Gourmet Dumpling House
52 Beach St., Boston, MA, 02111. Phone: 617.338.6223
Not worth visiting.
The restaurant review is flawed by nature. There are over seven billion humans on Earth, each one with their own tastes, preferences, and knowledge of different cuisines. How can one food critic satisfy the tastes of all of these people? The answer is simple: it’s impossible. For every person who agrees with a food critic, there’s bound to be one who disagrees. That’s why sometimes after a letdown by Zagat or the local paper’s food critic, it’s good to lay Google to rest and just wander around a fun neighborhood until you find a restaurant that looks promising. Boston’s Chinatown is a great neighborhood to do such wandering, because of its pedestrian-friendly streets and sheer number of restaurants. There is a downside to wandering, though. It’s like prospecting for gold. You could strike it rich and find a bounty, or you could go home disappointed.
Don’t let the name fool you. Only one little section of Gourmet Dumpling House’s crowded seven-page menu is dedicated to its namesake. The rest is filled with dishes of all kinds, from fried oysters to sauteed pig’s blood with leeks.
Our appetizer was the Chinese broccoli, which was similar to both bok choy and American broccoli. The stalk and leaves are that of a bok choy but there are little broccoli heads nestled in between some of the stalks. The leaves soak up the delicious garlic sauce that the broccoli is served in. The stalks are crunchy but alas, flavorless. This was my favorite food here because the dominant flavor of the dish (garlic) was rationed well and was a good choice of sauce.
Our entrees were very peppery and very fried. A caution to future diners: “chicken with basil” is thickly breaded and fried, and covered with ground pepper (when I was ordering this entree I was imagining sauteed chicken in a basily sauce). This dish is pretty good. The breading was thick and the chicken underneath was piping hot and juicy. The basil tamed the grease a little bit, but was rather dry and shriveled.
The dumplings (fried with pork and leek for us) were originally what I was looking forward to. After all, I was visiting a restaurant called Gourmet Dumpling House without any prior research. The intense onion-like flavor of leek dominated the landscape, while the fresh ground pork appeared every few bites to remind me it was still there. I would put less leek in the dumplings so I could taste the pork a bit more. Overall the dumplings were satisfactory but ultimately got overshadowed by the other dishes.
The sauteed beef with various vegetables (most of which were onions) was presented fajita-style in a smoking-hot skillet. The beef was quite spicy, not the kind of spicy that makes your head throb and your face turn red like an angry cartoon character and you doubt you can take another bite; it’s the kind of spicy that on the first bite makes you think, “This isn’t so bad,” so you take more bites in rapid succession only to realize the mess you’ve gotten yourself into. The onions were decent coupled with the beef, but their strong flavor competed with the almost overwhelming pepper.
You should ask for water and order rice (it’s not free!) because the strong flavors of all the entrees require some mildness to cool them down.
Gourmet Dumpling House is not awful, nor is it great. It often overuses ingredients in its dishes, such as leeks in the dumplings, and its entrees tend to be fried, masking the flavor of the main ingredients. Boston’s Chinatown has a plethora of restaurants, so if you’re there I would advise you to just keep wandering. Who knows? Maybe you’ll come across a hidden gem.
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