Hidden Dumpling House Midtown — Restaurant in Sacramento

A friend and I went here when craving some dumplings. We had a mixed experience. tl;Dr - great food, not so great dining experience.

For one thing, we tried to make reservations knowing the small space. We called ahead, about 15 minutes ahead asking if we can put our name on the wait list. They told us no, we had to be there in person, which was fine. But when we got there in person, they just put us on a wait list for 30/40 minutes. Then, while waiting those 30 and 40 minutes, we watched as upwards of 10 different tables sat empty both inside and outside the restaurant for long periods of time. A lot of people were really confused, as to-gi orders would walk inside and order at the register and sit down at the empty tables while they waited for their food, but other people on the wait list waiting to sit down where waiting for their turn to be called up. A small note about the space, too - It is way too small for the kind of service they get to both not take reservations and continue taking to go orders through the door. They have maybe 10 tables for seating inside, max, and about a half a dozen outdoors tables. This would normally make it feel intimate and cozy, but with the fast pace of the servers, the constant line going from the register out the door, it just makes the space seem cramped and hectic. When we did eventually get sat, we were ignored for the first 15 minutes. We were given water by a busboy right away, but we didn't even get our drink orders until we flagged down a waiter after watching her service tables had been sat after us. After all of this, though, things were great. Because the kitchen was slammed every time eight tables were sat at once, food came out fairly slowly - appetizers we had ordered came out at the end of the meal, for example. But it kind of created a more conversational vibe, my guess and I would share a single plate for about 5 minutes until the next plate would come out, etc. We made it work, but I know other tables were getting frustrated with the pace of things coming out - not everyone is interested in sharing all of their plates, and expected to receive all of their entrees for the entire table at the same time. Once the food got to the table though? Excellent. Easily some of the best Asian inspired food I've had in a while. The smell inside the restaurant was heavenly - which sucked, sitting outside for 40 minutes smelling what we weren't eating. But as we were eating? Every dish that came out of the kitchen was an inspiration, something new or interesting we wanted to try. Those special note were the garlic green beans which are apparently so popular they come out almost instantly. The sauce was perfect, the green beans cooked just so they were crispy but not soggy. We got a plate of chicken chow mein noodles, and my typically demure guest was literally eating some of them with her bare hands. We took leftovers home, and two days later the noodles were still better than some fresh chow mein I've had in the area. We also got their sesame chicken, and it was so perfectly fried while still having the gooey sesame sauce on the outside. We both thought it could use a little more salt, so we put a couple dashes of soy sauce on top of them, but that was our preference. We easily would have gobbled that chicken up with our bare hands and no extra seasoning. The dumplings, though, we weren't as impressed by. We ordered their special and some soup dumplings. Their special was chicken and mushroom, which was good but had a heavy 5 spice seasoning that seemed to overpower most of the other flavors. We also got pork and chive soup dumplings, but no soup dumpling spoons until we asked for them. And when we did try to eat them, the dumplings tore so easily that we weren't able to really enjoy the soup. Still good, just not as impressive as the other food items we ordered, which was a surprise considering it's a dumpling house. Will definitely order again, just...

Wish I had taken photos.. but this is the second time coming here. First time was some time after they had just opened. We had lunch and at that time felt like the dumplings & green beans were pretty good the chicken seemed a little over cooked and not much meat.

Decided to have dinner here last night bc my fiancé wanted Mongolian beef and I wanted dumplings so I thought this would be a good middle ground..and the experience was lacking. The food seemed rushed, we ordered Mongolian beef and it had large slices of onions, a more red soupy consistency rather than a dark thicker sauce. There were no green onions or dried red peppers and barely any meat. One of the most untraditional dishes we’ve had. Also ordered the combo crispy noodles (sorry forgot the actual name on their menu, but it’s like Hong Kong style) -this dish had a nice amount of meat, veggie ratios but again way too much sauce. Often times this specific dish comes out and most of the noodles are still crispy, this dish was also a drenched in w/ a soupy consistency.

Green beans were consistent to the last visit. The beef roll was tasty but the server couldn’t explain the wrap —I asked if it was scallion pancake and she said yes but it was a tortilla. A little disappointed by the miscommunication but the roll was still good. Beef dumplings were ok.. they came out warm which leads me to believe the dumplings weren’t steamed long enough. Upon walking out, I overheard another table saying “there’s more onions than meat” then too we’re surprised about the onion to meat ratio with the...

Honestly an awful restaurant. I would not recommend this place to anyone I know, there's so many issues all the time. We've tried this place several times so we know it's not a one-time issue. Here's the large list:

1. Not actually allergy or dietary restriction friendly. Their dishes have oyster sauce which they don't understand is not vegetarian. I've found meat pieces in my vegetarian dish. The dishes labeled gluten free are constantly in cross contamination with others (we've literally seen them move a serving utensil from a noodle dish into a gluten free dish right in front of us and not understand why that's not allergy safe).

2. customer service is non existent. We've placed orders for them to cancel it on their side because they can't make it, it's too close to closing, etc AND NEVER communicate this with us. We get no email, no phone call, nothing. And we drive all the way over there only for them to say they don't have the order and won't make it and not even sorry about it.

3. so many times when we've ordered online, they have screwed up the dishes. Their online menu is different than the in person menu which doesn't help.

Overall, probably one of the worst restaurant experiences I've had in quite...