Dumplings On Russell

My food tasted quite average, which is fine for a cheap place, but the quality of service wasn’t the best and definitely left much to be desired. One of the waitresses was very terse and abrupt when I asked about table water. I was told there was none, reusable bottles were being taken in to be washed, none were filled to be given to customers. We had to share with a couple on another table which was absolutely absurd! Their drinks refrigerator was completely empty and, given it was 2:30pm when I went to eat with my girlfriend, we were both told there was a 1–2 hour wait for most items on the menu. It wasn’t a terribly good experience.

Staff Service and attitude here is disgusting minus 0/5, they will challenge you for just being there right from the get go, whatever u ask for they will grunt or grease you off with their eyes, they obviously freaken hate being there, but I'm not here to review the staff, I'm here to review the dumplings..! Dumplings here are juicy, piping hot, no frills fresh dumplings! It is excellent pricing for the quality and quantity, it is easily top 3 in city in terms of pure dumplings.

This was definitely THE WORST dining experience I have ever experienced in my whole life so far and I hope no one would have to go through this like us. If I could give negative star, I would too as with the experience we had, they dont deserve 1 star even. After reading many mixed review about this place, we decided to give it a try. We called ahead to book but they dont take booking, only walk-in. We went in and standed in the door asking for a table but no one served us or had any response even the staffs saw us there. We waited for a good 5 mins, we approached and asked them again. Still no response and very rude attitude from the waitress there I think she is the main staff here. She didnt say anything then just pointed to the table in the corner, implying we sit there. She was super rude with bad manner as if we were beggers asking for free food. It was so crazy. We ordered the xiao long bao as some reviews say they are good, they were not good at all. The skin was super thick, the meat inside was very dry, I hardly can taste any soup inside at all. We also ordered the 2 signature dishes they advertise in the posters which were salted egg prawns and the eels. The waitress didnt even want us to order that. She stared at us and said "whats about some dumpling?". I was so confused. Then she said "wait", and came into the kitchen. I guessed she prob went in to ask the chef if they are still available. She came out and said "ok" with the irritated, angry face still. The salted egg was super salty, not much salted egg taste but the salt taste. The portion was pretty small for a $27.80 dish too. The eel was a bit better in flavour but still very salty too. The portions were pretty small too. There was hardly any communication from the waitress at all whenever we asked her for anything including the bill. She just put the bill in the table while we were eating and asked for the payment first even. At the end, after paying, we were polite so we still said "thank you and bye bye", she didnt even look up or say anything. I really cant understand how a restaurant with this kind of customer service can still survive. I feel bad for the owner to have her as a waitress. I understand that she may have a very bad day, but 1 or 2 times is ok, this was the whole experience during dinner time. If they want to improve, they need to seriously look into the customer services especially from this main waitress and the food quality too. I would never recommend this place to anyone if they dont change it. And of course, we would never come back here again. P.S: my hubby even joked around saying we should even give them 10 stars since they gave us the kind of experience we never had before and would probably hard to get it from anywhere else.

The rule of thumb when visiting a Chinese restaurant applies here: a Chinese restaurant with good food will have rating at around 3-4 stars. Little damped space, staff is not fluent with English, so it’s best to take a Chinese friend with you. But they are nice, when I dropped my chopsticks, they took another one for me right away without needing me to ask. Not all dishes are good, but when they do, they really are. Heard that the xiao long bao here is good. What we ordered were great as well. I’d recommend the peanut butter wonton, and their deep fried dishes like the pork ribs. But last time we had fried pork bun, it has burnt bottom and was too oily to eat.

Thought? Dumplings looks good but taste wise not the best. Noodle didn’t had any flavor in it. Food was just bland. Don’t think would want to try it again. Service = no service.

It's very small and narrow place and can be very busy. Wait time could be longer too. Staff can be rude and not nice. They really don't like customerizing so I couldn't get exactly what I wanted. It could be bad for some people. I ordered seaweed and egg soup with chicken broth. It was nice but portion was a bit small for the price. They served in plastic bowl which I didn't like. It was OK as I really didn't expect much good service from this kind of restaurants anyway. It seemed like there is no surcharge paying by card

It’s solid cheap dumplings in the city. The steamed and fried dumplings are just average. Disappointed that there is a bit too much coriander in the pork mixture for the fried and steamed dumplings. The Xiao Long Baos and Fried Xiao Long Baos are pretty good, fragrant and up there with Din Tai Fung, Shanghai Street and Juicy Bao. Value with Liven, but without it, there are better places to go.

Delicious authentic Chinese dumplings and noodles. Fast and friendly service. Absolutely amazing. Great value menu!

While on a walk on a previous day I noticed there was quite a wait for this restaurant so I decided to come back the next day. I wish I didn’t. Honestly one of the worst service experiences I have ever come across. Once we had decided to order we were told that they only had pork dumplings available to order and that anything else would be a 2 hour wait. It was 2:30pm. We also wanted to buy drinks to which we were told they were sold out. When we asked if we could have water one wait staff simply said no and did not explain why. Then we noticed another customer ask for water and they were told sure, so we also asked. It was only after we complained that we were told that they did not have enough water jugs so we were left sharing one water jug with the people next to us who were kind enough to share. If you don’t have drinks or food to order either make it known before people come in or go buy some drinks! What’s more is that when I went to go pay they asked me if I’d like to pay cash or card. I said cash and then they opened up the till and they did not have any change. I can’t even tell if the food was good or not given how livid I was about the service. Come here if you need a cheap eat but do not expect anything more. A LOT left to be desired.

Very good dumplings. In great value. We highly recommend wt we have tried: the crab xiaolongbao and chicken prawn dumplings. The pan fried buns are also nice. Super juicy and savoury.