Yang’s Dumpling House

We went there with our two little girls and they loved the chicken mushrooms noodle soup. I really liked the yummy dumplings and steamed dumplings. The staff was really nice and friendly. We all really enjoyed the food.

Yang’s confuses me. I keep coming back, so it feels like a moral imperative to grant at least three stars. However, every time I eat there, I feel my conundrum deepen.
During my most recent visit, I arrived at 1pm on a Tuesday, which should’ve been the tail end of «the lunch crowd,» but I was the only person in the restaurant, aside from the chefs, for my entire dining experience. Not one other soul entered this place, not even for a to-​go order.
The Chinese Chicken Cabbage Salad came out within five minutes of my ordering, and looked decent, but was as overdressed as Sister Mary Elizabeth in a Vegas club at 2am; essentially cold cabbage soup. I took a few bites and resolved to bring it home and doctor it up later.
The real confusion for me lies in the menu. The place is called, «Yang’s Dumpling House,» yet there are only three dumpling dishes on the whole menu, and none are shrimp dumplings. One dumpling has ground pork and shrimp, but nothing with just shrimp! I swear that their menu gets shorter every time I eat there… soon it’ll have to be called, «Yang’s Whateverisavailable House.»
Another head-​scratcher for me is the nearly impenetrable thickness of the dumpling dough. Yang’s dumplings have so much dough, they look like clouds of wet flour. After three or four, you’re way more full than you should be on dumplings, but strangely unsatisfied. I wrapped those up for some at-​home doctoring as well.
Even with those enigmas, I would still be open to giving them a higher rating if not for the «service» and the lack of sauces. You’re greeted when you arrive, pointed to a seat, your order is taken quickly and the food is brought out timely, but the rest of your visit, my friend, is entirely up to you. Once you’re fed, the employees all go back to prepping food behind the counter. Expect to be getting your own drinks, bussing your own table, wrapping your own food to-​go, waiting at the counter for your check, and so on.
As for dumpling dippers, the tables have something in a yellow squeeze bottle (mustard?), regular soy sauce and what seems to be an empty jar of sweet chili sauce. How about chili paste? Chili oil? Vinegar? Light soy sauce? Even some Sweet n Sour or Sriracha would be a welcome addition.
A big ho-​hum from this Unilocaler. I’ll still keep going back if I’m super hungry, in the area, and craving dumplings, but meh.

My wife and I each tried different dumplings — she the chicken mushroom, me the Yummy — both were very good. Solid if not spectacular.
The belle of the ball though was the Chinese Salad appetizer — loved it. Good spice and lots of cilantro — my kind of dish. I will be back for that alone!

Ordered mushroom chicken dumplings, steamed pork buns, and wonton soup. The wonton soup was The BEST. I wish there were oil, vinegar, sweet and sour etc. There are only menu items. He handmakes all the dumplings to order. He also does the greeting ordering and ringing up clean up. Small business hole in the wall. I appreciate his work. Wish there were oil vinegar or spices to accompany them tho.

I didn’t like their dumplings at all :(
I’m sorry Mr.Yang.
Ordered: pork buns and yummy dumpling
According to their menu,
Pork buns– pork and juice inside
Yummy dumpling– pork, shrimp and chives
There was no juice inside of pork buns and I didn’t taste pork at all. I tasted beef, or pork was super old. Only chunk of meat was inside. I tasted sour after I ate one dumpling and I couldn’t finish lest of 9pieces :(
Yummy dumpling wasn’t yummy at all. This dumplings were so watery. I tried so hard to find shrimp but I couldn’t find any shrimp inside.
I took leftovers at home and my roommate was like,
«What is this smell? Smells so bad.» I opened the box and showed it to her then she gave me disgusting look.

This is a pretty small place on the corner of a strip mall. If you’re expecting DTF or Dough Zone level of dumplings, you’ll be disappointed, but otherwise it’s not bad. The dumplings do have a thicker skin and don’t seem to be as soupy. We were also given metal spoons (not chinese soup spoons) and for me that was a really weird way to eat the dumplings and catch the soup/​vinegar without the soup spoon but whatever.
We also got the noodle soup with chicken and it was really tasty. There was a lot of pepper in the soup but it was good on a cold winter day.
Service was good and unobtrusive except for two visits by the server to see if we wanted anything else and to fill up our waters. I’m glad he also told us that you pay at the register at the front or else we might have been sitting there for a while.
Overall it wasn’t a bad experience, and I’d probably go back to try some of their buns. It’s close enough to make it a regular spot, and there’s plenty of parking.

Had lunch here and found it average. I ordered some chicken cabbage dumplings for lunch and was excited since I hadn’t had any Chinese style dumplings since a trip to Beijing a while ago.
The staff was friendly but somewhat awkward when I tried to order to go since I had to ask for a menu. The man who was cooking was nice and joked with me at the register. I think it is a family joint which is great.
I was a bit disappointed when I saw them just grab frozen dumplings from a freezer to boil for my order. They were a bit soggy when I ate them but were still okay. Perhaps I should have ordered the steamed ones? The dipping sauce provided with them wasn’t anything special. Price seemed a bit high considering they were frozen.

I wanted to love this place, but it seems expensive to me. We had pork buns, dumplings, & Chinese salad. It was all very tasty & fresh, but the total was $ 30. About everything is $ 8 or $ 9, which seems high.
Appreciate the fact they’re made to order, but still. Speaking of that– it’s all made to order. Our food was juicy, not the least bit dry. The place is also very clean. The owners are a little brusque, but I didn’t mind that. I’d mind it even less if it was cheaper. We’ll probably go back, but not in a hurry.

Great lil hole in the wall. Greeted by owners instantly, and was directed to any seat of my choice. ordered quickly and food was brought to us in a timely manner Really nice lady. Great service and even better smile. love the food!!!
wonton soup and pork buns. mine spicy
can’t wait to return

Oh hello one star, it’s been a long time since I’ve used you, but this place made a concerted effort to earn you.
Located in a strip mall off NE 85^th, this place is should be renamed Yang’s Trash House, at least given the quality of the food and service here.
It’s accessible, I’ll give you that as it is easy to get to and parking is plentiful, but that’s about it.
We initially stopped in expecting a place similar to the Dough Zone or Din Tai Fung and from the pictures and menu it looked like it actually might compare. Oh how wrong we were.
On arrival you’re seated at one of maybe 10 or so tables with your party and then given a menu to order from. The waiter will eventually bring you water and possibly some tea if you beg for it. You then get to begin the process of ordering. It goes something like this:
You: I’d like this item.
Waiter: Ok.
Waiter then leaves and goes to the kitchen some 10 feet away.
Waiter talks to staff and then returns.
Waiter: I’m sorry we’re out of those.
You: Ok, I’ll have this item instead.
The process then repeats itself. The problem isn’t so much that they are out of the menu items, the problem is that the accurate answer is that they are out of that food at the moment and it will be a while before they make it again. What this means is you are limited to only items that they immediately have ready or items that have been ready for some time. As a result, some of your dumplings will be bland, soft, or dry since they have been sitting waiting for someone to order them for a while. Should you be lucky to score a fresh batch, they will have the look, feel, and taste of being prepared by an entry level apprentice dumpling chef and not anything that an average person would want to consume. Our first set of dumplings was gooey enough I could have used them as wallpaper glue and the second set hard enough to pound in a nail. Consistency is something this kitchen is still learning.
If you happen to speak Chinese you will get better service as then you can communicate directly with the kitchen (we witnessed an annoyed party perform this act in desperation) whereon the chef will leave the kitchen and take your order from the table directly. You then might get something eatable.
I will say this though, if you manage to find the item on the menu they have ready immediately, at least the service will be quick. You’ll need to ask for silverware if you don’t have any though, and that will take longer than getting your food.
Should you be starving and have a dollar in your pocket, there’s a McDonald’s a block away. The food will be safer and you’ll be treated better there.

The dumplings here are just like the ones I make myself at home. Unfortunately, I don’t make amazing dumplings, I make average dumplings, and the dumplings they serve here are just that, average. They weren’t bad, but I’ll confirm what others have said about the very little soup in the soup dumplings as a result of many of them being severed by the plate, and the thick «homemade» wrapper/​skin.
The entire experience was nothing special, and I wouldn’t have left a review had it not been for the complete change in treatment when we went to pay. After pretty normal behavior during the meal, the server (owner?) became rather rude while my boyfriend was at the counter. No more smiles, at one point yelling «nooooo!», and even making a weird comment about how my boyfriend was the palest of the white people. We didn’t see a «cash only» sign, but after reading other reviews, maybe this change in attitude was because we wanted to pay with a credit card?
I don’t think we’ll ever come here again, like I said, it’s really nothing special, and the weird experience at the end left a bad aftertaste.

Clean nice place! Super yummy dumplings and buns. Alex and I were waiting for them open by 11:00 am and ordered 8 steamed buns and 15 boiled yummy dumplings! So yum! Nice waiter and he gave us good suggestion on the right amount of food we should order. I have been eating frozen dumplings for almost 2 years since I couldn’t locate any nice dumpling house like this one !!! Strongly recommend, best dumpling house ever ~~

I read all the negative reviews for validation… I thought, «it couldn’t have been that bad?» Apparently a lot of people agree with me, it was that bad.
The confusing menu, the bland and tasteless food (items not available), and the awkwardly rude waiter/​owner made the experience worth Unilocaling about.
I’ve been to DTF in Bellevue many many many times, and decided to give Yangs a shot. Bottom line is that this place is expensive and the service is weird (guy made us feel strange about where we placed things on the table!).
I won’t be back. But, I will keep dropping hundreds over at DTF! Now that is truly «yummy.»

Like everyone else mentioned, this is a family style restaurant. The dumpling is homemade, so no fancy look or ingredient. Just simple dumpling with fresh ingredients and light seasoning. Think about your homemade food– this is what this restaurant is about. The staffs like to chat with mandarin (with different accent, funny to listen actually), you can hear the water boiling in the pot, fans is running on the back, chopping food on the chopping board etc. reminds me about Christmas and I could hear grandma was chopping the vegetables to prepare dinner.
Long story short, the food is decent. The pork dumpling with cabbage is fresh, when you dip it into black vinegar sauce (the yellow bottle) it taste very, gourmet. The dumpling is only $ 8.99, and I got 15 pieces :) the dry tofu seaweed with jalapeño is decent too. For $ 3.99, they give you very generous portion. I didn’t have much space left to try out the buns and noodle, maybe next time.

In my one dining experience here, I don’t think I was impressed enough to want to come back for the dumplings. I was here for dinner by myself, and a whole plate of dumplings seemed excessive for a single person. Instead, I ordered a beef and broccoli noodle soup for $ 8.99.
I appreciate how they started making it only after I had ordered it. I also like how their noodles were homemade, but the dish itself was nothing special. It consisted of nothing other than the simple ingredients in its name, and overall it was pretty bland. For noodle soup at this price, I might as well be getting phở at another restaurant.

Great to have authentic handmade Chinese dumplings in Kirkland. The menu is pretty short but has buns, dumplings, soup and a salad. Fun experience and the employees are very friendly. Had the pork and cabbage dumplings and will start working my way through the menu.

My Dad and I came here over the weekend and really enjoyed the experience. We came in for a late lunch/​early dinner and were 2 of 3 people in there.
The owners didn’t seem to speak a ton of English but were very friendly. We weren’t sure if we were supposed to go up and order or sit down — but since it wasn’t busy at all, the guy came over to us so that we could place our orders.
My Dad had the wonton soup, and I had the juicy pork dumplings. The wonton soup, first of all, was HOT (temperature-​wise.) I know that Chinese food in generally is usually impressively hot — but to give you an idea, 30 minutes after we started eating, there was steam still coming out of the soup. He thought it was good but said it needed more salt — the dumplings were really slippery and he needed a fork.
I really liked the juicy pork dumplings but have to agree with everyone when they say that there was no soup in them. They were incredibly fresh and handmade — it actually took a little while for the food to come out because I watched 3 people sit and roll out the dough. (It makes me wonder if when they are busy, how they manage to keep up.) I think that there were maybe 10 or 12 that came in my order — and it was definitely enough to get me stuffed.
The only reason why I’m taking away a star is because the bathroom was pretty icky… and there was no toilet paper.

Ok I can’t stop raving about the boiled pork dumplings. Sooo yummy and they are hand made. Service was good although they don’t speak much English, but as long as they don’t get my order wrong I’m ok with it. And they did a good job of explaining the difference between the types of dumplings. They have a parking lot but it’s part of s strip mall & you may accidentally get stuck in the line up for the drive-​through coffee place while trying to leave your parking space.
Anyways this place really does have fantastic food!

Like eating in a Chinese family’s home. The dumplings really have a homemade precision to them (they’re not precise) but they are generous in size and you can taste the love put into each dumpling. It’s nice to rotate this with Dough Zone/​Din Tai Fung for a full Eastside dumpling experience.
if you’re not chinese, you will get little Halloween chocolates at the end of the meal.

I like this place. Alot. Sure there isn’t any service concept here or even a drink menu, but who cares. This food is handcrafted to order. And it all takes time even with just two tables occupied on a Tuesday night.
Bring good friends and catch up on life while waiting for some great tasting and inexpensive cuisine. And calm down, eastside Unilocalers, you are driving restaurants crazy with your silliness every night. I see it all the time.