Dumpling Time Express - San Francisco

The vegetarian dumplings were unexpectedly sweet. The seaweed salad seemed old and not fresh. The onion pancakes were nothing special - they tasted like frozen fast food and could be found in a grocery store. The atmosphere was stressful with aggressive conversations nearby, complaints, rushed orders, and a broken order monitor. I just wanted a relaxed meal after a long day. Additionally, if you're not a Kpop fan, this might not be the place for you as all the music playing was Kpop songs.

The meal was disappointing and they had run out of pork dumplings, which was surprising.

Has Niku inspired dishes using Wagyu shavings from their partner shops next door. Great service.

Delicious dumplings that come well packaged and beautifully plated. Shrimp toast wasn't my favorite but crunchy with great sauce. The rest of the dumpling traveled well and we're still warm on arrival.

OhY0vei0guI came here with some friends for the very first time last Sunday 7/21/2022. They've eaten here before, but it was my very first time at Dumpling Time. I was super excited because I've heard good things about this place.Unfortunately, this may be my first and last time here. First off, the location stinks. I mean literally, stinks. There is a sewage smell around the waiting area outside and you can also smell it from the outside seating. I was not able to fully enjoy the food when all I can smell is the sewer.Aside from that, let's talk about the food. The menu is very limited. They have a few dim sum options, some buns, shrimp dumplings, xlb (soup dumplings), siu mai, green beans, a beef noodle dish and shrimp puffs. That's the jest of it. (Of course there are a few additional items not mentioned here) There weren't any steamed rice noodle dishes (aka cherng fun), no egg tart, no chicken feet, no black bean baby spare ribs.We ordered the shrimp puffs, garlicky green beans, shrimp toast, pork bao, har gao, xlb, Tom Yum soup xlb, Beijing noodles, and green tea custard buns.I kind of liked the shrimp puffs. The outer crispy wonton skins were nice and crunchy. The shrimp inside the puff was really salty though. The regular soup dumplings and the Tom Yum ones kept sticking to the little aluminum trays, which made it difficult to eat. When we tried to remove the dumpling from the tray, the skin of the dumpling kept sticking to the tray and ripped the dumpling open, making the soup leak out. The dumplings also weren't very hot when they came out to us. There were parts of the Tom Yum soup dumpling's skin wasn't cooked throughly. It had the texture of uncooked store bought pasta noodles. The skin of these soup dumplings were also too thick for my liking. The soup dumplings, both original and Tom Yum flavor lacked flavor. The meat inside wasn't that flavorful. The shrimp toast was decent. The shrimp paste inside was pretty salty. I really enjoyed the aioli sauce on the shrimp toast. The siu mai was okay, but it definitely lacked some ingredients. It would have tasted a lot better if shiitake mushrooms were included in the siu mai. The garlicky green beans weren't even hot when they came out. They were more like lukewarm. They didn't have a strong garlic flavor, but the texture was pretty good. I don't like my green beans over cooked and I'm glad they cooked them so that they were still crisp. The pork bao was okay, but I prefer to have more meat than bread ratio. The har gao was a no for me. The skin of these shrimp dumplings are way too thick. The BeiJing noodles were probably the item I enjoyed most, aside from the shrimp toast. However, I wasn't completely satisfied with these because I wish these noodles were a bit chewier. At least they did come out hot (temperature wise). The green tea custard buns were okay. They were not uniformly shaped. I will insert photos here for reference. The custard inside was so underwhelming. The flavor was too subtle. I did like the actual bread part of the bun. The green tea flavor was quite nice.Also, I would like to add that the red vinegar they provide makes the food taste better. Especially when the food tasted too salty, the red vinegar helped a lot. It made the shrimp puffs and soup dumplings tastier.In all honesty, I really did want to give this place a high star-rating, but that's not possible. There were too many things that I was dissatisfied with. Maybe I will try a different Dumpling Time since I heard that not all Dumpling Time's are created equal and in fact, I was told that not every Dumpling Time has the same menu--some have more variety. I might give another location a try, but not anytime soon.See all photos from Annie Y. for Dumpling Time ExpressCoco B.Oceanside, CA0486011/22/20223 morable. It looks like Dumpling Time uses DoorDash as their ordering platform.