Duck & Dumpling — Restaurant in Plano

Alright so here I thought this was a soft opening but according to the reviews they have been soft opening for 3 weeks.

Came in at 8:15 with my kid - so not rush hour and 45 mins before close. Checked in at the kiosk and was greeted by a staff - specifically to ask if I was ordering Peking duck to which I said I don’t know but I waiting on my husband and kid. She said do you want Peking duck because we are out I said no I didn’t so then she says do you still want to eat and I said yes. So she says follow me your table is ready and I said ok and she takes me to a table for two to which i said we have four in the party. She takes me to a separate table for four except it has a call button smack in the middle of where a persons plate would be so then we are moved again to a different table. Ok well we have a table where we won’t be smooshed.

They bring us water in a plastic jug with some flimsy plastic cups - which is ok fine. We are told again that there is no Peking duck but everything else is available. Great.

We ordered the chicken spring rolls, the sizzling teriyaki chicken and the shrimp along with their homemade yogurt. I asked for hot and sour soup - oh no we don’t have that.

Our spring rolls and shrimp is brought our first - the shrimp is in a delicious sauce but very little sauce and it’s over cooked. Then comes the sizzling teriyaki chicken platter - the waiter brings a sizzling pan and cooks the onions and adds the premade chicken - that’s about $25 bucks - it’s a decent portion so ok. He is cooking the onions is some butter which overpowers the entire dish so can’t really taste any teriyaki. We keep chasing flies around our food and right at 8:55 the wait staff is turning off what I can only presume is the air conditioner units at the front of the restaurant and the music is turned off.

So $70 bucks for 2 entrees and an appetizer later I am definitely not recommending it especially if I will have to be my own...

I want to be completely transparent that my party and I were not able to eat here.

Yesterday my friends and I came to Bamboo House at 11:20a, excited about the prospect of trying this restaurant. We put our name on the list and started our wait. After over an hour of waiting, we only moved up 3 spots on the queue. Imagine our reaction. When we spoke to the hostess, we were told that it would take us an additional hour to sit because there were still tables waiting for duck from the first wave of customers that sat at open. What!? Not to mention that when we signed up on the list, they put out a sign that says they “might run out of duck”. Which is the sole reason anyone comes to this restaurant. When I followed up and pointed out that there seems to be plenty of ducks in the back that are visible, I was told that “they were saving those for dinner”. How can you prioritize ducks for a seating over the customers that are actively there and have been waiting!?

This place is clearly not ready for business. The operations have not been worked out. I understand that it’s a stressful business and they are still working out the kinks but it was a complete disaster.

They are vague about when you can sit and if you can even eat duck, they’re not proactive about informing customers who have been waiting for hours on the situation and they clearly cannot turn tables. Just an utterly unprepared business. They should have never accepted walk ins and just stuck with the reservation only approach that they had the week before.

In short, a very poorly handled business that puts out a supposedly good product. If you can’t even seat customers though, no one would ever know....

It is not usual that everyone enjoyed the food. This place is it.

The first thing we noticed was the generous portion of each dish! Everyone was full and there were plenty of leftovers as togos.

We felt the dishes came out rather quickly. It may be because we arrived early for dinner and skipped the rush. If you come with a large party, they will ask you to wait till more than half of your party is ready to be seated.

The special dish is the duck. There is a place in the kitchen that only focuses on carving ducks and roasting ducks. We ordered the whole duck and we had the duck soup with it. The soup is mild and yet flavorful.

The lion head (don't get scared because of the name. They are giant pork meatballs) has a sweet hint and the giant meatball is not tough at all.

The tofu dish looks like scallops. The tofu is lightly fried then placed with this dish that has some thick sauce (due to the cornstarch water). This is a mild dish and it is not heavy at all.

The boiled beef dish may seem oily but that is how this dish is supposed to be. The spice level is very tolerable and flavorful.

The numbing chicken is very yummy! As the name in the dish, they use the numbing pepper so your mouth will experience the numbing affect. Combined with the green chilies, this dish (and the boiled beef) will make you eat a lot more rice!

This is definitely a place we will think about and...