Dumpling'd
Reviews · · · ·Rating: 2
We ate dinner here in July 2025.
Seasame dumplings
Sticker dumplings
Korean fried chicken
Fried tofu
Chinese pancakes
Pork bao bun
Chicken bao bun
We can imagine it isn’t easy being a 3. Sure, you’re thrilled to have the seal of approval, but being a 3 means we could well come back at some point. Then you need to keep up your standards, and it doesn’t take too much to drop from a 3 to a 2 (although we have also seen glorious rises from 3 to 4).
Such is the story of Dumpling’d. When we first came here they were awarded a 3, but there was some debate on the topic and they only just squeaked in. Later we came back a second time, with Business Andy’s mum in tow, and they solidified their 3 position. Tonight, coming back a third time, also with a guest, maybe they thought they were safe. But they were wrong.
There were just too many misses on the table for the 3 to stand. The worst of the bunch was the Chinese pancakes which were insanely oily. Business Andy literally got a bubble of oil that burst in his mouth - gross. The Korean chicken wasn’t too bad by its own merits, but it didn’t look like the picture and it wasn’t crispy as one expects for Korean chicken. The chicken bao bun was okay in flavour but The Fee-Rex got a really nasty big piece of gristle that had to be spat out.
It wasn’t all bad though. The salt and pepper tofu was very hot (danger, let it cool!) but really freshly fried, crispy with the right flavour balance. The sesame dumplings were very peanutty and quite interesting to eat. While the sticker dumplings looked good externally they were forgettable flavour wise, but the pork bao bun was reasonable.
A note on open doors. It’s an 8 degree July night in Wellington. Close your bloody doors. Dumpling’d is far from alone in this issue, but it would have made a significant difference to the dining experience if we could have raised the temperature in there a bit. We get that some places are trying actively to repel dine-in, or have so much takeaway through-traffic that open doors just makes sense. But Dumpling’d doesn’t seem to fall into either of these categories.