Thursday, April 19, 2018

Restaurant Review: Din Ding Dumpling House

Din Ding Dumpling House - lunch on March 25, 2018
My niece found this restaurant on yelp as a lunch spot for us to try. My dad wanted Thai food but all the Thai restaurants in easy driving distance from our church didn’t open until 11:30 or 12. We get out of church usually just before 11 and we’re not good about waiting for lunch.
Xiao Long Bao
Din Ding Dumpling House opened at 11 so that worked just fine for us. Although by the time we arrived at 11:15, the place was almost full. Granted, it wasn’t a terribly large place but it wasn’t that small either by small-business restaurant standards. Fortunately we were able to get a table without having to wait more than a few minutes despite the patrons starting to stack up at the door and in the miniscule waiting area.
Won Ton Soup
This place hustled. As in, the servers dashed about, taking orders, and bringing them out from the kitchen quite speedily. It’s the kind of place where I ordered water and never got it because they were so busy. I didn’t really press the issue though as the service was pretty quick and our food came out soon after we ordered.
String Beans
We got the Xiao Long Baos, those little dumplings with “soup” inside. I loved the presentation: 8 XLBs in a large steamer set over hot water. You lift out the dumpling with your chopsticks and place it in the little individual-dumpling-size “plate” they bring with it, covered with a few thin spears of ginger and eat it from there, careful not to let too much of the soup spill out as you want to slurp that up. They were really good, almost as good as the ones I tried from Din Tai Fung in Hong Kong.
Combination Fried Rice
We played it a little safe with our menu choices, going for the Won Ton Soup (the size we ordered barely fed the four of us), the combination fried rice, string beans and the chicken chow mein. After the Xiao Long Baos, I have to say the chow mein was my favorite. Which is surprising as normally I think chow mein is pretty average in general. But the noodles were really good, thick and chewy rather than overcooked. Overall, for a quick, simple meal, I thought this was a good choice.
Chicken Chow Mein

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