East Dumpling House — Restaurant in Rockville

A Nightmarish Experience - Stay Far Away!

Review: I am someone who rarely writes reviews, but the utterly abysmal experience I had at this restaurant left me with no choice but to warn others. From the very outset, the service was nothing short of a catastrophe. Our waiter, Jay, informed us that if we spent $200, the karaoke would be complimentary. However, once we placed our order, he conveniently changed his tune, insisting that we had only ordered $100 worth of food and then proceeded to aggressively pressure us into ordering the highest value items on the menu, resulting in a bill well over $200.

The night continued to spiral downwards when, after consuming the Chinese lamb barbecue, one of my friends was immediately stricken with stomachache. Instead of showing concern or offering assistance, Jay's reaction was to display incredibly rude behavior and attempt to forcefully eject us from the restaurant. Another waiter initially seemed compassionate and provided hot water after observing my friend's pallor, but our gratitude turned to disbelief when we discovered a $10 charge, plus an 18% tip, for the hot water on our bill.

Seeking some resolution, we requested to speak with the boss regarding the food quality, as three out of the five of us experienced sickness immediately after consuming the food. Jay initially deceived us by claiming the boss was not present. However, merely 10 minutes later, the boss materialized, only to dismiss our legitimate concerns with utterly inappropriate and irrelevant questions about my friend's general health and menstrual cycle. She flatly denied any food safety issues, despite the fact that a plethora of bad reviews online clearly indicated otherwise.

Upon returning home and conducting further research, I stumbled upon a multitude of reviews that mirrored our own dreadful experience, stating that the food was far from fresh, and the service was abysmally bad. This restaurant is nothing short of a nightmare, and I cannot emphasize enough how strongly I recommend that everyone steer clear of this establishment. It is a blight on the restaurant industry, and places like this should not be allowed to operate with such a blatant disregard for their customers' wellbeing and satisfaction. Avoid...

This restaurant always treats delivery drivers (especially dark skinned ones) with disdain. But last night was especially bad.

I arrived to pick up two orders. There was a woman with glasses working the front desk. I told her the name on the first order, but before I could get the second name out, this woman starts loudly talking over me at the speed of light. I could barely get a word in. She then quickly walked away before I could say anything else. Mind you, she never actually heard the second customer’s name. That will be important…

I end up getting the first order, but they didn’t bring out the second. So I patiently waited. And waited. And waited. About 25 minutes of waiting. Finally I got her attention and asked her about the second order (the second name). This woman barely looked up from her phone and said “someone else picked that up already.”

Sooo you had me wait 25 minutes for an order that was already gone? And that’s 25 minutes I could have avoided had you not spoken over me in the first place? But you were too busy running your mouth to hear anything…

When I brought this to her attention, she just doubled down on the rude dismissive attitude and tried to say she was “too busy” to acknowledge me anymore. I said that’s fine, because I’m going to stand right here until you find time. She came back a few moments later and we had a whole back and forth. At one point, I directly asked her “you don’t think repeatedly speaking over someone is rude?” She shrugged and said no.

So, potential customers. If you’re cool supporting a dismissive, disrespectful, unresponsive establishment with questionable morals, then this is your place. Tell Glasses...

Fantastic kararoke bar and Chinese restaurant! This delightful Rockville shop is serving up some of the best Chinese food the DMV has to offer, including smoky and flavorful Chinese barbecue, juicy and plump dumplings, and a wide variety of classic Northern Chinese dishes. I visited East Dumpling House with a few friends on a Friday night, and we split a bunch of dishes. Everything was outstanding, but a few stand-outs include the di san xian (stir-fried eggplant with potatoes and green bell peppers), barbecue chives, and suan cai yu (Sichuan fish soup with pickled cabbage).

The di san xian was super flavorful, and the eggplant had a delightfully crispy skin but soft, tender meat. It's a classic dish, but they did a fantastic job making sure the veggies were flavorful and crispy, but not overly greasy or heavy. They did a similarly phenomenal job with the Chinese chives, which were perfectly charred and coated with a delightful spicy, smoky blend of spices. I also loved the stir-fried watercress -- it was a classic, but they did a great job making sure it was the perfect level of doneness, and it had plenty of garlic flavor.

I was surprised by how much I loved the suan cai yu, especially since this restaurant doesn't specialize in Sichaun food. Even so, the fish was super tender and the soup was the perfect balance of savory, tangy, and spicy flavor profiles. Super excited to come here again, and, if the TVs blasting karaoke music throughout the restaurant are any indication, they also have a phenomenal selection of Chinese and Korean songs to sing to, so I can't wait to try out their...