Ming’s Dumpling House

Ok, so this is the first place that I gave less than a stellar rating to. When I was told that this place was run by the same family that ran the Fu Man Dumpling House, I was all for trying it. I love Fu Man and I hoped that this place was just as good if not better. My husband and I went there and we were dropped off by my son who had to take us into the building where the restaurant was. I could tell at once that the place was much bigger than
Fu Man so that was a plus in my book. Unlike Fu Man though, the place was relatively empty. I just assumed it was because they might have been new so no one knew about it yet. I was very disappointed to find out that even though they had the same great dumplings as Fu Man, they did not have my favorite Chinese Hamburgers. The pros of this place is that it is not crowded, and the dumplings are good and the food served fast. The cons of this place was that it is inside the building and had to be found. The biggest con of all was the service. The lady was brusque and downright rude. At the end of the meal I tried to call a cab to come get us and found out that my cell phone was not working. I thought it might have been the reception in the building so I asked the lady if she could call a cab for us. She told us that they did not have a phone there. I then told her that if that was the case, she would have to get someone to walk us two totally blind people outside where we could get reception so we could call a cab. I guess when she realized that we were totally blind she walked off and «miraculously» a phone appeared because I heard her calling a cab for us. I am not the only disabled person who felt the service here was not good. Not to mention it is not easy according to my friend who uses a wheelchair for disabled people to get to. Will we ever come back here again? Not likely. I would rather go to Fu Man any day even if I have to pick up my food to go because their place is so small rather than come here again.

Meh. Oily meh.
I liked this place when I walked in: the décor is nice and it is clean and newish. There is a large window with a good view, as long as you don’t look directly down onto 99. The menu looks great, with lots of choices from many different styles.
We were hungry so we ordered WAY too much food. Luckily, the cook forgot one of the entrees, so it all worked out in the end. Unluckily, the food was only just so-​so. I am unusually sensitive about salt but, in this case, there was NOT ENOUGH. I mean, what the what??? A Chinese place with too little salt??? Everything was also amazingly greasy. When you bit this or that dumpling you were splattered in the face with oil and the broth of the noodle soup had an oil sheen over the top of it.
I don’t think I can recommend this place and I doubt I will go back.

I took my boyfriend here on a Monday night in autumn because I was craving dumplings and fried rice. Originally, I wanted to go to Fu Man Dumpling House, but unfortunately they are closed on Mondays. This place opened recently (the ‘grand opening’ banner was hanging by the entrance), so we decided to try it.
Getting there: It’s Aurora, you can’t expect much calm or class on the road. You really need to trust Google Maps here, because there wasn’t obvious signage from the main street for when or where to turn into the restaurant. We turned into the designated parking lot, but were confused on how to enter the restaurant itself. The restaurant is on the second level of the building, but there is no way to get to the second level where the main sign and ‘grand opening’ sign were located. We walked around the building, only to walk by an apartment building, so I finally called the restaurant, who told us to go to the dual entrance where the restaurant shared with a Korean BBQ place.
Food: I ordered fried rice, green onion pancakes, potstickers, and dumplings for myself and my boyfriend. The fried rice was great (a little oily), the green onion pancakes were extremely oily, the potstickers were great (a little oily), and the dumplings were delicious. My boyfriend loved everything except the too-​oily green onion pancakes, and I would have to agree. I read on their website that the dumpling recipe is from the owners’ family in Qingdao (port city), Shandong province in China. Now I understand why I loved the dumplings so much; my family and I are from Jinan, the capital province of Shandong.
Service: Great! I am ashamed that my Mandarin speaking skills are terrible, even though I was born in China and have a Chinese name in English, but I made sure to say ‘thank you’ in Chinese and pronounce certain things in Chinese instead of in English, like ‘dumplings’. A Chinese old lady was making the dumplings in the kitchen, which is slightly visible to the patrons. I actually enjoy seeing Chinese old ladies make food because you can tell it’s made with TLC and authenticity. The food came out quickly, although the check did not.
Ambiance: The restaurant itself is extremely spacious. There are at least 30 tables of various sizes. We were seated at a four-​person table in the main section, away from the windows. The decoration inside is modern Chinese, not tacky. The music is audible but not too loud. When we were first seated, I recognized the song as one of my dad’s favorite Chinese songs, but I couldn’t tell what song it was, and Shazam wasn’t helping either. I vowed to remember the melody, but alas, I forgot because my dad has a new favorite Chinese song, the melody of which he got stuck in my head instead.
Noise level: Really quiet! I rather dislike Chinese restaurants that are so loud that you waste half your energy just trying to hear the other person talk or trying to not blow a gasket.
Payment: I don’t think they take American Express. They take Visa, which is better than cash only!
Fun side note: The ladies’ restroom is really nice. The men’s restroom, on the other hand, is not, as verified by my boyfriend. Oh well, usually it’s the ladies that care about a clean restroom anyway (no disrespect for the gentlemen).
Overall: I highly recommend this place. It isn’t all too often that you get to eat at a Chinese restaurant that serves authentic northern Chinese food. Most Chinese restaurants in the United States are southern (curries, spices, carb-​heavy), which is why most waitstaff speak to you in Cantonese first, or Taiwanese, which has some northern Chinese influence, as it seems like every Taiwanese person I’ve met in the past eight years has a grandma from Shandong: P.

The food was pretty good. The only downside is that they are across the street and it took them an hour and a half to deliver it. If I wasn’t busy at home, I would have just walked over and gotten it.

I don’t know much about dumplings but these were good. Came with tea and ice cream for $ 10. Good food, great deal.

Only been there one time. I went with a friend, he told all the good thing about this place. Maybe I placed my expectation too high… It was just okay. And since I’m more into Northern Chinese food, I don’t really like here. But the staffs were very friendly, the place is clean. I’m gonna give a four stars, cause even though I don’t like it, it’s just me…

As a huge fan of Fu Man I tried Ming’s out right when Ming opened it. We got the traditional Fu Man dumplings, egg flour soup and chow mein. Nobody makes chow mein or egg flour soup like Fu Man.
However, the chow mein came out bland so we told him and he had it fixed. We figured this was just growing pains and decided to come back after things got settled down. Last night we ordered online (thanks, that’s convenient) and when I arrived the gazillion employees were opening all the to-​go boxes trying to figure out where the food went. They assured me mine was about done even though it seemed like they weren’t sure where any of the orders were.
I ordered 24 dumplings, a hot and sour soup, an egg flour soup (without dumplings, that’s why I bought 24 by themselves) and a pork chow mein.
The dumplings and hot and sour soup are very similar to Fu Man. The first time we ordered Egg Flour soup it was just like Fu Man but this time we got a gelatinous goo soup like every other Chinese restaurant sells. The pork in the chow mein looks like it had been breaded in corn starch and deep fried which made it mushy. The chow mein noodles were just like Fu Man though which is good.
Overall if I put Fu Man at a 5 star I’d put Mings at a 3. They have some stuff to still work out and maybe this is what they want. However, I think offering more things to more people in a larger restaurant isn’t the best recipe for success if those things aren’t better than the billion other Chinese restaurants out there.
Fu Man is still our go-​to Chinese restaurant even though we have to drive past Ming’s to get there. However, if Fu Man didn’t exist I’d eat here. We’ll give it another try in 6 months to see where Ming has taken it.
Oh, and what’s the deal with having this great environment with booths, little Chinese paper rooms and then ruining it with big blasting TVs on the wall?

First off, they make all their food fresh! This is huge because majority of Chinese food joints are just reheating frozen garbage.
We ordered steamed buns, potstickers and general’s chicken. It was all amazing. On top of that, it was moderately priced and good service. The owner even stopped by to make sure we were happy with everything.

Wow this place is awesome. The food was amazing and the staff where so friendly I felt like I was eating at a friend’s house. I order the Kung pao chicken was the best I’ve ever had along with the green onion pancake, fried tofu with salt and pepper, beef Noodle soup. I say don’t walk run to this place you won’t be sorry. I can’t wait to go back to mings house.

The service was fantastic — everyone was super friendly and attentive. The food was delicious (salt and pepper tofu = YUM) and the complimentary ice cream at the end was a nice touch :)
I’ll definitely be back.
Very reasonable prices.

First time customer, food arrived very late (approx. one hour and 25 minutes after I placed order) was cold and juices from the Mongolian beef had spilled everywhere.
Ordered:
Mongolian beef (spicy) — not a hint of spicy and mostly onions.
Orange chicken (spicy) — not spicy, but had good taste, I’d give the orange chicken 4 out 5 stars. But was cold.
Chicken wings– mostly breading by far the most breaded wings I’ve ever had. Weren’t good.
Handmade dumplings– no taste :(
Poor customer service from eat24.

Well, this is a sad review to write. We don’t order out much, and were excited to try the new Unilocal Eat24. I had some extra cash so we picked a restaurant, put in our order and selected CASH payment. Delivery was 44 – 60 minutes out.
One hour and 15 minutes later I contacted Eat24 (Chris was super helpful!) to find out where my order was. The driver from the restaurant showed up while I was talking to him. The total was $ 70.49 and I had a $ 100 bill. He had ZERO change. Like not even a dollar. Chris again went back and forth with us and the restaurant as I was not giving this guy a $ 30 tip for cold food that was late.
In the middle of waiting the delivery guy said not to worry about it and keep the food and left. Ummm. ok? Thanks for the free food.
The food was good, and by good I mean cold, meh, good. Like I wouldn’t order again but it’s edible. Did I mention cold?
We ate it, my kids were starving, only to be told that now the manager is coming BACK to my house with change to get the money for the food. Seriously? You told me to keep the food, it’s your mistake and now you are taking it BACK and coming to get money? Sooooo not ok.
I would skip this place as there is better food in town that will not try to scam you out or $ 30 tips, give you free food, take it back and show up at your door for money and can actually deliver HOT food.
Will I use Eat24 again? YES… will i eat this again? NOPE.

I thought this restaurant was from Fu Moon too.
To my surprise there’s nothing like Fu Moon. Even the basic dumping fail. If you are looking for Authentic Chinese dumping, don’t come here.
In fact, I won’t come back again.

I wish there was a larger dumpling selection…
Overall the food here is good. Different than your regular Chinese restaurant serving up dumplings and sautéed goodies.
There is definitely a nice glistening of oil on all the dishes as everything taste quite rich and slick.
I wouldn’t probably eat here again because it is just out of the way for me, but not a shabby place to try if you wanted to get a quick eat.

We came here with a big group on a Friday night. We had a reservation, and they set us up in the back room. I think we got off on the wrong foot, they had the tables set up but only half of the chairs and place settings and got a little irritated with us when we asked for the remaining chairs and table settings. Once we got settled the server was even more irritated with us because everyone was not ready to order, even though half of the group did not even have menus.
We had a large party so we really did order a great variety off of the menu.
–hand made boiled dumplings– One of my favorites, they were a hit with everyone including the kids
–chili fried chicken cubes– taste like popcorn chicken, not spicy at all
–house special fried rice– good flavor, nothing special will try pineapple fried rice next time
–steamed pork buns– they were ok, but I prefer dumplings
–green onion pancake– not bad but nothing special either
–sweet and spicy chicken– too much sauce and could only taste the batter none of the chicken
–Mongolian beef– was a hit at the table, but I did not try it
–eggplant and tofu– delicious and this is what I will order next time
–cold, sweet cucumbers– so good!
–cold radish– another winner at the table, gone within seconds
We also ordered some soups, seafood and egg drop and something else, but I did not try them. I am sure I am missing something, there was so much food I did not get a chance to try it all.
The server was rude and the service was so/​so. What made up for it was when the owner himself came back to introduce himself and ask how the food was. We chit chatted with him for some time, he was really funny and sweet. Made up for the rude server.

Just visited for the first time with a girlfriend and I return with good news. It’s four star worthy!
The breakdown:
–friendly owners and servers
–spacious and clean eating environment
–delicious food (boiled dumplings, green beans with minced pork and that chili chicken dish that’s on the photo menu – heck, even the brown rice was good)
–large portions
I’m not really sure how that came to $ 40 after tax (I thought it was $ 8.95 times three) but we did leave with plenty of leftovers. Oh, they serve complimentary fortune cookies and ice cream, if that’s your thing.
One suggestion, don’t use conventional cleaning products while people are dining. It smelled really strongly of fake citrusy cleanliness (ie. chemicals) when we started our meal. But, you can’t have everything in life.

Unfortunately, service really has taken a turn for the worse, and was really non-​existent for the most part. Efficiency was terrible as well, I think they try to group the dishes as much as possible, so if you order a rarely ordered dish, you’d likely be waiting for a while until someone else orders the same dish. However, they added new items to the menu, including my new favorite dish: the chili fried chicken cubes and the boiled dumplings are still consistently on point, so I’m still a fan. I’ll be returning for dinner with the family.

Disappointed. Utterly disappointed.
–Service was a hot mess or completely absent. I witnessed 2 tables being ignored; both of them got up and left. My family and I had to constantly ask for water, tea, PLATES, EATING UTENSILS. good god.
–food was mediocre. Salt and pepper tofu was bland and soggy. Beef noodle soup was lukewarm and tasteless. Only food item to write home about was the large steamed pork dumplings, but even that had to be dipped in soy sauce/​hot sauce.
need I say more?

My parents are very Chinese, which means:
1. They don’t like spending money on eating out (their foodie daughter is, aptly, a disappointment)
2. The rare times they eat out, they are very particular about getting their money’s worth
3. As a result, they have only 1 go-​to restaurant and maybe 2 more for «special occasions»
4. All these restaurants are Chinese cuisine (but of course)
So when a Chinese restaurant less than 5 minutes from their house opened, I had to at least try to get them on board, if not expand our options for family dinners.
Overall, my parents had a great experience here. The food was delicious, the portions were generous, and we even saw some family friends there. Plus, Ming came over and chatted them up, so I think they will be coming back.
I’ve been here one other time with some friends, and here’s what I’ve tried:
— Boiled dumplings
— Potstickers
— Green Onion Pancake
— Pork Steamed Buns
— House noodle soup w/​seafood
— Chicken w/​Green Beans
— Broccoli Beef (or was it Beef chow mein? can’t remember)
— Strawberry Ice Cream (Complimentary!)
Everything was excellent although I’d probably skip the green onion pancake and house noodle soup. If it were up to me I’d probably just save my stomach for dumplings, potstickers, and steamed buns.
In all honesty, even though everything was really good, we all felt like the prices were just a little too high. Like, maybe if everything was even 50 cents cheaper, it would mentally make a huge difference to us. But I guess that’s what happens when Chinese frugality is instilled within you from birth.

I feel bad dissenting from so many great reviews of Ming’s, but I really don’t get the hype. Our family ordered boiled dumplings, steamed pork buns, house special spicy noodle soup and noodles with black bean sauce. The boiled dumplings and steamed pork buns were just ok — pretty standard, nothing to write home about. One of the steamed pork buns had a hair in it, so the wait staff took that one away and gave me two fresh ones as a replacement.
The house special spicy noodle soup is the Chinese version of jjampong. I appreciated the house made noodles in the soup, but the soup itself was bland and lacking flavor. I did like all the vegetables, and the seafood was decent quality. The noodles with black bean sauce is the Chinese version of jajangmyun, and this was pretty good — it got better as it cooled down (noodles got chewier and sauce stuck to the noodles better).
Unfortunately, being there during the Sunday lunch rush, service was not the greatest. We had to flag down the wait staff for everything, and there was a delay in service multiple times throughout the meal. The waiter who took our order got it wrong, despite my showing him the exact items on the menu, which caused quite a lag. The waitress who was getting our bill for us reluctantly asked if wanted ice cream, and when we said yes, she looked visibly annoyed. In the end, we said «never mind» to the free ice cream. Everything had taken so long, we figured we wouldn’t see the ice cream until Monday.