Oriental Dumpling King 大東方餃子王, Richmond: Hit-or-miss

So I was hoping to come here for the old restaurant, but guess it changed! Anyways, ventured onwards regardless to try this new place!

Restaurant: Oriental Dumpling King 大東方餃子王

Location: 4200 No. 3 Road, Richmond
Cuisine: Chinese
Price range: $15-25




Date of visit: August 14, 2013
Atmosphere: 3/5
Staff/service: 3/5
Food variety: 5/5
Food quality: 3/5
Buck worthy? 3/5

Maybe we got there early, but I felt that it was quite unorganized. The interior was quite nice though (they kept most of the interior the same as the old restaurant)!

We were there pretty early, so no one was inside yet, but I was a bit confused as to why our waitress...also worked in the kitchen =/

Anyways, onto the food. I didn't see it on the menu, but they made it for me anyways, this was the Stir Fried Egg Whites with Seafood ($12.80). I understand why it's not on the menu-- it was the worst I've had in my life. The egg whites were overcooked, rubbery, and oily. Not even the egg yolk helped. My disappointment was indescribable.

Next was the Beijing Pork with Thin Pancakes ($12.80). This was quite flavorful, sadly, the sauce overpowered the pork.I wish it were less salty though. Otherwise, flavoring was well done.

The pancakes were nothing spectacular, but they were soft but chewy and did their purpose.

I must say this was one of the better dishes we chose, the Fried Noodles with Pork ($7.95). It was very similar to Shanghai Fried Noodles, both in sauce and noodles. The noodles were very chewy and the flavoring was well-balanced. It didn't end up too salty, which I was happy about.

Before tasting the Tan Tan Noodles ($6.95), I was mesmerized by the bowl. It's quite beautiful which enhanced the dish completely.

This was the mix noodle type (no soup). Noodles were very chewy and the sauce was delicious. A bit spicy for me, but oh so good I couldn't stop (even though my mouth was on fire). Good job!

And being here, of course we had to try their dumplings! Ordered Celery Pork Dumplings ($6.95) which were mediocre. It was rather bland and the dumpling skin wasn't the texture I was hoping for. They were a bit soggy. Since this wasn't fantastic, I wonder why they would call themselves "dumpling king" =S

Finally, dessert! Snow cotton bean paste ($10.95) is somewhat a fav of mines that I order whenever I see it on a menu =P Its basically meringued egg whites with a red bean filling deep fried. This was pretty well done, I wish it were a *bit* sweeter, and the egg a bit more smooth, but it was decent. The egg whites were a bit rubbery which affected my overall satisfaction of this dessert. Red bean paste filling was great though, not too sweet, parents liked that a lot.

Here's the damage done, not too sure I want to return because of a few reasons (hygeine, food quality consistency, professionalism of the staff, etc). Did I mention they just kept handing us dishes over the wall beside where I sat? When they could have easily walked two more steps to hand it to us without having a wall between us? I may just be picky, but service was either good or bad depending on the server... train your employees first!