Bo Lings — Restaurant in Overland Park

My family came into town and wanted dimsum, so, because we had a good experience here before, we decided to bring them here. Getting a table was quick, ordering was good, getting our food was quick but when it came to getting enough tea cups and water for our table, this came horribly slow. We literally had to ask 6 times, all different people. And the amount of tea cups we asked for, did not come out as asked, we had to ask for more on separate occasions. When it came to boxing, we had to wait 15 minutes after we finished our meal to finally get boxes. Boxes given weren't enough and calculated for what we had left over. And no bag was ever given to pack them all. We carried the boxes out individually ourselves. WHAT TOPPED OFF THE WORST SERVICE EVER, was when I went to pay my bill. I went to the "bar" and the girl who rung me up told me a total WITHOUT SHOWING ME AN ITEMIZED BILL OR EVEN A BILL AT ALL, and when I asked her again how much my bill was, she said "it's $$$, I will show you when you pay." Like EXCUSE YOU? NO,... YOU SHOW ME NOW, HOW MUCH I OWE YOU BEFORE I PAY YOU, SO I KNOW HOW MUCH I'M SUPPOSED TO PAY YOU. So, in my right, I asked her to show me my bill, again, so I could see it and she finally shows me. I find out that a % gratuity was already charged so I DIDN'T PAY tip given the gratuity was more than the 20% that I would have paid despite the HORRIBLE service after. What I am trying to say from this is IF this lady did not show me my bill because maybe she wanted MORE TIP out of us, because they had charged us a gratuity, I would have paid DOUBLE TIP, for poor service! We waited 15 minutes for boxes then waited another 15-20 to get our bill to pay for it. HORRIBLE SERVICE! Food may be good but if the service is poor I would not...

I've had better experiences at their other locations. The most recent issue was that when I walked in to order food at the bar (I live close by and felt like making a phone call was silly since I wasn't on a time crunch), There were two employees sitting at the closest table prepping food (didn't bother me) and a third employee walking around. I think he was checking tables for the dinner crowd. A young woman was sitting at the bar, seemingly waiting on her order. There was no one behind the bar and I waited. And wait. And waited some more. I waited 12 minutes for someone to help me, during which none of the other three employees I had mentioned even greeted me or assured me that someone would be out to help or even went to get someone. Even if those two sitting at the table were back of house employees, someone could've stood up and gotten the person who could take my order. Not one of them did. As I said, I wasn't on a time crunch, but I sure didn't want to wait 12 minutes just to PLACE my order. I heard the phone ring and ring several times. It seemed no one answered it. The young woman waiting with me had to ask the woman who finally walked out and took my order if her food was ready. It had been sitting in a bag on the back counter for several minutes by the time they figured out that the other bag of food wasn't hers. I don't know what they need to change, but at the very least, some hospitality training...

If you crave Dim Sum, this is THE place to go in KC. Unfortunately KC used to have a few more choices, but nowadays it's only at Bolings. Their dim sum is very very good. I would say it is on par with some of the best I've tried throughout my travels including in many Chinatowns in different US cities. Boling's is consistently one of the better ones I've had. The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that they have been raising prices like crazy. It seems every few months they will come up with a new menu with new prices.. Now the cheapest thing on the menu is 5.5 per small plate. I remember the good old days when they were 3 dollars and 4 dollars. For two people you can easily spend 80 bucks on dim sum if you want to try a variety of things. Service is hit and miss depending on how busy they are. Some days it's very very crowded. The waiting staff shares the waiting responsibilities, so you may not get a dedicated server for your table. You will have to flag down a random waiter as they walk by. I think they share all the tips perhaps divided equally among them. It's not a big deal, but I would rather have the same waiter/waitress throughout. But bottom line, for dim sum, Boling's is the only game in town. And you have to pay for this specialty and also for the good quality food they offer. I do recommend it if you have never tried...