Min's Dumpling — Restaurant in San Clemente

U WANT THIS ! How fabulous that this Chinese restaurant recently opened in San Clemente...there was no Asian food here before. We love top quality Chinese cuisine. FIRST VISIT ! My wife and I arrived here for dinner around 6pm on Wednesday. Annie the sweet cashier welcomed us warmly at the service counter. And then James the owner gave us his personal attention when we made our selections from the extensive menu. We ordered Orange Chicken, Mongolian Beef, Honey Walnut Shrimp, Classic Pork Dumplings, Dry-Fried String Bean and Pork Pot Stickers. DRINKS ! We were happy with cups of water. FIRST IMPRESSIONS ! The restaurant has a clean well organized look inside and a small outdoor patio out front. FAST SERVICE ! Within a few short minutes our dinner order items started hitting the table....Orange Chicken & Dry-Fried String Beans were first. Everything kept coming out...the Honey Walnut Shrimp was last to come out. OMG ! The Dry-Fried String Beans were totally delicious and the Orange Chicken was cooked perfectly. The Classic Pork Dumplings and Pork Pot Stickers tasted amazing...as good if not better than any Din Tai Fung we have been to. THERE'S MORE ! My wife thought her Honey Walnut Shrimp was the best ever...trust me it was so good. My Mongolian Beef tasted great...even better when I added some Sriracha Sauce. James was very happy when we told him we loved everything. I had to meet the talented chef....Mark Li. The food is top quality, the prices are reasonable and the service is fabulous. COME...

TOP QUALITY ! What a sensational addition to the dining choices on Avenida Del Mar. On New Year's Day my wife and I drove down from our place up in the hills to have another lunch here....our 4th visit. We walked inside around 1.15pm and it was dead quiet. Annie the sweet cashier greeted us with a big smile. ALL GOOD ! We are gradually working our way through everything on the menu. This time we ordered VEGETABLE EGG ROLL ( 3pcs ), BBQ PORK BUN ( 3pcs ) and SHRIMP POT STICKERS ( 6pcs ). We paid upfront and took table no 12 with us. NEXT MINUTE ! A couple of guys walked in....first visit they said. We told them the food is top quality. In a very short time a tall food runner named Alan started bringing out our lunch order....BBQ Pork Buns first. Next up the Vegetable Egg Rolls and finally the Shrimp Pot Stickers. THERE'S MORE ! Then a party of 6 stuck their heads in the door and asked us about the food....we told them it was fabulous. They came in straight away and Alan put together a couple of tables for them. Our BBQ Pork Buns tasted nice...very sweet filling. The Vegetable Egg Rolls were the best we've ever had and the Shrimp Pot Stickers knocked it clean outa the ball park...even better than the delicious Pork Pot Stickers. I went up to the counter and complimented Chef Mark. WOW ! Even more customers kept streaming in while we were enjoying our delicious lunch. Everything we have tried during our 4 lunch visits has been top notch. U R...

Shrimp pot stickers were excellent, as was the seaweed salad. My husband said the pork dumplings and scallion pancakes were very good. He liked the sesame balls and the sweet piggy dumplings, but I did not like either of them (the piggy dumplings were cute, though). We tried to order thai iced tea but either they were out of it or don't carry it anymore (not sure, as we had trouble understanding the woman behind the counter and she had trouble understanding us). The food was made fresh and the service, other than the language barrier, was very good. If I went back again, which I would ONLY do for the pot stickers, I would use the touch screen to order.

The honey walnut shrimp was our main dinner entree, and it was terrible. Quite the disappointment for a $19+ entree. First, it was about half the serving size we've gotten anywhere else we've ordered this dish. It was on a bed of fresh cabbage, so there's even less than it looks like in the photo. There was just enough "sauce" to moisten the shrimp and there was none on the walnuts, and absolutely no extra to flavor the rice that came with it. The small amount of sauce that was on the shrimp was pretty gross, and tasted like pasty, slightly sweet mayo. Pasty mayo shrimp and plain rice is not what we had in mind for dinner and is not what I've had anywhere else when I've ordered honey...