Dumpling Time — Restaurant in San Jose

Came here on MLK holiday during lunch time and as I expected, the line up was looonng! Thankfully I'm meeting with my cousin there, so we spent chatting for 45 minutes while waiting in the line & felt wasn't too bad (I definitely wouldn't wait if I were dining along with my own family).

Immediately after seating down, we ordered Jellyfish salad, Shrimp toast, Beijing noodle, Maine lobster siu mai, Har gaw, Pork XLB, Seafood gyoza, and garlicky green bean (yes... we were starving! Hahaha...). The jellyfish salad & beijing noodle came 5 minutes after the server put down our order check list. Then the siu mai & har gaw were next. The XLB & gyoza took a bit longer and the shrimp toast was the last. We added green bean to our order and it came pretty quick too.

The food: Jellyfish salad: good & has good heat, not fishy Beijing noodle: the meat sauce was tasty! The noodle had good chew & texture. Maine lobster siu mai: very delicious but sadly, the portion was small Har gaw: the skin was thick & shrimp inside was good but nothing special. The green sauce was actually good! Don't forget to dip into it! Pork XLB: came with red vinegar but the portion was tiny! The soup inside & pork were good but the skin was too thick - decent but nothing special Seafood gyoza: the skin on one side was crispy. The seafood filling was good but again nothing special about it Shrimp toast: my favorite among all! The chinese donut was crispy and the shrimp filling was pretty thick and delicious! I wish they warned us about the spicy mayo so my kid can enjoy it too Green bean: cooked perfectly & still crunchy. The garlic pieces were plenty but not over powering. But again nothing special about it

OVERALL: the food was decent. My favorites are shrimp toast, beijing noodle & maine lobster siu mai. However, the portion was rather small for the price. We were all still hungry when we left the restaurant. If you want to snack, this might be perfect restaurant.

Side note: I usually not too picky about the service but with the price that we paid & the look of the restaurant, the service was kinda subpar. First, the glasses had fingerprints on them & one of them was wet (like straight from the dishwasher) when we were first seated - I had to ask the server to change the wet one. Another 'incident' was at the end of the meal, one of the bussers try to pick up the empty plate. Since we ordered so much & the table was small, she tried to wiggle the plate to pick it up. The way she pick it up was she pulled the plate 90degree causing the crumbles that were left on the plate to spill all over the table (mind you that we were still eating). So yeah, not sure if we're going to come back to...

Tips: Put your name down on the wait list and grab yourself a beverage (Boba Guys just opened couple months ago) in the near by stores. Be aware, you need to stay around the area for your name to be called like the old fashioned way 🙃.

Food: Sample menu and portions are meant to be for two (three if you barely eat). Our group of four ordered 10 dishes with the total bill of $140 with tips.

Starter: Cucumber salad and Sesame Jellyfish salad spicy. Cucumber barely has any flavor, missing salts (or it was freshly made that the sauce didn't marinade the cucumber).

Garlicky green beans was standard and taste just like what you would get in a Chinese restaurant. Mala Shrimp Pork SiuMai numbing sensation from the peppercorn was pretty interesting and gave the SiuMai a bit more depth in flavor. The Shrimp Har Gow is what you'd expect the taste and packed with 2 shrimp each.

Beijing noodle was just ok; lack of flavor so our group ended up adding alot of their complimentary roasted chili oil to the noodle. The noodle yielded 4 bites in total for each one of us. You can skip this dish (you are welcome 🤗).

American Wagyu fried rice, the most costly dish on the menu at $22, was just ok, too. The rice taste better than the Wagyu . Unfortunately the Wagyu came kind of dry despite the pink center which resulted a tough chewey texture.

And lastly, Xiao Long Bao, aka XLB or soup dumplings - 6 pieces per order came on an individual aluminum foil cupcake liner. The XLB was probably over steamed which resulted the skin to break apart. We can't pick up the XLB with our chopsticks so we ate our XLB like a jello shot 😎. The XLB filling was also lack of flavor and the texture was soggy. Tom Yum XLB was much better option in terms of taste.

Service: Restaurant is still pretty new so the team is getting use to table arrangements. The food runners delivered other table's food to us three times but we were too honest and turn the dishes away😆. Our waitress came check on us a couple of time and refilled our water. Overall service is decent consider how busy the restaurant was.

Pros: Menu is all digital format so made it the menu viewing easy. Convenient location and if you are craving for Asian food at Santana Row, this is your spot

Overall, we would probably choose another Dumplings place if we were craving for more authentic XLB. They can benefit from a digital wait-list system to make it easier for their staff and allow customers to roam around the area so they are not crowded outside your outdoor...

i recently stopped by with my friends and it was such a cute spot - i'd say that this spot is a more of modern rendition of dumplings, Chinese-based appetizers, and more rather than a more classic and traditional take. the ambiance is causal and fun. i think the decor itself also contributed to the modern feeling along with the menu changes like tom yum goong xiao long bao! overall the services there were pretty good and the staff there was friendly.

my friends and i ordered: sesame jellyfish salad ($10): this particular quick bite was quite refreshing and was great for the hot summer days but what i didn't appreciate was the lack of flavoring - i feel like normally with this dish it has more flavorings/spices

cucumber, fresno chili salad ($7.50): i feel like i had expected this to be either more vinaigrette or had more flavorings too but it didn't really have much flavorings to it and it felt like it wasn't marinating long enough

-edamame ($7): similarly to the first two quick bites I've mentioned i felt like there was a lack in flavoring and seasoning which i'd normally taste.

tom yum goong xiao long bao ($11.50): what i appreciated about this dish is that the soup based is tom yum flavoring but it wasn't overpowering the traditional aspect of a xiao long bao

xiao long bao ($10.50): nothing too out of the extraordinary as i felt like it tasted okay but after trying the tom yum goong xiao long baos i'd prefer ordering that if i return for another visit

beijing noodles ($10.50): in chinese on the menu it reads as like jiazhang mian which normally the flavoring of the soybean paste are quite strong and in general when we had tried this dish i feel like the flavors of the sauce weren't strong and lacked a lot of seasoning/flavors.

I'm not sure if it was just that day where i felt like the food lacked a lot of flavorings and seasoning or if it's normally like that. but i'd be open to coming back to try some of those dishes again. i guess another part that also contributed to my experience where i was a little bit disappointed would be how the table felt sticky like a residue was left on there and my plate had a small stain that was left from the previous patreon. but otherwise id say this spot is worth trying if you are in the area and you're looking for a modern take dumplings, Chinese-based appetizers, and more!

tips: lots of parking structure within santana row simple ordering process (scan with QR code with pics -- which i...