Yeah, I saw the prices when I walked by one day and I thought it must be a joke.

-Me

I too walked by, looked at the prices, and walked on, laughing and shaking my head. Dumplings are street food, not haute cuisine. we need more real food stops on Broadway, and NOT more pho! Is the affordable restaurant market so totally gone in this neighborhood? Are there no creative AND affordable food choices left here on the hill? All these people here and we lose books, gain clothes and have only mediocre food. THAT'S the sadness, Lindy.

I love you, Lindy West. You are a crackerjack!

Lindy, when are you coming to give Chicago the works? Let me know if you need a lackey.

The saddest part of the whole thing was that West was stupid enough to eat at such a place, and I was stupid enough to read this piece of crap.

Is this a food review or a freaking diary entry?

Sichuanese in the ID has the most delicious dumplings I've ever had, and $4.50 gets you twenty.

LOL!!! My oh My. Where O where do I begin? How 'bout here: First of all I am laughing at Sonder's and Friedchicken's comments, because they are so RIGHT ON! I have recently moved here from NYC and basically what I have found is that Seattle is LACKING in any kind of decent food. But what is WORSE is that the Seattlite's themselves think they are foodies, and I'm sorry to report, but y'all ARN"T!

Now, this is not the place to rant about that, but is the place to let all of you know out there, that Dumpling Dojo is fantastic. Who in their right mind wants to eat, yet again, another greasy dumpling from Chinatown? Oh excuse me, I mean the ID. (Note people - it's not an International District if it's only representing the Asian countries).

A further more, I hardly think DD should be compared to any traditional dumplings, as they are way out of that league.

I have been eating at DD since they opened in March, and I'm eating there as much as I can while they are still around. I happily pay the $2 a piece, because they are worth it: handmade! hand rolled wrappers! who does that anymore? Oh, I know, Dumpling Dojo!. Lean meats, innovatively well seasoned. Beef and lemongrass my fav!

Furthermore, I was SO happy to see that the chef at DD is willing to be creative. She currently has a baked potato dumpling! YUM! Plus a moo shoo!! Double YUM!

So, I say, before you take Lindy so seriously, go in and give the Dojo a chance. But if you are looking for greasy cheap eats, 'cause you don't want to grow out of you college daze, then move along. Leave the good eats to the real food lovers.
(PS – think about how much you pay for sushi! Duh!)

What the hell? So the dumplings are tasty and handmade but the price exceeds the "ethnic" food limit? Some restaurants are expensive and some restaurants are more affordable. I went to How to Cook a Wolf the other day and ate delicious by smallish portion of handmade pasta, way out of my price range and I will probably never go again but I didn't walk away all pissed off because they charged more than the Old Spaghetti Factory does.

#11, I'm from Providence. And as a New Yorker, you should know that east coast street food is way cheaper than it is in Seattle, right, and that the Dumpling Dojo prices are overly jacked up?

In Providence you can go into any bakery and pay .75 cents for a pizza strip or spinach pie and $1.75 for a hot weiner, as opposed to the $5 hot dogs they sell out here. I don't care how good the dumplings at this place are, $2 a piece is just stupid. I love homemade food as much as the next Italian east coast tranplant, but I'm not a fucking yuppie willing to pay dipshit prices.

dumpling the motherfucker already

@14 Food critics are supposed to be icog f'n nito.

Szechuan Noodle Bowl's green-onion pancakes and dumplings are TO DIE FOR! Best. In. The. City. Well picked, Ms. West, well picked.

SERVING CRAPPY FOOD at Richy Rich prices won't work on Broadway. Sayonora!

proof that emailng and texting from an early age are harmful--when writing! next time, please continue drafting until no more than two !! are necessary!! (see how annoying those ! are when overused!?!)

20 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the drizzle in the photo is what's hilarious. I'm half Korean and my Mom would crank out a plate of fried Yaki Mondo like other kids moms would boil hot dogs. Now this joint is selling fried dumplings like they're high concept. What a fucking joke! YO and all you complaining New Yawkers, Fawk You!!!!!!!!!

Lindy...I love you and would like to go out sometime & eat with you. I love your critiques and I have been a professional server for over 40 years. I love sharing your reviews on FB and I must say that you keep me in stitches......I love you!

They played a whole Stevie Ray Vaughn album when I was there. fucking bummer

@10: Are you saying I'm too fat to be a food critic?

@20: OBVIOUSLY I AM IMPERVIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dumplings for $2 each is insane. Top Chef-style "reimagining" of street food, in general, sucks for when you are actually hungry. I'm all for creativity, but sometimes you just wanna eat, yo.

@11, you are an ass. Enjoy overpaying for food that is made for a tenth of that price.

@11 almost every single dumpling in the ID is handmade with hand-rolled wrapper and they're still cheaper and tastier.

@14 a piece of paper from the CIA isn't a license to inflate menu prices, it's a sad reminder of how much you owe while you're cranking out mediocre dumplings.

Dammit, Lindy, I hate to hate on you. Your movie reviews make me laugh so hard I want to pee myself, and then you turn around and say something so smart I just have to say DANG.

But your review of Dumpling Dojo was just fucking mean. You hated the mocktails. Fine! You thought the dumplings were overpriced. Got it! You're mad as HELL that you paid an asston of money for what you should have, in your mind, paid three bucks in the ID for. And the music!!! You're all tizzed!!!

All of those things are legitimate complaints-but you're not reviewing a megaplex summer movie here. The Dojo's grub is made by peeps in your neighborhood, who welcomed you in and fed you and tried to give you a great dining experience. They did not pee in your "mocktail", they did not verbally abuse you, and they did not hold a gun to your head and demand your cash money. In return you spent a long time crafting a really cunty review that would read better on Yelp.

It was a very entertaining read for folks, I'm sure. But a review like yours can be devastating for a restaurant, especially one that is new and still working out their groove. I wish Yuen and her crew at the Dojo the best, and I hope she's able to suss out the critique from the crap review and become the awesome dumpling shop the Dojo aspires to be.

Well first off, having a restaurant in a location that isn't going to even last is not good to begin with. Restaurants ultimately rely on regulars, so obviously a "temporary restaurant" isn't all that great of an idea.
Also, having a degree from the CIA doesn't really mean all that much. Really, it depends on the cook.
I think that this article was a little pissy, but I think that all of the complaints are valid. Why do people go out to eat? Because they want to eat something nice/good, because they want to be served, which also goes hand in hand with the atmosphere. If the food just flat out didn't taste that good or was bland, that's bad. It doesn't matter if the chef is whipping the food up from crazy amazing sustainable organic stuff, if the food doesn't taste good it doesn't matter. Obviously the food wasn't good enough for her to want to come back and pay those prices for it, and it seems like she would have been just as happy going elsewhere.