MY Dumpling — Restaurant in San Mateo

Discovered this restaurant on Google Maps, and ordered takeout of 3 dishes today plus 2X Crab Pork Soup Dumpling. Total was $76.75 plus tax for 5 dishes, $84.15 total before tip. My overall conclusion is I may give this place another chance, but it was not close to ideal. The promise is there, I want to like the restaurant, the ingredients are good, but both the ordering process and most of the dishes are ok but not to my preference. We are exceedingly experienced diners of this genre of restaurants in USA and Asia.

Take out: No way to "receive" takeout before 5:15 or even 5:20. Because no one answers by design between 3-5pm, and no kitchen staff either. Showed up in person exactly at 5 pm. There were 2 tables occupied already. My take out order was placed in person at 5:02 pm. it was 5:28 pm when my order was finally ready to "take out". I had several conversations with the 2 servers. My conclusion is there is no way to get take out at 5 pm, not even 5:20pm. Mind you this is light Wed night, imagine a busier time.

Food and price: Food is Good, but not very good. Price is moderately expensive.

Pork and Shrimp Shao-mai: I was surprised this dish was the best value of what we ordered, 6 for $10. It was tasty, good texture, you can taste the cuts of pork. Right ratio of pork and vegetables.

Crab & Pork Soup Dumpling: $17-18 per order of 6. Mixed feelings. These are larger than most restaurants, very good skin to filling ratio, can actually taste crab. However, the overall texture is very mushy, the filling is way too finely chopped. There is basically zero soup for soup dumpling. Good taste, mush texture, no liquid. These issues can be fixed, if the owner cares to fix. I would not order again at this price.

Salt and Pepper Fish: $19, good portion, good frying, decent fish, texture of fish was mushy, ratio of fish is a bit low, but I would give this dish good grade.

Spicy Shredded Pork: $14, good amount of pork, but this was the most disappointing dish. The pork was so finely cut, like 1/8" thick, should be 3X the thickness, texture is a problem. Also, the flavor was very strange. The texture could actually benefit from dried tofu, which is usually used by most restaurants as cheap filler, but in this case the...

I’ve passed by this spot many times and noticed a line forming as early as 5:30 PM. I decided to give it a shot. I arrived at 5 PM, grabbed one of the last tables, and ordered for a group of four light eaters. Unfortunately, the food didn’t live up to the hype or the price.

We ordered Sandstorm Tofu, Bean Curd Salad, Original Pork Soup Dumplings, Pan-Fried Dumplings, Pork, Shrimp, and Chive Dumplings, Marinated Beef Pancake Roll, Marinated Beef.

Original Pork Soup Dumplings: Thin wrapper, juicy filling, but bland soup without much freshness. Decent, but expected more from a dumpling-focused restaurant.

Marinated Beef: Tender, flavorful, and nicely spiced with five spices and a tangy vinegar dipping sauce.

Bean Curd Salad: Bland and uninspired, with hard, flavorless tofu and a forgettable sauce.

Sandstorm Tofu: Fried nicely without being too oily, but the seasoning lacked the bold flavors this dish is known for.

Pork, Shrimp, and Chive Dumplings: Juicy but overly marinated with a thick wrapper. The filling was too blended to taste distinct flavors.

Marinated Beef Pancake Roll: Overly sweet and drenched in seafood sauce, which completely masked the pancake and beef flavors.

For $120, the portions were small, and the quality didn’t justify the price. We left still hungry.

As someone who hunts for dumplings weekly, I’ve tried most of the Bay Area’s go-to spots. While South Bay usually gets close to China’s standards, this restaurant doesn’t make the cut. Save your money and...

The atmosphere is like a modern Chinese bistro. The staff were warm and welcoming. They had just opened but behind us, people trickled in and within a few minutes, the place was almost full. Families, couples, young friends, some elderly in wheelchairs and walkers. We read through the menu. We found the descriptions cryptic and unhelpful. So we opted for a handful of familiar dishes we recognized - shiu Mai, shao long bao, basil eggplant, stir fried pea shoots, and salt and pepper chicken wings. The Shiu Mai was pretty standard but certainly not cheap quality. They were tasty and meaty. The shao long bao I would come back for because they were juicy. Flavorful and their skin was thin. The basil eggplant had way too much thickener and too sweet. It could have been a better dish. The pea shoots were perfectly cooked. The peppered wings were too salty. And there was no mention of the chili peppers sprinkled. We were at a loss for dessert. We tried to get the server to describe them to us but even the server did not know enough. So we chanced on this “dumpling soup.” It turned out to be some white sticky rice balls filled with black sesame. The yellow ones were filled with something peanut-like. The “soup was mildly sweet to contrast with the rice balls. It turned out a great choice to. Ap off our meal. I wish they had better descriptions of their dishes in English. We can’t read Chinese characters and we are not as familiar with this region of China this...