Dumpling Era 思乡水饺 — Restaurant in San Bruno

Food was good, not mind-blowing or anything. They make their noodles in-house, which is cool. Not a great experience, though. The food came out on dishes and bamboo steamer baskets, but everything else was disposable. We ate off of paper plates or out of to-go boxes. Paper cups were provided for drinking water and we were given plastic utensils. They didn't provide cups or ice with the sodas we ordered; those folks in our party asked for ice and received it in mismatched to-go containers, one of which was clearly intended for soup. The menus were also to-go style, printed on a glossy folded paper. There was a lot of confusion over the food. The waitress came back after taking our orders to tell us that they were out of one of the things we ordered, but she was unable to clearly communicate what it was. Another person came over, but we never figured it out and they wound up leaving again without resolution. She didn't remember who had ordered what she didn't want to speak up when bringing out the food; we sort of had to figure out what everything was and it didn't help that the order wasn't quite right. Some of what we ordered never came and we received more than expected of other things. The place was a bit dingy and the restroom was downright grimy with no soap in the dispenser. They did keep the water coming and we appreciated that, but it also seemed like they ran out of ice partway through the meal. It's really unfortunate since they are a block from my place, but cleanliness and quality of service just weren't there and the food didn't make up for it. We won't be going back. I wouldn't dream of taking family or...

The waitress, in her effort to be helpful, became rude, repeatedly commanding me to sit down, when I wanted first to ask a question. She walked away after i sat down, came back to take my order, and never brought utensils. The tables were sticky, and after seeing an elderly man clean (smear) one up, I knew why. He was unusually skinny, not a picture of health. The food, AH, the long awaited food. I had put up with everything so far, because I thought the food would make up for it. Not! I expected a hot dish, but the delight for two, was served cold. Nowhere did I get an indication that it would be. The Hot spicy Wontons, were overcooked, soggy, watered down. I was expecting crispy wontons, with a spicy sauce over them. Huh, silly me. These appeared to have been pulled out of a left over wonton soup, and doused with Chinese hot oil. Of course, served in cheap plastic containers. I'm not sure how they have received such high ratings from others. There was one other client there, an older Asian woman, who arrived and knew exactly what she wanted. Chicken Noodle soup. My advice would be, eat here only if you know ahead of time...

Very tasty home style Northern Chinese food (I think Hebei region cuisine?). Everything is simple but tasty and well executed. They also make their own dumplings in house, fresh and tasty! The spicy crispy tofu is genuinely crispy. The pieces didn't get soggy at all over the course of the meal, which I have experienced at other places. They were nice and golden with a spicy kick. The tomato and egg noodle soup was really flavorful. I didn't expect something so simple to have so much flavor. They make their own noodles, which were nice and thick with a delightfully chewy texture. I had fun chewing on them 😀 Spicy sesame paste cold noodles were good, definitely spicy. I would prefer if they could put more sesame paste in the dish though, I barely tasted the sesame flavor with all the spices. We got the pork with napa cabbage dumplings. They were fresh, tasty, with a good amount of meat in them. Everything is reasonably priced 👍 All in all, very tasty place and good for the value....