Dumpling Time — Restaurant in Palo Alto

It seems like Dumpling Time is new and has landed at Stanford Shopping Center. As exciting as we were, having a dimsum restaurant in the mall, this is a bit of a mixed bag. The one-line summary is above average, factory-style dimsum sold for ultra premium prices at a comfort restaurant decor.

First of all, the name is approrpiate. Dimsum is your true Cantonese / Hong Kong area stuff. Dumpling points towards more mainlain China. This is NOT your true dimsum place. Yes, they may have some popular dimsum classics but it is not as deep in flavor. Their pork bbq bun or siu mai, and even xiaolong bao, all are above average but never really hits you with a wow. I'm not sure whether this is because it is not their focus or because they are mass producing these in a factory or factory-like kitchen in the back.

Now being a dumpling shop (mainland China), there are some awesome and unique dumplings that you'd never see in a dimsunm shop. The chili-oil dumplings were quite good. And also a seaweed-wagyu pan fried potsticker was something I've never tasted in my life. And it was wonderful. So again, there are some bright side.

Now, the service. Not sure whether they are steaming these after the order goes in but it is quite slow, despite not that many customers. Again, this felt weird and the food came out in random orders. Perhaps they have not yet figured out operations fully.

But the final nail in the coffin is the price. For the amount of dimsum / dumpling we had, paying $200+ was insane. Literally insane. The food again is less authentic, less flavorful, rather quite commercial. So perhaps the price should match that.

I would've given it 2 stars but rounded up to 3 because there is some hope on unique dishes. Most likely we won't return unless we are dying for dumplings at Stanford Shopping Center.

I wish the restaurant the best. But most likely, they'll need to cut prices by 30~40% if they...

⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3/5) The food at Dumpling Time Palo Alto was delicious — the bao, XLB, and cucumber salad were all great, and everything tasted fresh and well made. However, the service left a bit to be desired. There was one excellent busser who was attentive and kind, but most of our interactions with the servers were disappointing.

When our XLB came out, we were given red chili oil instead of vinegar. We politely mentioned this to our server, who insisted it was vinegar and began explaining all the sauces and how to eat XLB — which came across as unnecessarily condescending. We asked another server, who also insisted it was vinegar, until we demonstrated the consistency and they finally realized it was oil. They eventually brought the correct vinegar, but the situation could have been handled more graciously.

At the end of the meal, we waited quite a while for our check, and when it was finally brought out, the waitress completely brushed off the earlier mix-up without acknowledgment. Overall, the food was great, but the service experience really took away from the meal. We may or...

At best, this is mediocre fusion food. Don’t be fooled by the chinese text in the logo! Din tai fung prices and portions for less than average dumplings. This place tries to do too many things at the expense of not excelling at any.

Scallion noodles: noodles were too al dente. Portion size was like 3 chopstick-fulls. Not good.

Pork dumplings: not bad… but um why are radishes and fennel garnishing this dish? So weird. Dumpling filling doesn’t usually contain these. Do these flavors even go together?

The xlb combo: sounds good in theory. I love kimchi stew, pho, and tom yum. But none of them came close to what I was expecting. It was like how people describe la croix: a whisper of flavor. They were good as xlb but did not come close to the real soups. Original was good, but did not come with ginger or black vinegar. They bring out a little bit of red vinegar. The vinegar was weird… didn’t seem as acidic as other chinese restaurants. The wagyu xlb was probably the best, only because it wasn’t trying to live up to an already popular dish.

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