Ren Dumpling & Noodle House

It’s hard for me to give Ren 3* given that I know the owner (not a personal friend but a friend of a friend) and given that I feel it has not really reached its potential. But alas, we must be honest when we write reviews otherwise what good is it?
This review is for lunch. My friend and I ordered one each of the crab and pork soup dumpling along with just the plain pork. Overall the experience was mixed. The flavor so we’re decent albeit lacking seasoning. The crab/​pork dumpling had a slight hint of sweetness that I would say was imparted by the crab. The wrappers were the big issue foe me. Of the 12 dumplings we had I would say a good 6 – 8 tore when we lifted them off the cabbage leaves in the steamer. My guess, and it is purely a guess, is that they have been made hours before and the wrappers became soggy. Which is a bit of a shame because if they stayed in tact they would actually be decent. We also got an order of the Szechuan dumplings in spicy oil. These were good but like the soup dumplings, lacked a decent seasoning. Toothsome were the wrappers and the filling of good texture, they were so close to being excellent.
And finally we split the Eggplant in spicy garlic sauce with shrimp. There were two, excellent fresh jumbo shrimp along with about 6 – 8 very small shrimp in the dish, which I found a bit odd. The smaller shrimp were ok, nothing near the flavor or texture of the larger shrimp. The veggies (eggplant, carrots and scallions) were properly cooked with the right amount of wok hay permeating the dish. Good flavor but the small shrimp make this dish eh as opposed to very good.
All in all a good meal. Will I go back? Absolutely, especially seeing the dinner menu and the promise that I know this owner has with this cuisine.

Have eaten here a few times and it is amazing every time! The service is great and they have the best dumplings around! I recommend the Udon noodles with shrimp and the Pad Thai. You really get what you pay for, the dishes are huge and can easily feed two people. I have yet to be disappointed, and will continue to make Ren Dumpling & Noodle House my top chinese food place to go to in the area.

The place is in the corner of the Micheal’s and Outback plaza. The vegetables as a starter are very good. We ordered the steam pork buns and they were very similar to what you would get in Chinatown. All in all a good Chinese spot in CT.

Very disappointing Drunken Noodle lunch special. It was incredibly bland, had huge mushrooms in it (which I’ve never seen in any Drunken Noodle dish), and the flat rice noodles were almost all clumped together.
The dish had zero heat at all — that’s what’s makes Drunken Noodles such a signature dish!

Order lunch take-​out for first time. Got the Drunken noodles… disappointing flavor. Since they call it drunken noodle, I guess I was expecting the popular dish found in Thai cuisine. Instead what I got was a stir-​fry of broad rice noodles with the typical veggies you find in Chinese stir fry dishes. I’m come to expect basil as the base flavor for drunken noodles, but that’s not the case here.
If they called it vegetable stir fry with broad rice noodles, it would’ve been a 3 – 3.5 star dish. But calling it drunken noodles is just false advertising in my opinion. 2-​stars at best.
Won’t be ordering drunken noodles again, but may try their dumplings next time as they seem to have good reviews.

Ren is a delicious place and very authentic for the Norwalk area. I love their spare ribs and pork buns. The spare ribs were yummy without being covered in too much sauce. The food is fresh and not too oily. Chinese food can sometimes bother my stomach but I have yet to get a stomach ache from Ren! I also enjoyed the soup dumplings. Their other dishes such as lo mein, chicken and broccoli, and other staple dishes like that are good but not 5 star. It’s their appetizers that really set them apart from the other Chinese resturants around town.

I love this place! It has absolutely delicious pork soup dumplings! I can’t get enough of them! It’s a nice, casual atmosphere with excellent, fast service, quality fresh food, and affordable price.

WOW!!! That is all I can say! The dumplings are to die for. Pork buns, soup dumplings or Szechuan dumplings are nothing less than divine. You can also order the standard fare that is a staple of Fairfield County. The beef with udon noodles was excellent, so was the string beans with pork. The menu has a wide array of choices that will some take time to go through. Fortunately, the service is crisp and friendly. Do not pass this up. You won’t go wrong!

It is great to finally have a noodle and dumpling place in southern CT. The PorkSoup Dumplings were excellent. Steamed chicken and Fried Pork Dumplings were almost as good. Roast pork buns had good flavor and texture. Shrimp dumplings had decent sized shrimp inside and were not fishy. Sesame chicken had good sized chunks of white meat chicken and a flavorful sauce. Hot and Sour soup was good, but not special. I was also introduced to an excellent new item, sticky rice and pork dumplings that they call «Shao Mai» (not like Shu Mai at other places). The owner Eric was super nice. They are going to introduce traditional sticky rice (steamed in Lotus leaf) this weekend and we will be there to try it.

Having moved from NJ, it’s hard to find decent Chinese noodles or dumplings in CT. The food here is pretty good with a nice selection. For those who say that the name doesn’t make sense, 8 or so dumpling selections and about a dozen noodle selections is pretty good for a small restaurant in Connecticut. Wait staff is friendly and efficient and owner really cares about customer service. First time we were here, he gave each table two new dishes to try. We came back and they made a mistake on the type of noodle in our Shanghai noodle soup. The owner came over, no arguments, apologized for the mistake, reconfirmed our order, packed the wrong order to go for free and gave us the right order in a few minutes. Come on over for what it is, good food, good value and excellent service, and you won’t be disappointed.

Third strike and I am out of there. First time I tried it for lunch, it was passable chinese. Not bad but certainly not worth the 5 minute walk from my office. Second time was take out, ordered chicken and eggplant. They forgot the eggplant. Today I ordered (take out) pad thai. NOT a peanut to be found in the entire container and the dish was a yellow color I have never seen in pad thai before. Could not figure out what gave it the yellow color nor could I understand what tasted so «off» about the dish. Really too bad, great location and a REAL chinese restaurant would have been such a treat. Same old mall quality food that Fairfield County accepts as Chinese. Will still have to make the trip to Aberdeen in White Plains — they know how to make a dumpling and noodles.

Tried Ren Dumpling & Noodle House for the first time last night. I was excited to see this restaurant open and it did not disappoint! The pork buns are delicious and we also enjoyed the Shanghai Noodle Soup — tasty and filling with nice sized shrimp! The Szechuan Dumplings had a great kick if you like some spice. If you check on-​line they have home style dishes that are different than what you typically find in this area. They are adding more and seem excited about sharing new dishes with their customers. I look forward to trying the Sauteed Rice Cake.
The staff is friendly and the owner is committed to the town donating proceeds from their opening weekend (over $ 10,000) to the Riverbrook Regional (Norwalk & Wilton) YMCA. I am impressed with this business and happy to support them.

This is not the place to get General Tso’s.
This is the place you can get real dim sum style soup dumplings and steamed pork buns. Best Chinesey food around.

I was very excited when I saw another Chinese restaurant opening up. I gave it a try recently, placed an order for pickup. Great phone manner, which I appreciated. I ordered mixed veg w/​tofu, pepper steak and roast pork fried rice. The veg dish was too oily, seasoning was okay. Fried rice was on the dry side and also too greasy. Hubby said the pepper steak was meh. I’m not sure what went wrong. Really wanted this to work out. Maybe I ordered the wrong things, since I didn’t try dumplings or noodles? Will have to come back for another try.

Not the wow syndrome. Good for that neighborhood. Nice stir fry wok dishes and the taste was good. Prices was reasonable and have value. Very clean and nice atmosphere deco.

We ate there today for lunch and we were not that impressed. We ordered a bunch of appetizers and a few entrees. Honestly, there’s nothing really special about the food here. The General Tso’s was a little undercooked. One piece of chicken was a little pink on the inside. The service wasn’t very good. I wouldn’t recommend it. There are other better Chinese restaurants in Wilton.

What in the ever loving hell is going on with these 5 star reviews?
To me «noodle and dumpling house» suggests a menu that has LOTS of noodle and dumpling and dim sum like options. Sorry folks, this is just another Chinese/​Asian restaurant. Lo Mein, Drunken Noodle, Pad Thai, and Chinese specials you see on any suburban Chinese restaurant menu. Is it good? Yes. Is it fresh? Yes. Will it blow your mind and make you wish you had a bottomless bowl of food? Well. I hope you’re not too hungry.
I had the Lo Mein lunch special with chicken for $ 8. The portion was very very small and there was maybe ¹⁄₃ cup of tiny chicken bits and a few strands of carrot and cabbage worked into the noodles. The flavor was very good and it was not oily. The wonton soup had two wontons in a few spoonfuls of broth and a ton of scallions. I left hungry and rather disappointed.
Maybe I will return and try some more entrée type of dishes but honestly this place goes down as yet another same old same old Chinese place in Fairfield county.

Master Chef and restauranteur Eric Xie does it again. The man is like the Chinese Bobby Flay. Consider the restaurant’s current state a soft opening because in a few weeks Xie plans to roll out his menu of home style Chinese dishes including soup dumplings.