Ugly Dumpling Express - Holmdel, NJ

Not all dumplings are created equal. These guys get it done!!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 4

Service: 5

This deeply pains me to leave a negative review. I heard so much hype about this place via tiktok, my friends and I were so excited to try. The service was extremely slow, we had to ask for drinks, they were never even offered.. along with them also being forgotten and having to ask again. The food was extremely mid, the dough of my dumplings felt as if they were a little undercooked and they had little to no flavor whatsoever. Not to mention only 10 minutes after I ate my meal, my stomach turned into shambles. I’ve been in the bathroom for a good 15 minutes with a horrible stomach ache. I’m so disappointed with my experience here today. On the bright side the atmosphere was good, that’s about the only good thing I can say to this place. I will not be revisiting for the sake of my stomach:(

Additionally: as me and my friends were leaving from the restroom we told our “waitress” to have a great day. She gave us the nastiest look ever.

Atmosphere: 3

Food: 1

Service: 1

Food is good but service was horrible. Ordered ahead and had to wait an extra 30 minutes. Then they didn’t give us the drinks so we had to go back. Then we get home and missing two servings of spring rolls and a fried rice side. For $62 and an extra long wait they should have been able
to get it right! Ridiculous.

Food: 4

Service: 2

Shockingly I was the only one there during lunch. A few take out orders came in but otherwise dead inside. It’s not what you’d expect for what they are charging. Not using homemade springy noodles for a $15 bowl brisket soup. It was closer to ramen packet noodles. I tried a bunch of items to make sure and it just became a $65 lunch of low flavor items made for the masses. $2 per soup dumpling is not going to keep this place open. I’d just look elsewhere at a non chain noodle shop for quality that this place has no desire to serve. Nothing I had was bad, just lacked the umami and value you should expect.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 3

Service: 4

Food was delicious and my server Amanda was super nice.

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Great food, good portions, good prices. Our new favorite

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

They dont have a liquor license and you cant BYOB.

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4

I freaking love this place, I had their soup dumplings before and ive always loved them but I had bao for the first time today and the BBQ pork Bao was just phenomenal

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 5

Service: 5

Everyone here is sosososo nice and the foods great

Atmosphere: 5

Food: 4

Service: 5

the service is very slow when you dine in , the food was good but for the service a dime shouldn’t be spent. if we didn’t speak up no one would’ve came it took 15 mins for them to come to our table to ask our drinks. i ordered a side of dumplings that didn’t come out until my other food got cold so i ask for boxes and left. don’t eat here if you wanna dine in

They are slow when they come to the table when you dine in ! I’ve waited for 15 minutes for someone to come up and ask us for our food or drinks , they also take forever to bring your food, so I would just do the take out and get your food faster !

Food: 4

Service: 1

Tried to eat here TWICE in the past week. First time employee told us everyone called out, it was only him, and take out only available. We didn’t feel comfortable and left. Tried again last night, came in at 8pm and checked 9pm close time before leaving the house. Employee stated that dine in orders stopped at 810 and we had to get our order to go. At 8pm. Employee used some sort of weird baby voice. This place seems like it WANTS to close and it probably will. I will not be back.

Atmosphere: 1

Food: 2

Service: 1

We got there around 7:30 pm (they close at 9), but the person taking orders said there was no in-house dining because there wasn’t a server. I asked if we could order and seat ourselves — they said no. Kinda weird… so we left 👻

Service: 1

We had a really disappointing experience at The Ugly Dumpling. We were told we couldn’t dine in because we ordered on the kiosk—even though there was no signage indicating this rule—so we had to eat in our car. On top of that, the woman at the desk was incredibly rude, not just to us, but to other customers as well. It was uncomfortable and unprofessional. Definitely not a place we’ll be returning to

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 3

Service: 1

Green beans are the best!

Atmosphere: 4

Food: 5

Service: 4