Dumpling Cafe

Awesome soup dumplings! (xiaolong bao) Order C.11. on the menu (Mini soup buns with pork), eat, profit.

Holy moly. I have a special place in my heart for the good ol’ standby Taiwan Café, which is just a few blocks away, but Dumpling Café really blew me away when I had it for the first time last weekend.
I came here late with my family the day after Christmas, and it was totally empty. We ordered more food than any group of humans could ever eat in one sitting. Everything was incredible.
Among my top faves:
— Shredded pork and bamboo tips (must have!)
— Beef julienne (very spicy, not for the faint of heart)
— Zucchini with salty egg
— Deep fried pork intestines
— Pea pod shoots and garlic
We also ordered xiao long bao, soup noodles with pork and pickled vegetables, egg white fried rice, chicken wings, traditional taiwanese minced pork over rice.
I will definitely continue coming here every time I’m visiting Boston.

Aptly named after the star of the show, them juicy dumplings are legit!
Can’t think of a better place to go on a cold rainy/​sleeting day.
Aside from the dumplings, we had the tasty bitter melon with garlic, meaty Taiwanese pan fried dumplings and the hearty and smoky shredded beef noodle soup with longhorn peppers… mmmmmmmmm!
Super value price wise. We’ll def be back in the future.
Now on to our next culinary adventure in Chinatown.

This is my favorite restaurant to come for soup dumplings besides Gourmet Dumpling House in Chinatown. This place is always packed and there is usually a wait — not that long though. The maximum time I waited here was 15 mins which is not bad at all considering how good the food is. Their menu is super extensive with lots of options for beef, pork, chicken, seafood, and other main entrees. There are a lot of spicy options, but for those who doesn’t have a high tolerance for spicy food, you can tell them to not make it spicy. How great is that?! When I come here I usually order the soup dumplings with pork and crabmeat and the beef with black bean sauce. There is just so much flavor and everything is super appetizing. It just hits the perfect spot. The prices are super cheap here too and service is super friendly. There is also a lot of street parking, so don’t you worry! If I lived closer, I would definitely get delivery from here all the time. I love love love this restaurant. I highly recommend this place if you want some really good Asian food that isn’t too induced with MSG.

Two stars for Food. It’s good enough.
Serious Issue: Auto Gratuity of 18% is added the to bill. MAKE SURE TO LOOK AND SEE THAT IT IS THERE. Went there to eat last night and saw that at the bottom of the check. It was myself and one other person. Last I checked, this was practiced with parties of at least 5+.
Otherwise, if you just pay for it, the credit card slip will ask for ADDITIONAL TIP.
They also don’t tell you that there is a service charge added at any time during the meal. This is something that is also not acceptable since if you don’t know, you might not see it. It is sneaky and very disrespectful, as if treating people like idiots to hope they get more money/​tip out of you.
Probably wouldn’t be a serious issue, except the service far from warrants what they charge you for: 18%.
I probably received 18% overall effort from them, but to be charged AUTOMATICALLY for that?
WOW. anyways, no point coming back, I ain’t interested in paying the hourly wages of the waitstaff if the restaurant itself is too cheap to pay them the proper amount or to let the staff earn their money from the generosity of the guests they serve.
FYI: I have plenty of restaurant and service experience so please do not waste your time or breath to tell me why auto grat works. It doesn’t. As a server, it’s shameful to rely on a set charge, as opposed to actually seeing if the effort put into customer service will warrant a good tip. I don’t like being told how much I should pay my server. I came into that restaurant as a choice, and now its my choice to never go back.
Also: auto gratuity is no longer considered a «tip» its calculated as a wage (hourly pay rate) for those who receive it. This went into effect last year, since the IRS wants to make the service industry more difficult as a means of living; they want to tax every penny earned if possible. Essentially when you see that, you are paying the service staff their hourly rate to work there, that means the restaurant collects all that money and is supposed to use it to pay the staff, after all the taxes have been applied and deducted. It is up to you to believe if they actually do that or not.
So, would I recommend this place? possibly, but with high caution. There are better dumpling houses out there and they won’t put the wool over your eyes.
If you haven’t seen this on your bills, then this restaurant is practicing something borderline illegal; racial stereotyping to ensure a gratuity is collected.

Had a much better dinner this evening:
Pea tips (peapod stems, dou miao) — super fresh and sauteed with garlic. We wanted Chinese zucchini (si gua), but they were out. Fortunately, dou miao is in season.
Dumplings (pork/​chive) — simple, home-​style, liked the filling — not too fatty
Yangzhou fried rice with shrimp, squid — tasty and fragrant
Pork with bamboo tips — loved the shredded bamboo, really fresh.
Service is fast.

I only got the soup dumplings. There was a generous amount of meat, but I wish there was more broth and a thinner dumpling skin. I agree with the other reviews that it was too thick and chewy.
Service: I’d give service 2 stars at most. I saw several servers just sitting around while I awkwardly waited for someone to take my order. The couple next to me had to ask for their to-​go boxes and check several times. They were also not happy that their gratuity was automatically added to their bill. The restaurant was not busy and there was plenty of help around to serve everyone properly.
I will be trying other spots in chinatown before returning.

Dumpling Café is a gem. The service, cleanliness, and food ranks this restaurant amongst one of Chinatowns best restaurants. If you are chasing dumplings then the restaurants name lives up to the hype. We had an overall great dinner and were in and out in 35 minutes. This is a very popular restaurant so be prepared to wait a few minutes for a table. Below are some of the stand out dishes of the night.
Mini juicy dumplings (xiao long bao)
Braised beef and spinach noodle soup

I usually come here with friends and eat family style, which is fitting since the food has a very home-​cooked quality. While there are some dishes that are always wonderful, others are hit or miss and may leave something to be desired.
One dish shines above all others as a MUST-​ORDER every time I’m here: Shui Zhu Yu (水煮鱼). It translates to something like Sichuan-​style boiled fish filet (?). This dish comes out in a little pot and remains heated by a flame throughout your meal. Tender pieces of white fish with cabbage in a spicy broth. Love. It’s an absolute staple of Sichuan cuisine and you have to try it at least once! This is a dish that I’ve ordered at several Chinatown restaurants in search of my favorite version, and so far, Dumpling Café is in the lead. Once we were eating this dish so deliciously that the family next to us wanted to know the reason for our expressions of pure content. I sold them on it instantly and there were absolutely zero regrets to be had on their part.
Honorable mention:
Three cups chicken (sān bēi jī/​三杯雞): a bit salty, but that’s what rice is for.
Taiwan braised eggplant

Second favorite spot in Chinatown right behind Taiwan café! Have dined inside and gotten take out multiple times. Soup dumplings are great as well as some of the noodle dishes and chicken with mixed veggies. They also have wine and beer for really cheap. Not great quality wine but for 4 – 5 bucks, why not? Will definitely keep ordering from here,

Chose Dumpling Café as a backup after the Dumpling House line was too long. That’s exactly how I think of Dumpling Café: a second tier dumpling joint with positive and negatives.
Pros:
–Pan-​fried noodles. Had these with fried veggies and they were SUBLIME. Highly recommended if you are looking for an upgrade from typical «American» chinese food but not quite ready to try xiao long bao or more traditional chinese dishes.
–Bubble tea. There are a multitude of bubble tea options in Chinatown, but Dumpling Café is sneaky good. The honeydew bubble tea may have been the best that I have ever had!
–The mini pork buns (xiao long bao) here are supposedly great, however I found them to be average (although still good!)
Cons:
–Service. The hostess gave us a nearly empty, lukewarm teapot, and our waiter was not necessarily helpful. However, dishes were out quick.
–Atmosphere. Every restaurant in Chinatown is cramped, however Dumpling Café was especially hard to get around. A little smelly as well.
Overall, a solid choice in Chinatown, although there are better choices (New Saigon Sandwich right across the street is a GREAT option).

Very similar to Taiwan Café, haven’t tried their oyster pancake but I’ll definitely see how that compares to T Café next time. The menu options are very similar. I guess I’ll have to go more often to compare the qualities.
宫保鸡丁不错~

Food: 3
Service: 3
Value: 3
Overall:
Very similar to Taiwan Café, but the soup dumplings were not as good and the experience was underwhelming.
Food:
The food selection is very similar to that of Taiwan Café, but the quality does not seem to be as high. In particular, the soup dumplings had thicker skins and did not contain nearly as much broth or meat.
Service:
Service was fine, nothing noteworthy.
Value:
Prices are reasonable.

Good stuff. My friend and I were looking for lunch in Chinatown one day and he mentioned that this is one of his second favorite places to eat. We came around 1pm on Saturday and the place was pretty packed, so we ended up sharing one of those large round tables with a couple other parties. It was pretty chaotic, but we got to eat and we were served pretty quickly so I was fine with it.
We got the Preserved mustard and pork noodles (sounds unappetizing I know, but it’s actually quite good), the XLB (aka soup dumplings aka xiao long bao) of course, and the salt and pepper pork chops.
I thought the noodle soup was decent, but probably not something I would order again. Didn’t think the noodles or the broth were particularly stand out. The XLB were pretty good though — quite comparable to Taiwan Café. I think it’s so fascinating how the XLB in Boston are SO large compared to what I’m used to eating in California, but my god they are so full of juice it’s fantastic. I was also a huge fan of the salt and pepper pork chops. Huge portion as well.
Total after tip came out to be about $ 34 for two which isn’t unreasonable. Pricier than I would like given that we were just eating Chinese food for lunch, but we were definitely quite full afterwards.
tldr; yummy Chinese food at an albeit slightly higher price!

I am not sure what the hype is all about. I was here once for lunch and once for dinner. The lunch specials are great and probably more worth it than dinner. The food is ok, nothing too spectacular. The green onion pancake is not crispy enough and the sauté string beans is too oily and not cooked well. The only dish I would recommend there is probably the fried flounder with ginger and green scallions. The service wasn’t that great and since we went on a Sunday night for dinner, we felt like we were rushed all the time. They automatically add 18% gratuity to your bill.
Tip: everyone in your party has to be there before they will seat you.

More popular than any bar in Boston, this place is out of this world. All joking aside, drunk Chinese food is the way to go. We ordered beef with pepper, soup dumplings, pork chops and I got rice noodle soup. The broth was so good, it’s a little salty, but I love salt. The pork chops were incredible, crispy and had a nice ginger taste, and the beef with peppers was good and spicy. Service is kinda terrible but it was 1 in the morning, the line was out the door and I had a happy tummy.

Came here to try to XLBs. Disappointed. After one or two, they actually taste kind of gross. The dumpling shell is thick and sticky. Not delicate like I prefer my XLBs to be. If you’ve had great XLB from Asia or din tai fung you know what I mean. The pork inside was questionable. Not very soupy. Not even sure if it was cooked through either.
2 stars at best. Probably only really gets a 1 in my opinion.

Food was good, but not amazing. My only gripe with this place was the service. Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Asian restaurants are known for their quick efficiency so I’m not expecting 5 star service. But I had to wave down the waitress 5 times to get 2 cups of water, which is sort of ridiculous considering the place wasn’t even packed when I went. Also most watery tea ever.
Now for the food:
Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) — easily best thing ordered. Very juicy and authentic.
Taiwan Style Eggplant — aka with garlic, basil, and black bean sauce. Pretty good, but liked the one at Taiwan Café better as I think they overdid the sauce a bit and I could only taste sauce.
Beef and Chicken with Basil — Good, but again not amazing. I don’t know if it’s because the eggplant was so saucy, but I thought this was a bit bland. Portion though was generous.
I’ll consider coming back and trying other dishes, but at least for this time, the only dish I found worth re-​ordering was the xiao long bao.

I came here for a late dinner (7pm) after doing some research on Unilocal.I never been to Boston’s Chinatown and was pleased to find that it was an easy walk from my hotel. Upon finding this place I was surprised it was packed, and even more surprised to be seated immediately, across another customer getting ready to leave. Tables were not yet cleared which was awkward.
In terms of food, the entrees I ordered are 5-​stars in quality. Mini Pork Buns (Xiao Long Bao) were a misnomer — they should be called Da Long Bao since they were enormous! Easily double the size from Din Tai Fung and other places in SF Bay Area, but with the same excellent rich broth and juicy pork. I also ordered Beef Brisket Noodles with Spinach — excellent broth, very tender and juicy brisket, and good use of spinach and pickled greens. Noodles were chewy, which is how I like them.
Minor quips is that the tea was a bit bland. I ordered a coconut boba tea (to go as a dessert) that was pretty good, except pearls were a bit bland. Service was decent but I can’t help but feel its a bit erratic with seating folks and moving chairs and tea pots from table to table.

Xaio Long Bao… or soup buns… or mini juicy buns… or pork «soup» dumplings. So many names for one delicious little dumpling! Try to pop an entire dumpling into your mouth and it bursts with flavor and well… soup! This place does a good job on their dumplings. And the Roast Duck Buns are wicked pissa good too. Service was standard for a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.
Next time I come in I’ll try a few other dishes but definitely can’t go wrong with any of the dumplings and buns here!