LOC Noodle& Dumpling Bar

Love coming here!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

My husband and I were headed back home from a long day out and wanted quick food we hadn't tried before. We walked in around 7pm this past Sunday and the employees were hanging around the table chatting. We ordered the custard buns, garlic beef dumplings and spicy chicken entree and then went outside to wait 10m because it was dead inside and we felt like they were trying to close up. After 15m we checked on our food that was sitting there. Dumplings were great. Custard buns (3 for $11) were ok. Spicy chicken was awful. Tiny bits of dry seasoned chicken overly fried and breaded with equally bad fries. We were too hungry to actually read everything and didn't know it came with fries. $20 for an entree with no noodles/rice/veggies. The portion was small and of what we received we ate half because we couldn't stomach the dried bits. Since the only experience that was great was the dumplings we probably won't be back because there wasnt enough enjoyment in the rest of the food.

Atmosphere: 2

Food: 2

Service: 2

Great food at a great price

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 3

We had take out. It was prepared quickly and ready to go when we showed up. We were feeding six so we had a good selection of food to share. Everything was great and servings were generous so we will be enjoying leftovers for a while. We will be back next time we are in California.

Food: 5

Service: 5

This place is the best! They have incredible food, wonderful service, and clean environment. The green beans are to die for. You’re missing out if you haven’t tried LOC

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Traditional noodle spot, loved the cumin beef. Spectacular flavors with a bit of heat

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 5

Service: 4

After my daughter’s basketball game, we were all ready for dinner—and LOC Noodle & Dumpling Bar was just an 8-minute drive away.

The restaurant is clean and family-friendly. We had five people at our table and ordered the following:

• Signature Juicy Pork Xiao Long Bao（招牌鮮肉小籠包）– $13.75

• Signature Pan-Fried Xiao Long Bao（招牌生煎包）-$14.5

• Spicy Wontons（紅油抄手）– $13.75

• Beef Roll（牛肉捲餅）– $12.99

• Beef Noodle Soup（清湯牛肉麵）– $14.75

• Beef Fried Noodle（牛肉炒麵）– $14.75

My son especially liked the beef noodle soup, and the spicy wontons weren’t spicy—so everyone could enjoy them. Other food items were just fine.

Just give it a try if you’re nearby.

Food was average, my issue was no one cleaned any of the tables next to us. It wasn't busy just us and one other person

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 2

Great place for dumplings and Chinese dishes.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Nothing says welcome more than a dirty unserviced grease trap which smells like rotten eggs. That’s the smell that greeted us as we arrived. They did leave the doors open and that did reduce the smell. We figured we’d driven a long way to try this restaurant based on the rosy reviews we read but we should have run away at first whiff. We tried their signature soup dumplings which were ok but not anything amazing. Their take on the classic shumai relaxing the pork with rice and mushrooms was an insult to this iconic dim sum item. We decided we’d had enough and before we left we visited the restrooms. Overflowing trash can and. Dirty commodes in both the women’s and men’s restrooms told us all we needed to know about this grossly overrated nightmare. Orange County has many top tier Asian restaurants. This is not one of them.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 1

Service: 1

The food here was amazing.
Had dumplings and garlic bok choy.
Get ... garlic ... bok choy
Wish they had a liquor ...

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

Excellent food and great expertise. We love the spicy wontons sooooo much!

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Our first visit to LOC was a take out order of 3 items: Garlic Eggplant, Shumai and Wonton Noodle Soup. The only really good item was the Garlic Eggplant, although it was very oily. The Wonton Noodle Soup was very disappointing. The wonton dumplings were good but the broth was cloudy and tasted like it was made from a powdered mix and overall it looked absolutely nothing like the photo on the menu — no vegetables at all and all noodles. But the real tragedy was the Shumai (AKA Siu Mai). I have ordered Siu Mai every time I have dim sum, for close to 60 years, and the very traditional dish is an open face dumpling filled with a mixture of ground pork, ground shrimp, mushrooms, water chestnuts and spices. The version of “Shumai” served at this place is filed with RICE and only rice, no meat at all. It was heartbreaking and downright insulting to customers who think they’re getting an authentic Siu Mai and are presented with tasteless balls of rice stuffed into a wrapper. And since we love real Siu Mai so much, we got two orders of the rice-filled imposters only to be hugely disappointed when we got home and inspected what we actually paid for! Needless to say, I would never return to this restaurant and do not recommend it to anyone.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 2

Service: 5

I am very particular when it comes to authentic Chinese cuisine, and I have found a place that not only satisfies my appetite, but leaves me constantly wanting to come back for more and more. Not only is the food amazing but it is fresh, high-quality And seasoned to perfection. The icing on the cake is the stellar service.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

So. I don’t really know where everyone who is actively enjoying this experience here are getting their tastebuds but this establishment left me disappointed.

Upon entry this place smelled as if the bathroom was left wide open. We were greeted to and attended to very promptly and everyone was nice. The atmosphere would be 5 stars if not for the fact that the bathroom smell lingered the entire time there.

I ordered the popcorn chicken, the special pork baos, beef noodle soup, and the chocolate buns. The beef noodle soup came out first, with three pieces of beef (sliced very thin), two pieces of bok choy(not fully cooked through), flavorless noodles and some murk broth. This dish needed some salt, (which was not available on the table) and the only thing that could be tasted was the chili oil you had to pour into this dish.

I got the popcorn chicken and it smelled so strong, almost as if they wanted to mask the taste with the smell. It was dry inside, lacked flavor other than the sauce they pour all over it, and was tasteless.

The Baos came out almost room temperature and were about the average size of other places. Upon trying them, they tasted as if they were just microwaved. I would have been better off grabbing some from the local Trader Joes and heating them up myself. Out of the 7 or so they gave us, we only ate three, leaving the rest.

Ultimately the chocolate buns seemed like the only thing that was truly “homemade”. They were very hot, sticky, and oozed the chocolate sauce inside. The bao itself didn’t taste like much, and the chocolate sauce inside tasted like dollar store dark chocolate and was very bitter, and not a good dark chocolate bitterness.

The Thai iced tea was reviewed previously and was said to be “not too sweet”. I would say the initial sip had that “not too sweet” taste and the rest tasted as if it was a pure aftertaste of the tea, almost if they just dyed the water orange.

Overall the experience left me sad because we shelled out around $75~ dollars for tasteless food, having to pay and add tip before getting the food.

P.S. don’t touch the chili oil bottles, they’re very sticky and make sure to look at the soy sauce bottles closely, they reuse some bottles and out vinegar inside instead of soy sauce.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 3