Gourmet Dumpling House, Boston

I don't know why this place has such raving reviews online and by word of mouth. I don't know where the usual patrons eat Chinese food, but let me tell you right now that this is NOT "THE BEST AUTHENTIC CHINESE FOOD I'VE EVER HAD!!~~**~~!" It's okay Chinese food in a town that offers passable Chinese cuisine. 

I've been a few times, most recently with my cousin Emily before catching a chick flick. 

When eating casual Chinese meals, dishes usually come out as soon as they are finished being prepared to preserve proper serving temperature and quality. However, our main dishes came a good 10-15 minutes before the dumplings, which were technically our appetizers. The sauteed string beans were good, but different from what was expected for it had a sour note to it. The braised tofu with fish  is hot and sour in flavor, and quite tasty, but unexpected given that the name of the dish is "red-braised". 

For a dumpling house, I was quite disappointed by their dumplings. In previous visits, I ordered the Shanghainese soup dumplings, which I found rather limp and oily. No more of those, thanks. The fried dumplings were fried dumplings. Nothing spectacular at all, which is unfortunate for a place named for dumplings. 

Gourmet Dumpling House is a tiny restaurant with extremely limited seating, and is usually packed after 6pm on any given night. The waiting area is two chairs underneath a dozen framed photos, most of them of the owners with Ming Tsai. 

Sorry my Friedman school orientation leader, this is not the best place to eat in Chinatown. 

So why do I keep coming back? Am I ordering the wrong things? Can someone recommend me to a better place to get dumplings in Boston? 

Gourmet Dumpling House

52 Beach Street

Boston, MA 02111