On a chilly day in Boston, we wanted some kind of Asian comfort food. Since it was around the holidays, many places were either closed, or special hours… So, it was not easy to find a place that was open for business. Luckily for us, this spot was open!
It is a Chinese restaurant offering dumplings, noodles, and other traditional Chinese dishes. They were busy, but I thought maybe because they were one of the few eateries that were open at that time. Regardless, it is a good sign of its popularity! It was not a big restaurant, no frills, no fuss. They had large windows, bringing in lots of natural lights.
Since this is a “Dumpling Palace” we decided to try one of their dumplings. We ordered Mini Juicy Buns with Pork ($8.95). The order comes with six mini buns, hot right off the steamer!
“Juicy Buns” basically meant soup dumplings. It was a bit on the salty side, but had a good amount of ginger in it which was nice. The wrapper was nice and chewy, I just wished if it was not so salty… Not the best soup dumplings I’ve had.
Moving on… We ordered two main dishes too. Since we were not feeling perfectly healthy on this day, we wanted some kind of hot noodle soup. We went with Hearty Noodles with Pork & Vegetable, soup style ($9.95). They had option of several kinds of noodles, and we chose Udon noodle. This thing was HUGE! I couldn’t believe how big the portion was! And just as it was described, it was certainly hearty, especially with the thick udon noodles. It was great on a super cold day, and also for when you are feeling a bit under the weather.
The other dish we ordered was Vegetable Fried Rice ($9.95). This dish was almost as big as the noodle dish. Wow! It was not overly seasoned, it felt nice and light. Lots of veggies with fluffy rice, not oily either.
Even though the soup dumpling was not a hit, we were happy with their food. Not amazing, but good Asian comfort food. So, we actually went back again on a different day to try some other dishes. This time, we ordered Ma Po Tofu ($13.50) and Yang Chow Fried Rice ($10.25).
For some reason, I really wanted Ma Po Tofu on this day… So I was happy that they had it on their menu! We asked it to be not too spicy. It was again large portion, and pretty darn good! It was spicy but not too spicy, hot and comforting, quite tasty.
Yang Chow Fried Rice was basically fried rice made with everything! It had meats, veggies, and seafood. Generous amount of all the ingredients, and yes, as big as I expected it to be. It was ok, but for some reason, I liked the simple flavor the vegetable fried rice better…
Most of the staffs here were nice, but I felt like the older staff were only nicer to the Chinese customers and returning regulars… I didn’t feel as welcomed… The food was good, not amazing but good. Comforting and with the huge portions, super affordable.
Dumpling Palace – 179 Massachusetts Ave, Boston, MA 02115