Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings - Westfield Montgomery — Restaurant in North Bethesda

I ate here earlier today for lunch with a friend.

Rating the cooked to order food alone, I give this place 4 stars. We ordered traditional soup dumplings, crab and pork dumplings, pan fried pork dumplings, and the seafood noodle soup.

The traditional dumplings and the pan fried pork dumplings were both very good. The crab and pork dumplings were satisfactory. The contents of the soup dish were tasty, but the broth was quite gelatinous, probably because of the corn starch put on the fish cutlets. It's definitely not soup that you would want to drink, which was disappointing.

Couple of other notes: our hot tea was much too strong/bitter, the initial set of tea cups we were given were dirty and we had to ask for clean ones, and the preset soy sauce/vinegar dipping plates with ginger were not set equally.

Where there is room for improvement in this restaurant lies in the logistics and service. The wait for a table when the restaurant full requires the scanning of a QR code, which assigns you a number. The staff requested that we do this and then mentioned that we could walk around the mall while we waited the anticipated 20 to 30 minute wait time (according to the hostess). We chose not to walk around and stayed waiting by the door for 40 minutes, during which time we saw people who had arrived after us seated before us. As well, there were empty booths available for a stretch of time that we were not seated at.

What we figured out is that the number you are given after scanning the QR code and booking a place in line is an actual TABLE number, not simply a number for where you stand in the queue. So the way the system works is that you need to wait until THAT EXACT TABLE clears out before they will seat you. So if the guests at the table number you are given decide to spend half a day sitting and chatting, then you will be left waiting half a day to get seated. I think the staff acknowledged that we had waited an unduly long amount of time and eventually gave us the next available table after some people made a fuss about the queueing system which I think is, putting it kindly, suboptimal.

Regular queueing like dim sum at China Garden and dinner at East Pearl make much more sense, and there's a visible fairness to how guests get seated. There's an additional drawback to the QR code system, which is that people who don't have smart phones or don't know how to use them well (I know older Chinese people like this) will not be able to get a place in the queue. How does this restaurant propose to serve guests who don't understand technology? Or maybe the owners don't care about that market segment?

The staff is friendly enough, but the waiters and waitresses seemed a bit lost and forgetful at times. We had to remind staff on a couple of occasions about requests we had made, like mellowing out the tea with hot water and asking for the check. I won't go too hard on the staff working there, because I think the restaurant is understaffed. There was a sign outside advertising job openings for basically every restaurant position. But there is definitely room for improvement when it...

I visited during the opening weekend and there was a line out the door. After waiting for half an hour I was nearing the front, only for a worker to come out start telling people in the back of the line to scan a QR code to join the waitlist, which would be fine if they had also been seating people in the front who weren't on the digital waitlist. I asked a couple times if they were only seating people on the waitlist or also the people standing in line and didn't really get a clear answer. Only "You can join the waitlist so you don't have to stand in line." Eventually, it was clear that they prioritized people on the list rather than the people physically waiting in line.

Then once I joined the waitlist, it was expected to be another 1-2 hours before being seated. In this aspect, they handled things poorly. They should have printed out the QR code and instructions and placed it at the door to avoid confusion. I live nearby and just went back home. I went back the second Friday after opening, having joined the digital waitlist from the old link. There were 40 parties ahead to start and it took a little over an hour to reach the front, although there were probably some cancellations.

My friend and I ordered the pork, chicken, and truffle pork xiao long bao. The pork had a mild savory taste and was ok. Nothing special according to my friend, who lived in New York and eats his mom's homemade dumplings on the regular. We both thought that the chicken was more flavorful and was decently salted. The truffle pork dumplings were good; the truffle flavor was apparent, but not overpowering.

We also got the shrimp, pork & vegetable wontons in spicy peanut sauce and rice cakes with pork and potherb mustard. The wontons were good, but the sauce was not very spicy. The rice cakes were a bit bland to me. My friend said that that's how they usually taste.

I also got the mango lychee green tea, which had nice flavor and sweetness level. But there was a slight bitter taste to the tea. I prefer zero bitterness in my teas.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience. Once the crowds thin out, it will be good to have a soup dumpling place that is close by. Shout out to our server, Henry, and all the others. They've done well on...

Came here on a late Friday afternoon during their soft opening, so I know that comes with a few caveats. Food is delicious. We ordered the Shanghai pork ribs, signature XLB, chicken XLB, scallop XLB, pork and crabmeat pan fried buns, and scallion pancakes. The pork ribs were saucy, tender, and savory. They fell off the bone and the cartilage was delightful to chew (if you're into that). The table next to us told us they liked the Taiwanese short ribs better, so we're gonna have to try that next time. They were out of the crab and pork XLB as well as their lucky 6 XLB. Sad, but not surprised. The XLB were large and steamy. They had a thin slightly translucent wrapper and the broth and filling were flavorful. We definitely enjoyed the broth in the chicken XLB.

The service was a bit of a miss for me, but also understandable during soft openings. There were several people by the door, and when asked if they were waiting to be seated, one of them directed us to a tablet on a table with a QR code. We were able to check in our party with that, but no staff came around for a good 8 minutes. More people came in and stood behind us, so we informed them of the QR code.

During our dining experience, we weren't ready when the server came by to take our order, but it also took a while when we were ready. We didn't see them again until the table next to us flagged them for boxes and their check. The food came fast - it felt like 5 minutes fast. The XLB took the longest and arrived last. I saw it on their robot with our table number, and our server brought it over. When we were done, it was hard to find someone to get boxes and our check. Again, the table next us (new patrons at this point) flagged down someone to place their order, and then we were able to ask them for boxes and our check. They came back with boxes only, and I had to flag our original server to pay.

I saw a lot of staff moving about, and I understand it was busy. But they also had several empty tables, so I'm not sure why we and the table next to us had to flag down for help. Reminds me more neighborhood Chinese restaurants than American ones IYKWIM.

TL;DR - food awesome, service could be better. Would go back for the food and hope the service...