Double Happiness Chinese Restaurant — Restaurant in North Carolina

Short version: Truly exceptional service and food! A breath of fresh air in a world full of mediocre "Chinese" food.

Long version: We were on vacation at Wrightsville and were recommended this restaurant by a coworker, who claimed it was the best Chinese food she'd had in her life. I was skeptical, but it was worth a shot.

We went for lunch with 4 hungry people - we got the dumpling sampler, 4 different dishes, and some of the highly-recommended firecracker chicken to share. We ordered some dinner portions which came with edamame & pickled veggies. The hostess (maybe the owner?) brought us out an extra so we could all have one, despite the 4 of us only having bought 3 dinner portions. Extremely thoughtful, and she was happy to explain the dishes and offer recommendations. The spring rolls were fresh, and the dumplings were soft and tasty. They serve Egg Drop Soup with spinach in it - I'd not had that before, but it ended up adding a lot of depth to an old favorite of mine. Definitely an improvement.

Since we all got different food, I got to try the Hong Kong Noodles, Dry Wok Chicken, Orange Peel Beef, and Beef & Broccoli. All of it was exceptional! Despite never even having heard of it before, the Dry Wok Chicken is my new favorite. The meat was tender with a crispy, well-browned (Always nice to see!) breading, and the veggies were soft with a good crunch.

My only regret is that I don't live closer. Absolutely the best Chinese food...

I have tried this place twice so far, focusing on their appetizers and dim sum dishes, since they are the only place in Wilmington with dim sum that I’ve found. The best dish I’ve had is the scallion pancakes! It is crispy, flaky, savory perfection! Would definitely be back just to eat that! Other dishes that were on par/delicious were the glutinous rice with chicken and the crystal shrimp dumplings. The pork potstickers were good too, though the dough wrapping was very thin—more like gyoza as opposed to homey Chinese handmade dumplings that I was hoping for. Dishes that were a bit disappointing were the steamed pork bun—this was not the dim sum pork bun at all! The biggest disappointment of all was the spicy chili oil wontons—the sauce was completely wrong! It was a sweet thickened brown sauce, not the normal chili oil sauce I am used to from Taiwan/every other restaurant/when Mom makes it. The chive shrimp “potsticker” was more of a crystal skin round dumpling that was pan fried. It tasted fine, but was misleading being called a “potsticker”. I would definitely come back and try more things on the menu and have more scallion pancakes. I hope they can fix the sauce for the chili oil...

Very pretty restaurant, food was good. The worst of the experience was created by the waiter. I was introducing my new girlfriend to my dad for the first time, and within 20 mins of us getting our food (this was at 8:00) The waiter comes over and ask us if we need boxes. We told him no. He brought boxes anyway. 5 mins later he comes back trying to box the food for us. Then 10 mins after him the manager tries to come box my food. 5 mins after that the waiter comes and drops off our check. Then comes back multiple times to ask if the check is ready, and explaining we can put a card down anytime. Meanwhile they are breaking down the restaurant blowing out candles. doing end of night clean up at 8:45. We ended up giving our cards so the waiter would stop bothering us. filled out their copies and had them sitting in front of us. Then the waiter came by and grabbed his tip receipts off our table while we were still in the middle of conversation. Over all it was super uncomfortable, and embarrassing. If you would like a not rushed sit down meal and good service this is not the restaurant to do so at. $70 to be treated like a inconvenience and annoyance is...