Noodles and Dumplings — Restaurant in Windcrest

Recently renovated IHOP into this new restaurant. The atmosphere was decent. Service was much better than expected. Our waitress was excellent at explaining the menu. We went on a Saturday and the wait was over an hour with an additional hour wait for dumplings as stated by a handwritten note by management. So, we decided to come back on Sunday when they first opened. We arrived at 11 am however, they wrote a note on the front door saying the opening was delayed to 11:30 and apologized for the inconvenience. We decided to wait for the place to open which worked out because they sat us around 11:25 am. The food was great except for the Curry Tonkatsu, it was bland and underwhelming. The dumplings were great and the underrated green onion pancakes were not only yummy and buttery but the sauce it's served with is spot on. Apparently, it's a secret sauce and I ended up asking for extra to put into my soup. You should be aware that most of the meals are served with large portions so you can anticipate leftovers. For the prices they are charging, I think it's fair and perfect for families. The kid's menu is only $8.99, and an adult meal is about $14-$17. So, given the large portions, I would be comfortable getting meals for each of my kids and sharing a plate with my spouse. On another note, I think it is a huge mistake to use cheap small hand napkins in a restaurant that serves big bowls of soup. I would highly recommend getting either bigger heavy-duty napkins or cloth napkins as they do at Lucky Noodle, another good restaurant that serves big bowls of soup. It would make a difference to me the kind of napkins that were available when stopping in during my lunch hour wearing a blouse or bringing my family here after church in our Sunday best attire. Lastly, I would highly recommend they put a trash bin at the front of the establishment. When I came in on Saturday, I saw a lot of trash building up outside the front doors where everyone was waiting over an hour to be seated. When I came again on Sunday morning, a lot of the trash was still littered in the grass areas making the establishment look cheap and dirty. It's a simple thing to add to help elevate this restaurant but that's my honest review and I hope management takes my recommendations because the only reason I'm not giving 3 stars is simply because our waitress MJ and her amazing service throughout our time there. My spouse and I decided to try this restaurant out for our 5 year anniversary together and although we experienced some bad things, MJ made everything much better. Even kindly dealing with my spouse's onion allergy with great kindness. Good luck to this establishment and I hope you come in and try the hand pulled noodles and made-to-order dumplings, those...

Positives: General Tso was very good. Xiao Long Bao was good. Walnut Shrimp was good. Black Pepper salt shrimp was good. Fried Noodles were very very good.

Negatives: Fried rice looked tasty but needed some soy sauce added for better taste.

Main issue is with the gratuity. Even though they are upfront about it, 20% gratuity for more than 6 people is really steep. We are not cheap tippers however 20% for the service we received was not worth it. Drinks were empty with no refills unless asked, seats were dirty while being seated (we needed to ask the server to come out and clean the seat as it looked like a square pan had been set on the seat and that pan was soiled with food oil). Server quickly cleaned the area and then proceeded to dumping the cleaning supplies by accident on the floor after wiping up the chair. So I reiterate $40 forced tip for less than 20 minutes worth of gratuity is very steep. For the naysayers I will break it down; Even though you may eat at a location for an hour or even 2 hours. The servers are not at your table for more than 3-8 minutes at a time. Taking an order is administrative in nature, you write down what they ask you to order. You then walk that back to whatever the ordering apparatus is that you have to input it in. Once the order is done you bring it out to the table. In the mean time, drinks should never get below half and take away any type discarded dishes. Not rocket science. The gratuity % is putting servers in the same category as technical trade workers. Mind you they had opened only 10 minutes prior to us being seated.

To be clear our server was super nice, but I’m not tipping people to be nice, I’m tipping because the service was top notch. Gratuity should be left to the parties. Are you going to get people that tip less, yes of course you are, some people only save enough money for that one fun day out for their families. Those costs should not be directly passed onto the customers, the resturaunt should build those additional costs into the food costs and let us know that way, maybe a little clip saying an additional 2% is added on top in every menu item to be split by all the workers. This way the customers know that the restaurant stands by their product. This would then give the full option of gratuity back to...

ENVIRONMENT: There was a wait upon entering. We entered the waitlist by scanning the QR code at the host table. From there, with 3 people, we were seated within 10-15 minutes.

Once called, the hostess asked if we’ve been here before, we said no, to which she gave us a mini tour of their boba drink options, their housemade noodle station and their housemade dumpling station.

SERVICE: Our server was great. He was so patient with us and as attentive as he could be considering the crowd. There was a couple of times where he didn’t ring in our add-on orders but he was apologetic and polite about it.

The dumplings can take 15 minutes to cook so it’s best to order ASAP.

FOOD: We ordered the soup dumplings, the pork belly soup, pan fried dumplings, walnut shrimp, beef fried rice and a thai tea with boba.

Soup dumplings: It was mediocre to us at best, but also keep in mind that we have a lot to compare to; from eating dumplings out of state and in Houston, the soup dumplings do not compare. The outside of the dumplings had an unusual sticky texture and the soup inside was not good.

Pork belly soup: It was decent. It could use more richness. The noodles were the star of the dish. It does come with A LOT of cilantro and can change the taste of broth. If you don’t like a strong taste of cilantro, I’d recommend to order it without.

Pan fried dumplings: They were one of the top two to us. I like the crispy bits on top of the dumplings. They had a bit of a more oily outside than I’m used to, but good taste.

Walnut shrimp: The other one of the two we enjoyed but it was okay. The outside crisp of the shrimp was not that crispy and it lacked some flavor.

Beef fried rice: It was okay. It didn’t amaze us at all.

Thai tea: As beautiful as their display for their boba drinks are, the thai tea was mediocre. In my opinion, your better off going to an actual boba place after instead of spending $6 here for their mediocre boba and thai tea.

OVERALL: The service was honestly the best part. We loved our server. Like I said, as people who have higher standards when it comes to dumplings/asian food quality, we would...