Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings - Flushing — Restaurant in New York

Update 3/19/23: the good news, credit card charges have been sorted out and I was refunded for the item I did not receive. Bad news, I think was too generous with the 2 star review.

Adding a picture of the chicken in wine sauce after I got it home. Notice there are no sauce in the container? At first I thought it got absorbed by the paper container. Nope, there’s no flavor to the chicken, it tasted like boiled plain chicken. Chicken in wine sauce requires the chicken to soak in wine sauce for some time in order to pick up the flavor. I used to placed 2-3 orders of it at once because I was too lazy to try making it myself and was willing to pay the price premium for it. This one tasted like it was dunked once in sauce and taken out to drain before being placed in the container. I think I saw someone else mention this place feel like a fast food chain now, and that’s a pretty accurate description. With Chinese food, especially regional specialty dishes like these, there are processes and steps to complete in order to achieve the right flavor. Shortcuts are reflected directly in the taste.

This place is not what it used to be. I’d still get some of the quick appetizers like scallion pancake with sliced beef, it’s hard to mess that up. But all the signature dishes I used to come here for, everything from the crabmeat soup dumplings to the chicken in wine sauce broke my heart recently. This place used to be so good I’d take a random weekday off from work just to avoid crowds and wait time to eat there. I love good food and I’m a creature of habit once I find a good restaurant. Sad that this now forces me to start exploring other restaurants again for a new go-to spot.

Original review: Love the food, hate the wait. Whether you’re eating in or taking you food to go, don’t come here hungry.

The Flushing location is a total mad house. I usually take my order to go now if I want soup dumplings on the weekend, even so it’s a struggle to get the food. The midtown location is much better organized but I only go there on weekdays.

My most recent order confirmation for the Flushing location said 40 minutes before it’s ready. I showed up 50 minutes later and was told it wasn’t ready. I waited another 10 minutes before I realized the guy next to me had a pickup order 37 numbers behind me and just left with his food. I asked again and they couldn’t even find a record of my order in the system. I waited another 30 minutes or so in the restaurant before they told me my order is just short one item and it would take about 10 minutes to steam it, guess they started making my order after the second time I asked for it.

I was going to wait for my full order since by now I already sunk about an hour and a half into getting lunch and felt invested, but the lady at the counter kept asking if I wanted a partial refund for the dumplings that are still in the steamer, I had a feeling the estimated time may be overtly optimistic and she was subtly telling me to take my order now. Anyways, she took down my credit card number and phone number to process the refund later. Let’s see if it comes through, not holding my breath based on the level of organization I’ve seen. I’m going to be extremely angry if I end up having to dispute the charge through my credit...

Soup Dumplings are the primary draw of this restaurant and if you have a hankering for them you've come to the right place.

When you walk in from the corner entrance there is a station where you can get on the waitlist if already busy. I arrived Sunday evening after 7pm and there were some people at the entrance landing waiting for orders. Parking is pretty difficult as it's metered in the area and though the public parking lot is diagonally across from the establishment it was totally full since Sunday's a free parking. There are parking lots a bit further away in the surrounding area but I would suggest either park far away and walking. The entrance seems clean but I'd rater it 7 out of 10. There is a water with lemon in a dispenser for you if there is a wait. We walked up the stairway to the second floor seating area and were greeted and seated promptly.

To the right there is seating in a nook whereas to the left there is additional seating along the glass window. Noise levels were not too bad so it doesn't impede conversations. We were given menus and served hot tea.

The wait staff are cordial and allowed us time to glance over the menu to make our selection. The temperature was evenly balanced compared to the evening's temperature outside of high 70's and low 80's. Inside it was comfortable, not warm nor cold. The wait for food was not bad even though it was busy.

We ordered: (1) Shanghai Stir-Fried Udon - Thick noodles stir-fried with bok choy and pork (2) Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings (6) - Our most iconic handmade soup dumplings. Classic pork-filled dumplings with rich, savory broth, in a delicate hand-rolled wrapper (1) Crab Meat & Pork Soup Dumplings (6) - Juicy dumplings combining rich crab meat and tender pork (1) Truffle & Pork Soup Dumplings (6) - Premium soup dumplings with aromatic truffle and succulent pork

The online pictures are fairly accurate of what you will be served. Unfortunately I was a bit slow and didn't get any picture of most of the dumplings except the last tray of (the remaining 4) Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings which were tasty. The Shanghai Stir-Fried Udon's thick noodles stir-fried with bok choy and pork are tasty and tender. Each of the Soup Dumplings are tender and chewy filled with flavorful soup each with their own distinct flavor. There use to be other locations with better soup dumplings but currently this is one of the better restaurants offering soup dumplings. One of the many ways I would grade soup dumplings are by the tenderness, elasticity, and thinness of the dumpling skins. Additionally it would be the tenderness and flavorfulness of the contents of the dumpling. One thing I noticed is that due to how busy the restaurant was when we arrived we had to waive over the wait staff to get more tea several times. This is expected with such a busy establishment.

Last thing you should be aware of is that when you get the check it's advertised that if you pay with cash there is a 3.5% discount (at the time when this review was written, To get this you should ask the wait staff and they will reprint the check with the discount listed.

*If I get a chance I'll post more additional photos of other dishes we've...

Came here on a Saturday night, around 10:30pm. There were 4 of us, no reservation. They sat us right away even though the place was packed - I think we had good timing! It was freezing out so we couldn’t wait to sit down in warmth and have some tea and some good food in us.

We ordered the Panfried pork buns, signature pork soup dumplings, Scallion Pancake, Shanghai Stir-fried udon, pan-fried crispy noodles with shredded pork and the stir fried rice cakes with seasonal seafood, and the soy milk drink with sugar.

The latter 3 dishes were ordered by friends, so I can’t speak to how those dishes were but they finished it all and said it was good! So it had to be!

The pork soup dumplings were great with a good amount of soup within each dumpling. Taste was exactly what it was supposed to be. Is it the best soup dumplings ever? No. But in that moment, it was enough to satisfy my craving for soup dumplings. They also give you a good amount of sliced ginger for the table and let you pour the vinegar and soy sauce mixture by yourself. I’m not a fan of the sauce but I do love the ginger. Also excuse the out of place soup dumpling that’s on my plate and not in the steamer… I got too excited and forgot that the camera eats first. Oops!

As for the Shanghai stir fried noodles, I’d say skip that. We were craving stir fried noodles but this just wasn’t it. While this dish contained lots of bok choy and pork to accompany the noodles, the noodles were too dry (not enough sauce), not enough flavor, and we found out at the end that the majority of the pork had fallen to the bottom of the plate and was left for last instead of eating with each bite of udon.

The pan fried pork buns came first with the wrong order(the crab one instead of pork) but they were quick to resolve that. The pork buns were nice and hot, with a good sear on the bottom. Biting into it, the flavor was sweet but savory - a good mixture of tastes. However, the bun itself was doughy and thicker than we would have liked.

The scallion pancakes were good! While a bit oily, it was savory, crispy and came with a sweet hoisin sauce. Definitely heard the crunch there!

This place definitely beats nanxiang express and this storefront is conveniently near the 7 train in Flushing (Main St). If you’re craving soup dumplings, this is the place to go but don’t expect the food to taste as good as people hype it up to be! I would say do come for the service though because they were very attentive (to filling our teas) and very nice.

Also, it’s 3.5% cheaper if...