Ping's Dumpling House — Restaurant in Seattle

I was craving soup dumplings, did a search on Google Maps and was pleasantly to see how close by Pings Dumpling was; based on the pictures and reviews I saw from previous diners it looked like just what I needed. Hopped on the street car, got there, grabbed a seat to dine in. Unfortunately, the flavors and overall taste of the soup dumplings and beef chow mein noodles was underwhelming. The beef chow mein was particularly insulting, tiny scraps of beef, insignificant shreds of vegetables and inundated with onions, on top of a small portioning.

The immediate reaction was the lack of umami flavor you normally get from traditional Chinese cuisine. Even the fragrance was not there. Apparently I wasn't the only one disappointed, I noticed a family of four left their meal partially eaten, which looked like pancakes. Ultimately, my realization how disappointing the meal was based on the fact, I could pick up both menu items in the frozen section at Trader Joes for under $10 instead of the $32 I spent here for what I would conclude was underwhelming. Also, watch out for the condiments, one of them is super hot, a tiny bit goes a long way. Too much and it can actually spoil the meal.

I would appreciate if many of these Asian restaurants could go back to traditional and better known payment methods. The fact that I had to scan a QR code, add my payment details to some obscure Chinese payment service is not comforting. I immediately deleted after payment. Pay a print shop to print a menu and...

The filling of the pork and cabbage dumplings were weirdly pink and tasted awful, not sure if they were supposed to be like that or if they weren't cooked or something (you can see in one photo the other fillings for the pot stickers and xiao long bao were a normal colour). The green onion pancake was really weird in texture, almost as if made from gluten free flour or something other than normal flour. The xiao long bao were soggy on the bottom and disintegrated as soon as you picked them up, I'm assuming all the soup bled out and that's why they were dry on the inside (meanwhile the steamed dumplings and pot stickers had a lot of liquid inside). The pot stickers looked good but actually weren't crispy at all. Everything had a weird taste not at all like what you'd expect of these very normal/common asian dishes. I forced myself to eat more of it because I was super hungry and we didn't have time to go elsewhere, otherwise would've just left after the first bite of each thing (which is what my partner did). Can't really comment on service as you just use the QR code and order and pay online. There were only two people at a table when we went in (on a Saturday around 1pm), and they were gushing about how good the food was, so I don't know if maybe we just ordered the wrong dishes or something, but I don't know how you could mess up all 4 of these basic...

Mixed feelings about this one, because I never want to disparage a local small business, but it was quite disappointing. The upside is that they do serve American size portions, so you do get bang for your buck. But the quality isn’t there. The XiaoLongBao though huge, came deflated with no soup. Wonton noodles had flour noodles and the soup was tasty. On the pricier side if you expect quality. But for quantity, it’s there.

Also, the fact that the restaurant was closing early because the staff had an appointment to go to was not conveyed. So within 15 minutes of sitting down, and over ordering a full meal, which I thought that I would have time to enjoy, I was promptly given takeout boxes as a sign that I need to leave. If it was conveyed that the staff had appointment at 2:45, I need to leave, then, customers would have ordered accordingly. Disappointing when it came to the customer service, and now I have a box of sad xiaolongbao and half a bowl of noodles and soup in my trunk because I was not given the opportunity to finish them. With the price of the food, which was about $13-$14 for each of the items, I would not be coming back. And there are better places in...