Palace Dumpling — Restaurant in Town of Poughkeepsie

Review based off 3 visits, 2 for dine in, and 1 for take out. 1st dine in visit, service was lacking/non existent. Person who brought our food had to get us drinks because the server never did. When we asked what drinks they served, he pointed to the front of the restaurant and said “whatever’s in the cooler,” we also asked if they had fountain soda and he said no. (we were sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant from the cooler.) the person who brought us drinks brought us FOUNTAIN SODA after the server said they didn’t have fountain soda.

We felt ignored, not checked on, had to get up and walk to the front for drinks, containers, the check.

2nd visit was lovely, we sat near the front which I think made us more visible.

3rd visit was to pick up take out. Not a good experience. 2 orders of dumplings, no sauce to dip them in.

After opening up my takeout, I called the restaurant to speak to them directly. When it was abundantly clear that not only The person on the phone, but also the owner, did not care about my complaint or suggestion, I decided to leave a review. The person who answered the phone, August, said he was a manager when I asked to speak to a manager or owner. He later said he’s the only waiter there. The owner was prompting him to hang up the phone on me as I was trying to ask him to pass it along to the owner that I would like to make a suggestion of automatically packing a dipping sauce for the dumplings with a take out or delivery order. How do I know this? He said the owner is “in and out” and wasn’t available, but when I asked if he was going to pass on my comments to the owner he said he already did, I asked if the owner was listening to our conversation? Is that why he said he had to hang up? And he confirmed that the owner was hearing our conversation (even though the owner wasn’t there as he previously stated.)

I ordered soup dumplings (6) and 3 were broken without the soup filling, there was no liquid in the container so I am assuming they were broken before they were packed up to go.

I also ordered regular dumplings.

And chicken lo mein.

When I unpacked the order I was shocked to see there was no sauce included for the dumplings. I was also shocked that my hands and countertop were covered in oil. The lo mein was really really oily to the point it had coated the bag.

I was also shocked to see there was very little chicken in the chicken lo mein. I’ve looked through the entire dish and put to the side the chicken, and weighed it. Less than 1 ounce. See photos.

I’m not someone who typically posts reviews, and I am the type who will speak to someone first. The employee who answered the phone was not empathetic to me being disappointed in not having any sauce to dip the dumplings in. When you eat there, the dumplings are served on a plate that literally has a spot to hold the sauce to dip, and they offer a variety of sauces on the tables. The employee told me there are sauce packets at the counter and just ask for them next time (it was Chinese take out packets, soy, duck, hot, mustard etc) not the sauces they offer table side. I explained it’s nice to have a container with the sauce so you can “dip” and he explained that you would just open the packet and pour it on top. I mentioned that every other place locally who serves dumplings for take out includes a sauce. He said theirs are authentic and do not have a sauce.

I can see other reviews here also mention being disappointed in not receiving a sauce.

I attempted to call and make a suggestion. The customer service was poor. The employee COULD have said “I understand you feel it’s typical to have a sauce included for dumplings, I’ll pass your suggestion onto the owner.” But instead said his boss said he had to hang up on me.

Will not...

I've always ordered the vegetable dumplings steamed and they are good. 5 percent discount if cash is used - demand it. But that's where the good stops. The rice always has too much oil and today I told the person on the phone, likely the owner, not a lot of oil. I came home since this was a takeout order, and a lot of the rice was burned. How do you serve customers burnt rice? Not a lot of oil doesn't equate to burnt rice, it even smelled burnt. I asked the owner, can I have 5 soy sauces. She gives me 2 soy sauces and 2 hot sauces. I said I don't want the hot sauce I want soy sauce. She gives me an attitude saying "you said you didn't want it". Then proceeds to give me 2 more soy sauces. I got 4 soy sauces when I asked for 5. They used to leave the small plastic containers of hot sauce, orange sauce, and soy sauce out so people can take how much they would like. Now they have it behind the counter. How cheap and disgusting from the owner. Do yourself a favor and avoid the aggravation of this place. It is not worth the attitude. Meanwhile I was nice and not demanding about anything, even gave a tip before this interaction. Horrible way to treat your customers. If Robert Irvine came here he'd be yelling at the owner and I should have too. This is at the Poughkeepsie location by the way. Avoid both restaurants, the one in Wappingers too, because they can't get their acts together. I will NEVER go back...

It’s a bad sign when you ask your waiter “how are you?”, and they say “I’ve been better” and walk away. I should have followed my gut and left. But I didn’t and was rewarded with an underwhelming meal. The spicy noodle soup was a broth merely spiced with garlic oil and it was extremely salty. There was at least a 1/4 cup of oil floating atop the broth. The cabbage and meatball soup was light in noodles and cabbage, over salted and the meatballs were rubbery and bland. I could have had an easier time if there was a plum or duck sauce to use, but only soy sauce was available— which would only make things saltier. I can say the noodles were nicely cooked, as were the steamed dumplings, but the dumplings were only average in taste, and too salty also. Sadly, I would not recommend eating here unless you like to swell up from a sodium overdose and love your tongue being coated in oil. You might get by with the dumplings at Dumpling Palace, but stay away from the soup, for which they rate only as a Dumpling Shack. And please, get rid of your staff members who can’t even be bothered to say hi to a customer or...