Northern China Eatery

Let's start with the service, I sat at the outdoor bar and both of the bartenders were incredible! They were attentive, polite, entertaining, and light hearted. Also, they were very knowledgeable of the menu! The sweet & sour fish was amazing! Next time I'll request to have it cooked until it's crispy. The vegetable dumplings were also incredible! Typing this review I'm making myself hungry. The pictures will show that I was halfway through each dish before I even thought about the camera.

Tried Northern China Eatery on the Beltline, it’s halal (though they serve pork), but they assured us there’s no cross-contamination, which was good to hear. No alcohol yet, but might be coming soon. It was super busy when we arrived, but we got seated outside pretty quickly. We ordered chicken dumplings, fried rice, hot & sour soup, and the Chong Qing spicy chicken. Fried rice came fast and had a nice homemade taste. The hot & sour soup was tasty and a huge portion. The spicy chicken was very spicy; full of chilies, ginger, and peanuts. It was good, but too hot for me. Dumplings came last and were great, but I wished they had more sauce options (only chili oil). Portions were big, flavors bold. Worth trying if you're into spicy food and Chinese comfort dishes!

We went for lunch and had such a great experience! Alycia was an amazing server, she gave great recommendations. We got the shrimp, pork & chive dumplings, half fried and half steamed, which were AMAZING. For an entree, we split the stir fried pork belly with serrano pepper. It was the perfect amount of food and so good. This place is a step above other restaurants on the beltline and we will definitely be back!

I stopped off the Beltline for a quick bite and drink, and was not disappointed. My lychee martini was not too sweet, and the beef skewers were so unique and delicious. The crab rangoon was crisped to perfection, and was some of the best I've had in a long time.

We stopped in and sat at the outdoor bar. We didn’t know what to order and the bartender recommended the scallion pancakes, they were excellent. We tried the pork and cabbage dumplings, hand fried and they were amazing. The food and the staff are great, we’ll be back for sure. Highly recommend!

This was our first time here. It had the shortest wait time we’d come across (20mins) so we decided to give it a try. Our server was sweet and didn’t mess up anything but service was really slow. The entrees were ready before our appetizers. They arrived warm and had completely cooled before we could finish. I ordered the shrimp in garlic sauce and the scallion pancakes. The shrimp in garlic sauce was mostly carrots, 6 shrimp, and no garlic. It was also very sweet and had hardly any spice. Not worth the money in my opinion. The scallion pancakes arrived hot but were very bland. My friends also ordered the beef and carrot dumplings and felt they were just ok. The sweet and sour fish was also just ok and arrived lukewarm. Finally, they still don’t have their alcohol license. They offered complimentary sake which would have been great but it never arrived.

Beautifully decorated restaurant. Staff was very responsive and nice. I liked the shrimp fried rice! Didn’t care for the soup. No white meat chicken only dark meat

They seated us quickly and brought our food out quickly (even without a reservation). But for the cost of the food I was hoping for a little bit more taste. As for the veggie fried rice and kung pow chicken. I wish there were more veggies in the rice. It was bland and not very warm when it arrived at the table. Maybe we didn’t order what this place is known for, but I wouldn’t order what we got again which is why I’m giving the food 4 stars.

Very very very pleased!! We would order the spicy cold noodles 100 times they were INCREDIBLE. The pan fried pork bun also INSANELY GOOD. Beef & Carrot steamed dumplings not as good 4/5 On a very cute street with excellent vibes, quick service, and delicious food. Definitely checkout on your next visit to Atlanta!

I've been to the 1st location on Buford Highway, but I have to say that this is my preferred location! The 1st location is small, so there's not a ton of seating (one of the reasons for the long waits); however, this location is much more spacious with both indoor and outdoor seating since it's right on the Beltline. Also, it's very aesthetically pleasing with the beautiful murals and lighting. Bonus points for it being much closer to me (although my wallet isn't a big fan of that)! One minor downside is that they don't gave their liquor license (although one of their bartenders told me they will finally get it on November 18th at 5pm), but let's be honest--you come here for the delicious food! I've tried several dishes here, and all of them have been amazing; however, the absolute star has got to be the dumplings! I get at least one of them (shu mai is my favorite) every time I eat here. Also, you can't go wrong with any dish with lamb because the flavors pack a punch. The only dish that was slightly underwhelming was the Chinese hamburger. Don't get me wrong, it was still really good, but it simply doesn't hold a candle to everything else I've had here. This place is a MUST EAT!

honestly i'm quite new to atlanta, but i am very thankful to come across Northern China Eatery. the interior walking in is very well thought out, with plenty of space and detail oriented decor. the service was just as impressive, the servers being kind and present, they all really knew their menus and i felt i wanted to try all of it by the time they were done talking about it. i ended up choosing the twice cooked pork and man it was amazing. i'll definitely be back, and im thankful this place exists so close to where i live. lastly, do be thoughtful and understanding that this is a brand new location and more so, a passion project by those who genuinely love what they do. every establishment will have normal kinks to work out as it's up and running, but it's not thoughtful to leave a negative review behind based on things they can't control. overall this was an amazing experience and i'll be back!

I love their Buford Highway location so when I heard about the new one on the Beltline, I was excited. The quality and care extends to this one as well. From the imagery on the walls to the outside inside bar, the Eatery did not disappoint for looks that align with the Beltline aesthetic. As for the service, 10/10. By reducing the menu and focusing on fan favorites our server was able to provide solids recommendations such as the scallion pancake, of course the hand made dumplings and although not on thru menu as of our meal, their bar service. Since they just got their liquor license, we celebrated with them with a passion fruit martini which my partner said was amazing! I stuck to the traditional hot tea. Cute presentation and awesome service give this new location 5 stars! PS the shrimp noodles stir fry:loved it: It reminded me of the food carts on Canal street in NY. Love the noodles

As you could imagine on a Friday night located on the beltline, this place was hustling and bustling. It's in such a great location, and believe it or not, there's parking behind at Studioplex. Yes, prices are definitely much higher than the OG location on Buford Hwy, but I think it's still worth the visit. They don't take reservations, so we walked in around 7 pm for dinner. We were able to snag a table indoors, but I swear, the people coming in were nonstop at that point. Our server was friendly, though not super attentive. She dropped off water at our table but we were not yet ready to order - she didn't come back until 10-15 mins after to take our order. After ordering, the kitchen must have been backed up since the people who ordered after us got their food first. We ordered the crab roe with cabbage (the server who dropped this dish off at our table must have been new because he asked us what it was), pork with shrimp and chive dumplings and sweet and sour fish. The cabbage was a good start to our meal and was served with a bowl of rice. It was fairly light though the crab roe sauce was missing flavor. The pork and shrimp dumplings are a must! Love that there are big pieces of shrimp and the wrapper was nice and thick. My favorite was the sweet and sour fish. It was nice chunky pieces of battered fish, though the sauce was more sweet than sour. This also came with a bowl of rice. Reason why this place only gets 4 stars was mainly due to waiting for a long time for our food to arrive, plus their server asking us what dish we ordered.

We recently went to the new location on the beltline for lunch. I gave them 3.5 stars due to the following: 1. Location: super convenient if you're in the area. They have outdoor sitting and bar seating. 2. Prices are a bit higher than the BuHi location but that's expected due to location. 3. Food was a hit or miss for me. The soup dumplings are amazing as always, but the corn dish we got was unimpressive and not worth the calories or $$. I did enjoy my crab roe cabbage dish. Lots of roe on top! 4. Service: our waitress was receptive and attentive. Overall, I wouldn't recommend this location if you can get to the original location, but it's decent for the belt line.

My mon and grandma have previously eaten here, but this time they brung me. I didn't expect them to have popcorn chicken, but I gave it a try and it was really good. I got the pan fried dumpling's and those were THE BEST DUMPLING's I EVER HAD. Safe to say, this is the best Chinese restaurant ever.

There is so much to love about this restaurant. Service is great, the restaurant itself is beautiful and kept clean, and there are indoor and outdoor dining options. As it should be, the food is the star of the show. Every dish we tried was cooked to perfection and absolutely delicious! We tried pork and garlic dumplings steamed, shrimp fried rice, and spicy chicken over cabbage. I would love to eat the same dishes again and would like to try more foods. Parking is either limited street parking or paid parking in a parking garage nearby. With being located in the Beltlibe, it's perfect for taking an after dinner stroll.

I find it difficult to recommend this restaurant. Chaotic and mismanagement causing long wait times with average food. They forgot us initially. After waiting for a table outside for over 30 minutes, we noticed empty tables and newcomers getting seated. They sat us immediately when I asked for an updated wait time. They forgot us again. We waited for another 45mins before we saw any food at our table. Again, tables that came after us were served before us. The food was only average. The soup dumplings and steamed dumplings were both fine, but the stir fried noodles was subpar. The noodles were all chopped and broken with hardly any continuous noodles in the mix while the onions and veggies were undercooked. The food was underwhelming given the wait. The cost was on the higher end of average when accounting for the quality. The steam dumplings were priced decently and the noodles would have been fine had it been good. Our server was very kind. That may have been the highlight of our experience. I will likely wait a few months before considering giving it another try. There are better and more affordable options in town for this genre.

I'm have been to the Buford Highway location many times and now this location 4-5 times. Yes service can be a little wonky and it takes awhile for food to cone out but part of that reason is everything is made to order. Usually it's the Pork Buns or Soup Dumplings but recently branched out to other things like wood ear salad, a spicy seafood soup, a hot pot and others... everything has been excellent, some of the family style chinese foods i've eaten.

This was an excellent dining experience that I had here. When I first learned that there was going to be a new location on the east side Beltline, I was so excited. The food is excellent. The dumplings taste exactly like the original location. The fried pork buns had a nice crunch and rich, juicy filling. It was crafted with care. The cumin lamb was excellent. It had the numbing spices that reminded me of Chinese style skewers. You could tell that they took time in trying to make the atmosphere very nice. It was such an upscale feeling. I was able to sit at the bar and even the service was attentive. Food came out very quickly and staff were quick to greet and ask us about our experience. This restaurant hits a home run in a competitive market on the Atlanta Beltline and give you an experience that you would be able to get unless you drove to Buford highway. 5/5

Never again. While I understand that new restaurants have growing pains, I don't think after 8 weeks things should still be this chaotic and underwhelming. When we arrived, I told the hostess that we had a reservation for 2 at 7pm and was told that the website shouldn't have let me make a reservation in the first place as they don't actually take them. We were told it would be 15-20 min to wait which wasn't too bad so said that was fine. They actually had a table outside cleaned off and we were sat within 5 minutes. The weather was perfect. Beltline was popping and the vibes were vibing! Until it came time to order food. We ordered the Crab Rangoons and Soup Dumplings (XLB) to start. We are both Rangoon aficionados and these were completely subpar. There are plenty of Chinese take out restaurants that make way better ones (also cheaper). The XLB were fine. Salty and flavorful. Not the best and probably not the worst. During this time, our server disappeared for a while so we couldn't order entrees. She finally made her way back to us and we ordered the Beef Fried Rice and Mandarin Roasted Pork Belly with Homemade Brown Sauce. Tables that were sat after us started receiving some of their dishes and our server was again nowhere to be found. Someone finally brought our pork dish to us and it was nothing like what we expected. Roasted pork belly it wasn't. Braised seems more of an appropriate description. Needed salt and lacked flavor. Here's the best part. We waited on our long lost server and fried rice for about 15-20 min after the pork dish arrived and I heard the table behind us complaining about waiting for their last dish and wanting to just cancel it and get the check. I engaged in conversation as we were both going through the same issue, so my boyfriend went inside to get things resolved. After another few minutes our server reappeared with the fried rice in a to go container, so we paid and got the heck outta there. I heard several employees tell customers that things were slow because they were so busy. It's Friday. The front and back of house staff should be ready for the rush. Let me also add that they don't have their liquor license, so you will have to order alcohol from somewhere else if you're wanting to drink. Anyway, if you're still reading this it isn't worth the visit. I don't foresee this location lasting more than a year unless they make some major changes.

What can you improve? Everything! People only provide feedback when something is either really good or really bad. Sadly this was really bad. We came here because we frequent the Buford Hwy site and were happy to find a closer location to Midtown. What a complete disappointment. Place was relatively crowded but we were promptly seated. And it went downhill from there. We apparently didn't have an assigned server. After 15 mins someone finally acknowledged us enough to fill our water glasses. As we contemplated leaving a male manager (simply guessing here) who filled our water apologized about the lack of wait staff. We continued to wait but it was still some time before someone came to take our order. Even after ordering we contemplated leaving bc our cups were empty and we had to find anyone who'd pay us some attention. During this entire time we watched several wait staff run around the dining area unfamiliar with which table was to get food they ordered; they were walking aimlessly unsure which table ordered what. It was quite hectic. Again, because of this we contemplated leaving, and we really should have. Because it continues to go downhill. Finally our food came, soup dumplings. Was good but then the steamed pork buns came out and my partner's was cold in the middle. RAW PORK was served to us. That was the last straw (or so we thought). After grabbing the manager to state we were not pleased since we sat down, from service to cold, raw food, we didn't care for the remaining items and just wanted to leave. He stated he understood but apologized more out of obligation than showing sincere concern about our issues. Then this is where it gets absolutely unacceptable. He charged us for the soup dumplings. At this point you would think in an attempt to encourage customers to return to make up for bad service, you not only waive any charges but possibly provide some incentive to allow them to make things right or prove they can do better. Have no desire to return to this location.

I've been a huge fan of the original Northern China Eatery for years, so I was excited to try their new Beltline location. Unfortunately, this visit was an absolute disaster from start to finish. We were seated with no assigned server and sat there for quite a while before anyone even brought water. The manager was completely unhelpful and seemed overwhelmed or uninterested. Just as we were about to leave, a server finally appeared and took our order. The food took forever to arrive. The soup dumplings were good -- the only bright spot -- but the pork buns were cold and raw in the middle. We never even got the Chinese broccoli we ordered. Our server never once checked on us, and I had to flag down random passing staff just to get a water refill. When I finally found the manager to explain the issue with the pork buns, they barely apologized and still had the audacity to charge us for the one item that actually showed up and was edible. After loving the original location for years, this new one was such a disappointment. The service, management, and overall experience were embarrassing. I truly hope they get it together, because right now, this place is giving the Northern China name a bad reputation.

Great service. Just one thing, the rice was a bit hard almost like it wasn't fully cooked.

This place is amazing and I don't understand the bad reviews. The food is outstanding (just like the Buford Hwy location), service is very friendly and fast, and the interior is stunning! Prices are the same as you would expect at every other restaurant around here, you can't compare to Buford Hwy prices because we're on the busiest stretch of the Beltline. Definitely go here!

Let me set the table, pun intended. My wife and I arrived to the restaurant on a Saturday evening understanding that it would likely be busy. It was our first time at the establishment and the ambiance and the menu both looked amazing. Things then began to turn for the worst. Service was okay and staff were friendly, so we put our orders in and patiently waited, and waited, and waited.... You get the idea. I got my dish after about 45 min from the time it was placed. My wife in the other hand did not get hers until over an hour and a half! We witnessed a dozen other tables of guests get seated, order, eat, and leave, all in the time we were waiting to get one plate. After a long wait we hoped the flavor of the food would make up for everything else but no, it was bland, uninspired, and was overall disappointing. We went in with high expectations and left very disappointed. Likely won't return unless a lot of changes.

poorly organized operation an hour after ordering still waiting for most food -- had to search for server in order to receive napkins and other basic table condiments. food is not good enough to be worth this wait and poor experience

We've been here twice, Saturday night each time. While the food was excellent and the ambiance lively, they clearly don't have the kinks ironed out in the kitchen. We had basically the same experience both times - ordered two dishes to share, the first took about 30 minutes to arrive and the second took another 30 minutes at least. In fact, in our last visit, one of the servers was circulating and apologizing that the kitchen was "backed up". Once is forgivable, twice and we will probably take a break for a while. But not forever, because the food is very good.

Walked in with a friend on a Monday night and we loved every minute of it. It's currently BYOB until they acquire their liquor license, so take advantage! Our waitress Katrina really stole the show and steered us towards the Spicy Griddled Cooked Fish/Shrimp. The name of this dish does not foretell of its presentation or deliciousness. Highly recommended.

This service is very slow and poor. I got sat at 7:30 pm and didn't get food until an hour later, and that was just one appetizer. We ordered about 4 plates and received them one at a time every 20 minutes or more. The food is okay but not worth the long wait for it.

Food was amazing. Every dish we ordered was very delicious. Service was also great. This is my second time and I will definitely return again.

very below par. I was serviced raw chicken in my fried rice after waiting nearly 30 mins after my boyfriend's food arrived. the food wasn't bad but it it definitely wasn't anything to remember. heard the location on Buford hwy is wayyyyt better. I would never go back to this place. the service was okay.