Excellent Dumpling House
“Fried pork dumplings, scallion pancakes, sizzling chicken fried rice and General Tso's chicken.”
“Would for sure come back if I was ever back in China Town!”
“Shau Lon Pau (or Xia Long Bao at most places) – Very good
Spinach Vegie Dumplings – Very Good”
Excellent Dumpling House
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$ Price range Under $10
8 reviews
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Searching for food in Chinatown on a day with poor weather, we eventually dove in here to escape the cold. So our coming here wasn't so much a decision but more of a necessity.
The highlight of our meal, such as it was, were the pretty decent guotie. I also ordered the beef noodle soup, which adequately checked the boxes of what the dish is supposed to be. I appreciated that beef came in the form of thick chunks rather than thin slices, which made it more resemble my food experiences in China.
Summary: More like Passable Dumpling House.
Average place in Chinatown..nothing special. Although I had soup dumplings at Shanghai cafe nearby, the dumplings here were thinner and taste almost the same.
I probably wouldn't come back knowing there's other places to try.
Service was not bad though. Got seated quickly. In and out. Boom.
You go to Chinatown for the sensory overload. Sights, sounds, smells and, if course, food. The Excellent Dumpling House is one of those legendary eateries with a loyal following. The appeal is the price, fast service and the quality of the food. I tried the chicken with broccoli lunch and found it a remarkable value. Very, very good hot and sour soup, well cooked white meat chicken and fresh, al dente, broccoli with a tiny – but meh- spring roll – it ran under $7. Amazing for NYC. But seated next to me at a communal table was a local eating chicken dumplings. I asked if they were good. He smiled and, with a mouth full of hot dumpling said, Mmmmmm! I ordered them too. They earned a wow!
I recommend you try this well reviewed classic. The buzz at lunch was intoxicating. The basic Chinese fare is 4 star good. Add the dumplings and it notches up to 5 stars for me. My lunch was $15 with two entrees. You could make a meal if you ordered the dumplings alone. You would and out for $9 – including a fair tip.
Go, you'll thank me later!
Honestly, I have no idea how we ended up here. I think my date just wanted to get out of the cold weather, so we found the most convenient dumpling place nearby for lunch.
I went with the shrimp with lobster sauce lunch special for $6.75 which included hot and sour soup, fried rice and an egg roll. This really was one of the best deals in New York. Shrimp with lobster sauce is a Cantonese favorite of mine and it lived up to expectations. I was a little disappointed that the egg roll was so small and lacked much filling. I was hoping for a big honkin East coast egg roll.
Of course we had to try some guo tie or fried dumplings. They were pretty fantastic!
All in all, another delicious NYC meal!
Yet another cheap dinner place in Chinatown. Don't you ever wonder how some of these places cost so little and stay afloat? Regardless of what business acumen they possess, we're always grateful to have places like Excellent Dumpling to turn to for dinner without spending $30/person.
As is usual with these Chinatown restaurants, the service and food is fast, cheap, and served without much care. We ordered the wontons with spicy sauce since one of us was craving it, then followed that with scallion pancakes and Triple (chicken, beef, shrimp) with garlic sauce on a sizzling plate. This was already shaping up to be a lot more food that we can handle.
Wontons and pancakes came quickly and hot. The wontons were in a vinegar heavy hot sauce mixed with peanut butter sauce. If you're looking for spicy, this was not the place for it, I had to add more sriracha. Favorite part about it was the lightly cooked bean sprouts that rounded out the dish. Least favorite part was the wontons that were mushy, possibly under-cooked, and lacking in filling flavor. The pancakes were plain, old tasting like it's been sitting under warming lights all day. We were looking forward to the entree to start anew.
The entree came on a nice sizzling plate filled with a lot of peppers and celery. Most of the meats were buried under the vegetables. If you've had anything with garlic sauce in a Chinese restaurant before, you already know what this tastes like. Nothing special, but crispy veggies, soft meats, and a slightly sweet garlic sauce. It went perfect with white rice.
There are definitely better places in this area for wontons, for pancake, and for garlic sauce entrees.
My first experience here was just OK rather than Excellent, though I should probably stop in for a proper order of dumplings next time. As it was, I came in to grab a quick dish from the lunch specials and ended up getting one of the dishes that comes with dumplings, which was pricier than the rest, and included some rather soggy dumplings. I should have stuck with something standard and not tried to combine everything together.
Stopped by for a small bite and ordered the fried dumplings… They weren't "excellent" by any means.. The meat could have had more flavor, the skin could have been fried more and at $6 for 6 dumplings it's definitely more expensive than other places around. Frozen dumplings would have tasted better..
The low maintenance, crowded interior has a very authentic feel to it. I came here during the lunch rush and oh man was it chaotic. If you dine alone, be prepared to be seated with strangers at the round table. It's a great way to make friends actually. Service wasn't the most pleasant, but can't really blame them because of how busy it was.
I ordered the scallion pancakes, shrimp dumplings and cold sesame noodles. Prices were pretty cheap and portions reasonable. Everything tasted good, but I ordered the most basic, so can't really mess that up. I did have a problem with how unsanitary this place is. But hey, it's cheap so can't really complain too much.