Steamed — Restaurant in New Haven

The first time I dined here I had a good experience, now I will not be coming back. I came in to the restaurant with my partner on a Saturday night at 7 pm, I saw online they might be closing at 8 pm but they didn’t say anything when I walked in. Typically restaurants will turn you down or announce the time of closing in a similar situation. Instead I wasn’t even greeted by the Indian waitress she gave me a side eye and gave us a table (we went down through stairs on a first floor that’s where we got seated) First thing I didn’t like was her reaction to us coming in, there were a million other ways to handle the situation and she chose the worst one for the restaurant business. The other thing was a sticky table in the restaurant, which happens sometimes so we didn’t say anything. Then we waited for her for about 15 minutes to take our order (there was one table with 5 people seated next to us which already got their food) you would think since they were upset about us coming in late, you’d take our order faster which wasn’t the case. Next thing, huge red flag for restaurant business, she just asked what’s your order. No “sorry for the wait”, no “hi how are you guys”, very rude service. Next thing that contributed to our terrible experience was that our food got brought all together, we got an appetizer. So everything got sat at the table at the same time, typically restaurant first take an order of drinks and appetizers and then ask for your food order. Alright no big deal, we still decided to be positive about our night out although how mean the waitress was to us define was upsetting. But then she didn’t even come to check on us. Didn’t say a single nice thing, didn’t ask if the food tasted good. We wanted to place an order for dessert but she just brought us the bill SILENT, without asking us if we were ready for it. Each time she was going up and down, she was STOMPING on the stairs very loudly, probably to express how upset she was. I never heard anyone to walk down the stairs so loud so that was definitely on purpose. We were done with the food right at the time they closed, and a table that was next to us left at the same time as us. So there was absolutely no need for that reaction. Everyone wants to go home by the end of their shift but if you’re working in a food business, at least pretend to be nice and don’t ruin people’s day off. Hopefully she gets fired because I honestly liked the place and that’s why I came back for the delicious food. Unfortunately I couldn’t even get a desert because a bill was brought and we didn’t even get asked a single question while we were dining. Oh and yes she still got tipped, I wish we didn’t tip. Those people really don’t...

As a big Chinese foodie, I adore this place!!! Originally started coming here for their noodle soups in 2020, which are exquisitely flavourful and very authentic. The beef noodle soup is my go-to, especially in the winter. They’ve also recently started serving more menu items, including clay pot dishes, and this minced pork and chive flowers with salted black beans, which is my new favorite. The ambience is really cozy and the interior is well decorated. Can’t believe this place isn’t more popular! One of my absolute favorite spots to satisfy my Chinese cravings...

Stopped by for some dumplings and soup on a whim. Service was quick, there was no wait at all to dine in. We were really pleased with the braised beef soup, it was moderately spicy and had nice flavor, noodles had nice chew. The pork soup dumplings were excellent as were the beef dumplings. They were served super fresh straight in the bamboo steamer. This is quality, genuine Chinese food, it's in a different league compared to the typical "general tso's" type of Chinese food. We will definitely be going back to try more items...