Xin Ding Dumpling House 鑫鼎轩 - Sellwood — Restaurant in Portland

Had a terrible experience here. Food was excellent -- mostly (more in a sec). Service was awful and we went away without getting served our full meal.

We ordered hot and sour cucumber as an appetizer, and it was good. Next up, soup dumplings. They were great. My dining companion, who is a soup dumpling aficionado, said they were among the best they've had.

And then the food stopped coming. We had also ordered steamed rice and bbq pork bun.

Weird they never served the rice. That's often the first thing to come out.

I eventually flagged down somebody and got the rice. The rice was bad. Dry and almost sour tasting -- not fluffy and maybe a little starchy as you'd hope. It might have been good for fried rice, but terrible for eating.

Still no sign of the bun. After a while longer, we flagged down the expediter at the kitchen window and told them about the missing bun. They acknowledged it, but, apparently, didn't do anything about it.

After a while a server came by to close out our meal. We complained we still haven't received our food. Too acknowledged the missing food, but, again, didn't do anything about it.

Eventually I flagged down a THIRD person to ask about our missing food, but they didn't speak English, and left.

After quite a while, somebody -- the FOURTH person -- came by the table and we complained we aren't getting our meal. And in the middle of this, they got a phone call and walked away and left us alone.

We sat for another while perplexed about what to do. Eventually that fourth person returned and gave a long explanation about how that order hadn't been turned into the kitchen, and they could do it but it would be another 10-15 minutes. We declined.

They took the unserved item off the bill and gave us a lousy 10% off the meal.

It's bad that the kitchen is losing orders. It's worse that the restaurant has such a terrible service ethos that staff just blows off problems with trying to get...

This place had me hooked from the moment I sat down, warm lighting, flawless service, and food so good it felt like it was flirting back. Everything was smooth and steamy in all the right ways.

They even gave me the VIP treatment after a little splurge, which made the whole experience feel exclusive... until my twin brother showed up and caused a scene trying to order everything on the menu like it was an eating competition.

Even with the chaos, the staff handled it like pros, calm, charming, and totally unbothered. The service was as impressive as the dumplings.

If you want top-tier dim sum, great energy, and a story you’ll definitely laugh about later, this...

We were seated quickly in a window. We reviewed the entire menu three times and had decided what to order before they arrived to yake our order. I am not sure we received what we ordered. The dumplings did not appear to be fresh. They had been boiled and were slippery. They lacked flavor. The sesame chicken tasted like deep fried tofu, smothered in too sweet teriyaki sauce and only a dash of sesame. Pork fried rice was delicious. But the moist texture of the fried rice was odd. I could have cooked a better tasting more authentic meal on my own. Also, my husband and I both had diarrhea after. We won't...