Dumpling King (Pembroke Pines) — Restaurant in Pembroke Pines

Dumpling King Pembroke Pines, joining their North Miami Beach and South Miami Beach locations.

This may be a case of them not being fully staffed yet but they are closed Monday AND Tuesday according to their posted hours on Yelp and also their signage at the counter. So just be aware.

Ok, so the inside of the place is no frills, with a view of the dumpling prep area behind glass. Counter ordering, they give you a number, and they bring stuff to your table.

Pan fried chive, pork shrimp dumplings: these are fantastic, juicy inside, crispy outside with that lovely cornstarch “skirt.” I’m inclined to try all the pan-fried varieties based on this one.

Soup dumpling (Xiaolongbao) pork: large specimens, thicker skins than the typical variety but stuffed with a lot of meat and juice. Very good; I’ll try the crab one next time.

The noodles they use here for all the noodle dishes, I believe, are thicker rice noodles, not wheat or egg noodles, because they are white.

Soybean paste noodle: The fermented soybean sauce is puréed with chunks of pork, accompanied by blanched veg for tossing—an excellent zhajiangmian variant.

Pickled cabbage and pork noodle: we all agreed this is a great soup, I would say at least as good as Mainland’s version. Excellent broth, nice amount of shredded pork in it, good briny flavor.

Sesame noodle: this is not the typical Chinese-Am version; it comes with a shredded omelet and also similar veg to the xiajiangmein for tossing. Sesame sauce is not too sweet. Improves with chili sauce added—good cold dish.

Egg rolls: we ordered these as a joke thinking they couldn't possibly be good. We were wrong, these are small, very crispy, well done deep fried, very clearly made in-house, and stuffed with a mix of what we believe is ground pork, cabbage, scallion, celery, and carrot. Has kind of a 1970s Chun King (remember those) frozen egg roll flavor but in a nostalgic good way. Not a typical Chinese-Am egg roll.

Scallion pancake: I thought these were okay, a bit too doughy, in my opinion.

Braised pork rice: this is a very soft five-spice pork belly served over white rice with baby bok choy and a tea stained egg. It's a comfort dish; if we weren't so stuffed by this point I would have...

Edith 09/072024 Wow I have NEVER seen the quality and flavor of a restaurant go SO bad SO soon! I have been eating at Dumpling King over 6 years, since they were a single store in Miami.

I have to say that there must be major changes going on because the seafood in the "Spicy Seafood Dip" was HORRIBLE. The 3 shrimp were NOT deveined and was cooked SOOO long that they were like rubber. The amount of tofu stuffed under the noodles was about half of the volume of the container, and uncooked bok choy thrown on top was just the nail in the coffin.

Then on to the dumplings themselves, I have never seen a restaurant that makes such amazing and tasty sauces and dumplings make a complete destruction in only a few months. The wrappers were too thick, the flavor of their shrimp pork and chive dumplings was seriously bland. And the quality of them overall has gone down so much that I absolutely hate to write a negative opinion on a restaurant that was SO good that I would drive from Weston to Miami. During the pandemic they were even better! Now that they have either sold to a new owner or just decided to use frozen food over fresh... I would rather have the frozen dumplings from the Asian Grocery store. Their dumpling sauce used to have great flavor, but not it is just some bland stuff that tastes like it came from a cheap bottle.

This just makes me so sad because it was the one place that had AMAZING food, I have sent so many people there, because of the authentic Northern Chinese food that I have missed. Now I will just have to make my own and freeze them.

*(Used to be...)This place has the most amazing dumplings any way you like them, and their seafood dip even as spicy (as I love it) is so flavorful with the broth being rich and reminds me of Northern Chinese food cooked by my old neighbors in California. Their fries chicken wings are amazing and pack a crunch you rarely get in a restaurant anywhere. All together it is the best Chinese restaurant that I've found in a restaurant down in South Florida. Definitely worth the money for...

Found this place through IG. This is an expansion from the north miami location. So I decided to come to try this location out and this was the perfect food for the cold weather for it!

Food: ordered the Shanghai soup dumplings, crab/pork soup dumplings, curry beef noodles, pan fried chive pork dumplings. Everything was super fresh and delicious. The soup dumpling are the best ones I ever had in Florida. Handmade dough and you can see the Asian ladies making them! The dough is a little thicker than usual for a soup dumpling but not overpowering. Still amazing !

The pan fried dumplings was very tasty and you can tell it is in house made based on the giant size. The curry beef soup was a little salty for my taste but it was super tasty!

Even though, I think it is a bit over priced but the quality and freshness is amazing. Literally, they have no direct competition. But they have done a great job keeping the quality and freshness!

One thing that I recommend that they should, they need to sell hot tea! 5/5

Service: the cashier is nice and she knew the popular items to recommend. This is a typical order in the counters tule fast service style and you sit down. You can easily wait up to 25 minutes when they are super busy. The seatings are limited. I think the entire stores can fit about 35 / 40people. A lot people order to go, but I do not recommend order the soup dumplings to go because it gets cold fast. You want to eat hot! They have all vinegar, spicy chili, and soy for your convenience so you can make your own dipping sauce. 4.5/5

Atmosphere: it is a causal mom and pop feel place fast food style vibe where you can see the kitchen and see the Asian ladies making the dumplings. I think they can add high top along the walls, they can easily add more seatings. 3.5/5

Overall, for Pembroke Pines and Broward, this is pretty good. So it has earned my 5 star for local dumplings. Hopefully they keep improving! Normally, this would be 4 stars but I will definitely come back to keep trying the...