Midtown Lunch

After Win Won was shuttered by the Department of Health, the space in that weird alley-like Liberty Place (btw. Liberty St. & Maiden Lane) sat empty for a little while until one day it suddenty turned into Dumpling House. Since this is pretty close to where I work I was excited that perhaps we had something comparable to Prosperity Dumpling or Vanessa’s in the Financial District. A look at the menu was distressing since that item was relegated to the appetizer section. One day I stopped in to check out the dumplings and what I found wasn’t pretty.

Dumpling House is mostly a destination for their $8 lunch specials that looked pretty decent from what I saw coming out of the open kitchen. They have all your standard Americanized Chinese food as well as a few things outside of the $10 price range that sound more interesting, like whole or half Peking duck with pancakes.

But I was here for some fried pork dumplings for which I parted with $6 in exchange for 6 dumplings. Yes, that’s right – so hard up was I in search of some good dumplings down here that I paid $1 apiece for these suckers. I hang my head in shame.

It took a while for the dumplings to come out and they looked promising, or at least better than the ones found in by-the-pound buffets down here. One bite in and I knew these were not the dumplings of my dreams. First of all, the skins were pretty thick and tasted of oil and although the meat was juicy it had a flavor that took me a minute to pinpoint. Instead of pork and chive, these seemed to be pork and lemongrass.

Bottom line: Don’t go to Dumpling House expecting to get awesome dumplings. You’re better off ordering some General Tso’s for $2 more and calling it a day.

Dumpling House, 8 Liberty Place (btw. Liberty St. & Maiden Lane), (212) 227-9899/9855