We got their regular soup dumplings, mama's dumplings, beef dumplings, wonton in chili sauce, scallion pancake, popcorn chicken, honey shrimp, and dandan noodles. They all fell flat. Everything seemed to be missing flavor some how. The soup dumplings were much smaller than any where else I've had them. The dandan noodles were really really a big miss, lack of flavor, but the noodles were cooked well. The shrimp was good, but you get five pieces of shrimp for $13... Everything seemed mispriced, especially for the amount and lack of flavor. The best bites were the shrimp, mamas dumplings, and soup dumplings though. We asked for desserts, since I saw mango crepe cake online. The waiter said no, they only have chocolate cake or cheesecake. I'm not sure if we went on an off day or what, but if you go, make reservations and bring...