After hearing friends rave about this place and reading 5-star reviews of it on Google, Dumpling Darlings had a lot to live up to for me.

Sad to say but the food there wasn’t quite as darling as I thought it’d be. I got the lunch set ($16) which included noodles (I got miso mushroom), 4 pieces of dumplings (went with the smoked duck) and a drink (had the longan osmathus pu er).

🍜: firm but not quite chewy like Eng’s. I appreciated the generous helping of mushroom and the hanjuku egg that came along with it, but it was basically atas bak chor mee. At least the portion size was just right.

🥟: nothing quite special about how the dumpling was prepared — it tasted like smoked duck rolled up in wanton skin. That they were dripping laying in a pool of grease didn’t quite help.

🍹: possibly the saving grace of the set, it was handcrafted upon order and tasted lovely.

Was it worth $18.80 (with GST and service charge)? Not quite. Food was alright and service was patchy, with staff complaining right in front of customers sat at the bar.

It’s worth a try if you’re in the area, but I wouldn’t make a special trek here for it — wanton or bak chor mee from the hawker/food court can easily hit the spot without the steep price. 💸