DAO Dim Sum & Chinese Cuisine — Restaurant in New York

Absolutely Disgraceful Treatment. Avoid at All Costs

I don’t usually leave reviews, but the level of disrespect and outright arrogance we experienced at this restaurant deserves to be called out.

I walked in with my wife’s family, including her, disabled aunt, looking for a nice dinner out. We asked for a table for 5. The restaurant was more than half empty, and we were seated directly under a freezing AC unit. I politely asked if we could move to a more comfortable spot, but the so-called owner, a smug, disinterested younger guy, immediately shut that down. His response? “That’s the only table for 5.” Never mind the several open tables around us, including a table for 7 that was clearly unoccupied.

Trying to problem-solve, I asked if he could push two smaller tables together, something literally any decent restaurant would do to accommodate guests. His response? A flat-out “No. That’s not how we do things.” When I asked for clarification, he essentially told us to take it or leave it. “You can sit at the table for 5, or you can eat somewhere else.”

Let me be clear: we weren’t being difficult. We weren’t asking for anything outrageous. But this guy, who claims to be the “owner”, treated us like we were an inconvenience, not paying customers. At one point, after I started to get frustrated and pointed out how empty the restaurant was, he flat out told us to leave.

I’ve worked in the hospitality business. My father owns a restaurant. If he ever treated a guest this way, he’d be out of business in a week. The young man running this place doesn’t give “owner” energy, he gives “entitled kid playing boss while his parents are out of town” energy.

It was embarrassing, stressful for my family, and deeply upsetting. We left without ordering a single thing, and I hope others do the same. There are plenty of restaurants that understand what hospitality actually means. This is not one of them.

One star is generous.

I don’t know how they have 4.8 rating on Google. My guess is that they paid for the reviews, a practice that Google prohibits but is...

I was walking around looking for a dinner place when I stumbled upon this awesome place! First off, I've got to say - my server Joe was phenomenal. He was extremely attentive and friendly, being very honest with the portions. He even noticed that my single table was a bit wobbly and immediately fixed it unprompted.

For the food, I like dissecting my food so pardon my pictures of half eaten dim sum dumplings, but they give a good look into what types of fillings they are. Hargao and Shumai were very familiar dim sum staples, but the hargao was especially plum and large whilst the Shumai was very savory. Personally I wasn't a big fan of the green spinach and prawn dumpling, as it was a bit thick on the wrapper and the green flavor was a bit strong. The mushroom and truffle was especially strong, which caught me by surprise. I feel that if the truffle was toned down a bit, the mushroom would shine through much better and would be better balanced. My particular favorite was the deep fried pastry dumpling with a beef filling (bottom row, left column). I kid you not, it tastes like KFC gravy - and I love that flavor! All in all, the dim sum sampler platter was a fun experience, and definitely worth a try.

Lastly, I had the sizzling plate beef, with black pepper sauce. The flavors were balanced, savory and a hint of soy sweetness. It came with a bowl of rice and it was delicious!

In the end, as stuffed as I was, Joe was such a homie and hooked me up with a bowl of mango dessert. It was a nice cool juice/porridge, reminding me of a mango lassi. It wasn't overly sweet either, which was perfect as I usually am not big on sweets... But this was well balanced!

Overall, would try again :) great food, and lastly,...

PROs - location , service and food taste CONs- not much vegetarian options.

Great location. Right on Madison Ave . Was hungry and was craving Chinese food . Lunch specials were about 13-14$ .. wanted to taste this food , looking at all Google reviews . Was a 4 plus review in Google .. service was good .the only issue was the waiter / waitress wasn’t sure about vegetarian stuff and he had to go to chef and check everything . Also the vegetarian options were very limited in lunch specials. Lots of seats to sit and dine . Ambience was good .

Ordered mapo tofu With spring rolls and hot and sour soup. Spring rolls were a bit cold and I thought it would be hot .. taste was good but I wish it was a little bit fresh . Hot and sour soup was just incredible.. superbbbbbbbb.. tasted really good …. Mapo tofu tasted good but I wish the tofu was a bit fried (like general tsos tofu” . I asked them and they said it will be fried . Too much quantity of tofu and very less sauce . Wish they had more sauce . Overall I liked the food 🍱.. very good experience ..

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