Brooklyn Dumpling Shop — Restaurant in Philadelphia

IMPORTANT: This is NOT a dumpling place. Check the menu. They have very few choices and mostly modern fusion flair, like Korean BBQ dumplings, mac n' cheese, etc., and have a limited selection of burgers, soups, noodles, and other dumpling-inspired items. But this isn't a dumpling place. The name is misleading.

There are no instructions on what to do when you walk in. You order at kiosks; food comes out in lock boxes; you scan your bar code on the receipt or text, and you take it to go or sit down upstairs. There is no service. Clean your table, etc. If there are instructions, they weren't clear.

Food was expensive and lackluster. Think McDonald's meets Chinese fast food. We didn't get one of the sauces. Everything comes in disposable containers, even to dine in, which is quite wasteful and not environmentally conscientious.

The flavors were meh. The dumpling's interior ingredients seemed to be more sauce and less actual meat and stuff. Where's the beef? You'll get more giant dumplings from the frozen food section at the grocery. They were cooked well, nice and crispy. This is more of a gyoza place and less dumplings.

Big annoyance - fees and automatic tip applied. If a business doesn't accept cash and requires people to pay by card - figure that cost into the price! Don't then tack on a service fee at the very end. And BE CAREFUL: You have to DESELECT the automatic tip, and it was not noticeable. A tip for what? THERE IS NO SERVICE. This is entirely self-service. I wonder how many people never notice that tip. That is a CHOICE by management. I know how those credit card systems work - management programs it to do that. And guess what? The total amount with tip, fee, and tax appears AFTER you get your receipt. It never showed on the machine; it just showed on the receipt. That shady crap and lack of transparency will make me NEVER return or recommend this place. They did take off the tip, but it's too late if I have to ask. There is NO SERVICE here, and tips are for service workers—a big NO...

I always like to give a new spot a chance on my own, but I should have just trusted the reviews on this one and saved my money. High hopes for a late night food option, but they came crashing down last night. The food was some of the lowest quality I've had in a long time. Uniquely bad in a way that's hard to describe, like someone was trying to come up with new recipes on the spot with ingredients they happened to have in the kitchen that night, and they shouldn't be repeated. We ordered the "famous" peanut noodles and fire pork dumplings in broth. There was not a single ounce of peanut flavor in the peanut noodles. The sauce was thick, creamy, and white, like a chunky/grainy, weirdly sweet Alfredo sauce and very off-putting. The "fire" pork dumplings were bland and not spicy at all - I fully understand spice tolerance varies widely/personal preference, but trust me when I say someone poured water on the fire (literally, they are floating in water - not "broth"). The only pretty tasty thing was the side of hot sauce so that was used religiously. Lastly, the gimmick of the ordering system. Completely not necessary and just slows things down. When we heard about the locker system we thought it was going to be similar to food vending machines we've seen in other countries where the food is ready for you to just pick up and go, you see it through the glass, select it and pay. This is regular made to order, but then you have to wait for the locker to slowly open and close twice, and then wait for the one QR code reader to become available, when the person putting your food in the locker could have just handed you the order directly like any other take out spot. This is a chain restaurant, so even though this is a new location, I don't see how minor improvements to growing pains would be enough to positively impact the large flaws in overall food design, quality, and...

Where do I start? Firstly, one look at the menu will tell you this place isn’t going to be authentic in the slightest. If you’re looking for dim sum, look elsewhere. But if you want late night fried food, you might enjoy the fare they are serving up.

The pickup service is bizarre- it’s basically Amazon locker for food? With the amount of staff it takes to operate and assist customers with this inefficient system, they could be serving up orders the traditional way 5x faster. I saw my order but had to stand in line and wait behind others who didn’t know how the QR code scanner worked. Waste of time when my food was right there, ready to be picked up.

Lastly, the food. I ordered the Korean beef dumplings, mac n cheese dumplings, and peanut fries. The beef dumplings being the only (maybe?) authentic thing on the menu, were inedible. I took one bite and was splattered with lukewarm water. Not sure how these were cooked but they taste like they were dropped in the sink before packaged. The Mac n cheese dumplings, however, were great! Basically fried mac bites. Lastly the “famous” peanut fries. Pretty good waffle fries, although I sense they are not handmade. 2 fries out of my entire box had a scoop of spicy peanut sauce. The rest were plain. Good fries, but they are extremely expensive for something you could get anywhere. Overall, if you have kids or are craving fried fare, go for it. If not, you aren’t...