Duck & Dumpling — Restaurant in San Antonio

*Please note, we went there while they were still having their soft opening.

My husband and I went to Duck & Dumpling on a Tuesday afternoon around 5:30. For those familiar with the area, it's the old Taco Cabana building next to the HEB. Parking is limited! So we ended up parking on the edge of the HEB parking lot.

When you arrive, sign into the iPad at the counter. I was already pretty busy when we arrived so we were concerned it would be a long wait because we were the 9th or 10th name on the list. Our wait was only about 15 minutes though. (It's misleading because the list doesn't always get cleared by the staff. So even if you're #9 or 10, they may already be on #7, you just don't know it.)

We ordered: Shrimp and pork xiao long boa (soup dumplings) Pork and scallion spicy sour dumplings Half order of Peking duck*

*Tables of 3 or less can only order half a duck; so they don't run out.

When you order duck, you get a duck broth soup. It's very good! Think rich bone broth made with the bits of duck that don't get served after carving and some veggies (cabbage and onion, maybe turnip?). Be careful, there are bones! Each table has a condiment caddy outfitted with soy sauce, black vinegar, chili oil / crisp, and salt. It's nice to have so you can season to taste.

The shrimp and pork dumplings were a little bland, IMO they could have used a little more salt. But it was easily remedied with the salt from the condiment caddy. Otherwise they were good and well-made. They are made in-house: you can see the staff making them. The skins weren't overly thick and had a nice chew to them. The proportion of skin to broth to filling was well balanced.

The pork and scallions spicy sour dumplings were AMAZING! Again the skins were thin and had a nice mouth feel, the right texture. The filling was really well seasoned and had a nice balance of pork and scallions (some places use more scallions than pork to save on costs.) The spicy sour broth is a 12 / 10! Highly recommend. Served piping hot, it had a good spicy level (maybe a 6 out of 10) and not too much sourness, but enough to make you salivate and the back of your throat clench a little bit. In a good way. For more heat, use the chili oil / crisp.

Now onto the duck!

IMO this is the best Peking duck in SA. You'd have to go to Houston to get a better one. (From what I understand, the owners are from Houston and have duck and dumpling establishments.)

The duck is served with the flat pancakes, not steamed buns, sliced cucumbers, green onions, and hoisin sauce. It also comes with honey mustard and raw sugar on the side.

The duck was excellent!

The skin was light and crispy. (You can dip the skin into the raw sugar for maximum flavor and texture.)

The meat was tender and succulent. It was cooked well enough that there weren't any pockets of fat and lacked some of the gaminess that can happen with duck. The duck was seasoned just right so as to not take away from the flavor of the meat.

They have a large menu that includes noodles (noodle soups and dry noodles), chow mein, rice dishes and some Szechuan specialties like spicy and crisp chicken. (Which we did not order but wished we had because it looked good.)

The service was friendly and efficient. Some of the staff speak better English than others. The food arrived hot and quickly. We didn't reel rushed, but it's really not the kind of place you linger. (For efficiency's sake, you can ask for a pitcher of ice water for the table. Which is pretty common in Asia.)

The restaurant is relatively small and sparsely decorated. This is a place that's about the food, not art. Some might describe it as a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. (Again, we were there before their grand opening so I don't know if they have decorated more. But that's not important to us.)

There were many families - both with young and elderly members. (Though I don't recall seeing any high chairs.)

Parking is limited, so you may have to park in the HEB shopping plaza lot.

Overall, I highly recommend Duck and Dumpling. I can hardly...

Went ahead and checked this spot out and it did not disappoint! Walking in the restaurant is small and feels a little crowded, toss in overly loud tables of collegiate kids and it can feel overwhelming. The food though...worth dealing with the " ghhuuuess whhatttt..." yuppie crowd. Tables given a pitcher of ice water with lemons( drinks such as soda and others are single serve ,no refill) so a welcomed offering. We ordered the passion fruit cucumber salad and it was delicious fresh and crunchy cucumbers with tangy sweet passion fruit dressing 10/10 , the soy noodle salad fun texture wonderfully spicy and seasoned with carrots again 10/10 , the sautéed bok choy with garlic 😋 perfectly cooked and seasoned to perfection lots of garlic 20/10 loved it! Generous portions of these ended up bringing bok joy and soy noodles home in to go containers! We had to try the soup dumplings giving the Mushroom and pork Xiao long Boa a taste and it was a great choice, salty flavorful broth. Chewy dumpling steamed to perfection hugging savory mushroom and pork 10/10 and on to the real reason we came the duck! Half duck orders are available for party's under 3 people. First you get the Duck broth soup, comes with the duck order. Broth cooked with duck pieces ( bones and cartilage) with diced potatoes and tofu, light and tasty ,I recommend adding a little chili oil and boom perfect. Now the duck presentation tray is great, crispy cut duck stacked on a duck themed plate, slices of cucumber, hoisen sauce and sliced scallions are tucked into a three compartment tray, brown sugar and honey mustard in an additional split holder and a steam basket of thin steamed pancakes to roll all that goodness in! The duck cooked by experts, beautifully sliced and stacked, tender and juicy meat and crunchy skin perfect combo. That duck didnt stand a chance! We ended up ordering a second half duck ( dont judge us we hadn't eaten since 6 am)this was about 7pm... and even if we had eaten the duck was.so.good it would have been orderd anyway 20/10. Round two of duck and we caved and bought two sodas at 3.00 a piece. All in all a Great spot to enjoy tasty dishes , the staff is cordial but not overbearing, if you need something you better be fast and speak up because these employees are on the constant move. We will definitely be back and we suggest you give anything on the menu a try! A welcomed addition to our...

please bring the orange chicken from bamboo house

Bamboo House in Austin is my favorite Chinese restaurant. Aside from kung fu noodle I pretty much have no desire to eat Chinese food ever, so surely that says something.

This place is a collaboration of Bamboo House and Dumpling world. The soup dumplings we got were really good, and the spicy chicken, and chicken fried rice are definitely from Bamboo House.

This place is definitely a work in progress, there are remnants of the mexican restaurant it was before. The atmosphere is akin to a cafeteria with crazy acoustics, it can get loud here. I came here for the food though not the atmosphere, so as long as its clean I don't care. You get to see them making dumplings and cooking the duck which is pretty cool.

Organization wise they use a wait-list that queues you in line so you can hang in your car until you get a text message which I love. It's so awkward to sit with other people, and there were a lot of people waiting, in fact, there are two rows of chairs pointed towards the dining area so you get an audience while you eat, I think it's funny. I think they should put some more tables there instead. People can wait in their car, I don't see the necessity of expanding the waiting area so much.

The people bringing food have a hard time finding the tables the dishes are supposed to go to. The tables are numbered, but they're relying on the little receipts which are taped to the table. I think they need to make it easier. Maybe bigger numbers, and the dishes need to have the table number clearly shown so you don't have someone going from table to table asking if you ordered something.

Oh also we ordered soup and rice and all we had were chopsticks. I think it'd be nice to ask if we needed any other utensils, I love a challenge so I did eat the rice with the chopsticks somewhat successfully.

The staff...