Will B.
Yelp
Came here with a friend for lunch. She recommended it as she knows that I love Asian cultural foods. So this is a small location within a strip mall, so parking is no issue. They opened at 11:30am, I walked in at 11:31am & I am glad that I did. By 11:40am they were packed, & by 11:50am people were turning away, just grabbing food to go, or standing around waiting for tables.
Again, small interior, but gives you an oddly authentic feel of being somewhere else. Almost like you forget that Edison, NJ is outside of the door. It is self service, so there are (3) ordering tablets & then you seat yourself. They text you a copy of your receipt, which also has your order number on it. Your order comes out & they place it on a small table. They call your number AND it displays on a large screen. You then step to the table to pick up your order (including your drink) & return to your seat.
The drink options are super limited. Water, Tiger Tea (which is a boba tea version of Thai Iced Tea), some Foreign brand pre-bottled juice, & Coca-Cola.
Once I was done laughing to myself about them calling their buns "juicy," I learned why. When you bite into the dumplings there's the soup like juice inside & it will squirt out everywhere, which I learned the hard way, lol. When you pick up your food they tell you that bowls are available. I initially didn't get one cause I didn't know what to expect. My friend told me to go back & get a bowl. The bowls are very necessary.
The food itself, we had:
Pork Steam Juicy Buns which were very good & my favorite of them all.
Crab & Pork Steam Juicy Buns, also very good, but the just Pork ones were better in my opinion as they were more flavorful.
Vegetable Spring Roll. These were surprisingly good without any dipping sauce. Spring Rolls usually have a sweet sauce, these had none. They are also much larger than spring rolls usually are. They are closer to the size of an egg roll from your local corner Chinese store.
Egg Yolk Shumai was a unique dish. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't love it either.
Shanghai Fried Udon, a Nice rich Udon with some good flavors. Honestly it didn't get its fair shot, as were were already so full from the dumplings, spring rolls, & Shumai. We could have taken this to-go, but opted not to.
Sauces, Yes...I'm mentioning sauces, just because of what we as Americans are used to getting from Asian restaurants. They have a Vinegar sauce that they serve the dumplings with. I was NOT a fan, as I don't want anything that "vinegary," if that makes sense. They DO actually have traditional soy sauce (upon request). They also have a Hot Sauce (upon request), which is not what you think at all. It's a dark colored, almost black, pepper type sauce that I did not find to be hot nor spicy at all. That's it for sauces!
Finally, they gave me some kind of fig based dessert. I don't know what it was, I guess it just came with my order. I split it with my friend. We both took one bite & put it down. Looks good, but had a dry texture & was not very sweet at all. It also reminded me of the head of the Demogorgon from 'Stranger Things,' lol.
A very important thing to note is there were lots of Asian families there to eat, so that speaks heavily to the authenticity of the food.
Overall, I would go again & bring some other friends who could appreciate the experience.