E-Tao

My hopes were high for good soup dumpings. Alas, just like the bursting, thin-​skinned dumplings, so were my hopes.
E-​tao is an overpriced bad version of Chinese food. It’s so harsh! But it’s true. The soup dumplings all burst even with my experienced hands and best techniques. The soup inside was cold and watery.
I did like the shrimp shumai and shrimp dumplings. You could taste the shrimp in them. But they were double the price of what they should be.
The restaurant is small and cramped. I tried to like E-​tao, I really did. Unfortunately, it was a bust. Just like their dumplings.

I’m a white girl who was raised in a small town eating mainly «all-​american» white people food along with a lot of cajun dishes. That, mixed with Marvin Zindler reports and some really bad experiences at asian restaurants (flies, roaches, and a paperclip) have kept me away from Houston’s far-​east food scene. I do eat asian food, but my experience is limited to recipes from my aunt (Vietnamese) or cooking classes I have attended. So when a good friend gave me the choice of joining him here for lunch or, as he said, I could go eat apple pie, hot dogs, and pizza alone? I decided to trust him and and dip my toes in the water again.
My companion wanted dim sum and I honestly had no clue what that was. We got a sampler to share along with some fried asparagus (not on the menu, but ask and you shall receive). I really wish I’d have taken a picture of the fried asparagus since the presentation was beautiful, but more importantly it was delicious and we ate all we could!
As for the dim sum sampler? Let me preface this by saying I am not very fond of pork or shrimp since the cooking or prep method can make them into a rubbery mess, but I was still determined to try this. So first were the Shanghai dumplings. Unfortunately mine broke as I tried to lift it since it was stuck to the paper, but I was lucky enough to get the spoon underneath fast enough to catch some broth. I liked this well enough, the texture of the pork was not bad, but I admit it didn’t amaze me. Next were the pork and shrimp Shaomai and I can say this one was everything I hate about pork and shrimp — chewy and lumpy. I could do without eating those again. And then the Shrimp Shaomai? I saved it for right before the sticky rice since I didn’t think I would like it. I cut this one in half so I could easily spit it out — but I loved it most out of everything. Maybe it is the prep method (steaming), but for me that one was delicious. I could see myself coming back here and getting nothing but Shrimp Shaomai. And last was the sticky rice (Lo mai gai) which was good, but nothing amazing about it.
After this we both placed orders again, me for lettuce wraps and him for another sampler. The lettuce wraps were about as generic as you could imagine and I wish I’d have taken him up on his offer of getting another round of nothing but Shrimp Shaomai, but I just wanted to try a variety of items. Along with this I got an iced green tea with honey and ginger. This is another +1 as the ginger wasn’t just a hint, but I nice bit of heat as it should be!
Service? No issues there either. If you have an issue with waiters who don’t speak English perfectly? Then you probably wouldn’t be coming here anyway. Language or not our waiter was attentive. In fact, we told him not to worry about the fried asparagus since it wasn’t on the menu and he asked the chef about it anyway. So sometimes the language issues work in your favor. From the outside this place looks tiny and cramped, but once I was seated any fears of claustrophobia dissipated since the tables are spaced well enough apart.
So how does this stack up compared to Chinatown? No clue, but now I would be more inclined to find out. I definitely would come here again if in the area.

1. Service — the staff are friendly and attentive. They bring everything you request in a timely manner and they come every so often. The setup is simple, it’s A-​La-​Carte. You get seated by a host, order at the table, and pay at the end.
2. Price — I came here to try out their dim sum. If I was to eat dim sum in Chinatown, I get a bigger bang for the buck. I don’t think they give enough for the price you pay for. But then again, this is the Galleria area, and it’s not Chinatown.
3. Ambiance — this place has a contemporary look. It’s like a lounge inside. The kitchen is open and up front where all customers can see all the action. Dress code is casual.
4. Food — not bad, I think their dim sum is legit and it tasted good. The sauce however was not soy sauce. They offer your dim sum with some sweet brown sauce. Looks like soy sauce, but not soy sauce. Definitely good stuff, but portion is not enough.
5. Cleanliness — clean, no complaints.

Coming from Hong Kong I have really high standards for Chinese food. I’m so glad this place is close by and I can pick up my HK style Chinese food whenever I have a hankering for it! Great noodles!

This small restaurant is located inside the galleria, near Nordstrom’s. Not really much of an ambiance here. I tried the fried asparagus which was yummy and crispy. For my meal, I had the shrimp lo mein. The noodles and sauce were really tasty.
However after eating here, I got sick to my stomach. I was not sick before and I felt fine the next day. And I had not eaten anything else unusual that day, so I feel pretty confident that it was something here. I don’t have a sensitive stomach and I don’t frequently get sick. Food was good but definitely not worth getting sick over.

Okay so it isn’t Chinatown dumplings, but for being in a mall, right next to a roman delight pizza place, this place rocks!
Sure, you wouldn’t come all the way from the burbs just to eat here, but if you are already at the galleria, braving the crowds, and you don’t want to eat mall Chinese food, but you don’t want to spend $ 60 on lunch from Peli-​Peli, this is your place!!!
Their soup dumplings are totally where it’s at… And their pork/​shrimp shu mai is also pretty amazing. Actually, I’ve loved all their dumplings. Perfectly made, with generous meat portions.
I often order their Shanghai noodles if I’m sharing. They are nothing too special, but they are a solid B+, and if you are dining with picky eaters, they’ll have something to eat that they like!

Raw pork soup dumplings.
When I notified this to the waiter they took it back and offered to bring out fresh dumplings which I declined.
They then failed to discount the final check. I am sad that I can never go back to the convenient location.

Shanghai Soup Dumplings: 5 of 5. I went here when I saw a review a friend posted. Had to try it out since I work down the street. Best soup dumplings in town. I’ve tried Fu Fu (the new one and the old one) as well as One Dragon Restaurant. Thick dumpling wrap makes it harder to puncture, wasn’t overcooked at the bottom so it didn’t spill when I lifted up (a lot of times they’re overcooked and break at the bottom). Warm and seasoned just enough. Slight hint of Chinese herb.
Tip: soak your ginger in the soy vinaigrette, toss a sliver or two into your dumpling to set it off.

If Tex Mex is Americanized Mexican cuisine, I just had Tex Cantonese. While I was skeptical of E-​Tao because of its location in the Houston Galleria mall, the décor lured me in. An open kitchen and dining room that felt like something out of Chinatown. I had hopes of some authentic dim sum. Sadly, favors were lacking, making this an uninspired mall copy.

Great location, great service, decent selection of dishes. Not the most authentic but great choice if you like Cantonese style food.
Highly recommend the crab seafood rice ($ 50~60, enough for 4 – 6 people to share). And some dumplings if you like.

I think their chef changed… we got their famous crab (避风塘）again, totally different from what we had before, heavy flour before it was fried, not as flavorful, oh and more expensive than before!
Tried their satay chicken and mango salad for the first time, not impressed at all! The salad was not fresh and tasted pickled. Not getting that again!
The other dishes we always got were good, like the Shanghai soup dumplings. But yeah, a little disappointed at those 2 dishes today.

We came here not realizing that IT’S ACTUALLY IN THE GALLERIA. So I’ll start by saying this place was okay for «mall food,» but would not have been acceptable as a normal dim sum restaurant. It wasn’t the worst and the service was not bad, so I also did not give it a 1 star EVEN THOUGH I WON’T RETURN.
So clearly there was no traditional dim sum cart. The dim sum menu had about 12 items on it and you just order with the wait staff. One of my friends usually likes everything and he thought their bbq pork buns were one of the best he’d had. Clearly you know to ignore this, as they were one of the WORST BBQ PORK BUNS I HAVE HAD. (I’m Chinese & my followers usually find what I write to be pretty spot on, so trust me haha.) The sauce inside the bun was indescribable (bleh). The pork inside did not look nor taste like the traditional bbq pork used. There were also no onions, which only the best bbq pork buns have, inside. The actual bun part was SOGGY.
They had «Shanghai dumplings» which are more widely known as «xiao long bao.» They were probably the only good thing on the dim sum menu. I did not try everything, so hence the use of «probably.» They were as most would expect. However, I found it to be a bit too ginger-​y in taste. We also had the pork dumplings, both steamed and fried. As well as some mushroom and pork rice wrapped in a lotus leaf. Again, I was not a fan so I would just pass. However, two of my friends liked the mushroom and pork rice wrapped in a lotus leaf so if you’re even curious then sure give it a try. We also ordered the crab ragoons, which everyone liked. I have a seafood allergy so I have no opinion on them.
I think this place appeals to the public as a whole aka Americanized. For the location of this business, it’s probably a wise choice. They did not have chicken feet, turnip cake, nor many other traditional dishes. Don’t come here expecting it to be a normal dim sum restaurant as I did. But hey, there are some people who genuinely like Americanized restaurants. It’s exactly why I like tex mex, as well as traditional Mexican food. So if you know that’s you, then give it a try and let me know what you think.

My friend and I came here for lunch. I’ve always wanted to try this place as I see slot of people walk in and out during peak lunch hours. I don’t know what the rave is about this place, but you are better off going to Chinatown or Panda Express. Also, this place is a little pricey, but it’s in the galleria, right?
We got the beef sizzling plate and dry Vancouver calamari. Both dishes were «okay». The beef was a little more on the salty side but the vegetable (mushroom and green/​red peppers) that came with it was cooked to perfection. The calamari on the other hand was not crispy and needed a little more cooking although the sauce went well with the dish All together we paid $ 36
Staff were friendly and the service was excellent which is why I’m giving this place a 3-​star rating.

Delicious!
This small Chinese restaurant is so amazing for mall Chinese food. I don’t even want to think of it being in the mall, because that taints it. I can imagine that they will someday move out of the mall to a much larger location. We had to stand in line for about 25 minutes the day we ate here. Yes, it was a weekend lunch, but wow, what a following they have.
Our service was great (which you don’t always find in Chinatown) and the predominant languages I could hear being spoken at other tables was variety of Asian languages but mostly Chinese.
We ordered way too much but everything was amazing! The bbq pork buns (bao) appeared to be really pricey on the menu (2 for $ 5) but they were huge and packed full of delicious bbq pork. They were totally worth the price. The pan fried noodles were great, as was the orange chicken. Honestly, everything was delicious, high quality, large portions, and priced appropriately.
If you are in the mall, stop here for lunch or dinner. I’m already planning my next trip back to the mall just so I can eat at E-​Tao! No joke!

This restaurant is near Nordstrom in the Galleria mall. The service was friendly and attentive and I’d give them 4 stars. I liked how the kitchen is open and you can see them working.
I love dim sum and would give the dim sum platter a 3 star review. The dim sum was just ok.

Who knew that good Chinese dim sum could be found in the corner of a huge upscale mall?
Only people that search Unilocal!
After reading everyone’s reviews about this place, I knew I had to go here. It looks small as it is long and narrow, with half booth tables set along the left side and the kitchen on the right. In the front, the kitchen is open so you can peek in at the cooks. The first time I came, the hostess greeted me kindly, gave me a menu, and consistently checked to see if I wanted to order anything. That day I was just browsing the mall, so I did not, but her attention to me was appreciated. The booth seats are comfy and clean. Really, the whole place is clean.
The menu itself is quite expansive. They have specials in the front, then some dim sum, light fare, house special dishes, fried rice, stir fried noodle dishes, vegetables, and meats served in various ways. I did not browse the whole menu, but from what I did read, I could tell that they had quite a diversity of dishes that sound like they would be served in authentic Chinese places (I’m not authentic Chinese, I’m a Vietnamese banana = yellow on the outside, white on the inside).
We ordered the mixed dumpling plate ($ 15-​ish, har gow, siu mai, xiao long bao, zongzi, zheng jiao), the combo fried rice ($ 17-​ish chicken, shrimp, egg, char sui, veggies), and the sliced beef hot pot ($ 15-​ish). All of these were served beautifully and in large enough portions to make two guys and a girl very full. All of these dishes were so good, so tasty, so awesome… It’s so fulfilling when the food is presented beautifully and the taste matches what you see and smell.
The fried rice was served in a mini wok-​like bowl with handles. It was seasoned perfectly, not too oily or too salty. The chicken and shrimp were both soft and tender and juicy. The eggs were also soft. The few pieces of char sui provided the heavier, meaty, thicker aspect to the fried rice. There was just the right amount of peas, carrots, green onion. It was fried rice served at a Chinese place like it should be. Perfect.
The beef was served in a hot pot (didn’t look sturdy, maybe part plastic?) with a pyramid shaped mound of white rice. The beef is cooked and served in this delicious brown sauce that is not overly thickened with cornstarch. It comes with copious amounts of sliced onion, green onion, and ginger. Warning! The huge flat ovals are full slices of ginger, NOT mushroom! I love ginger so I munched on these; if you don’t like ginger, you have been warned. This dish again was perfectly seasoned, not too salty, a hint of sweet, good umami. The beef itself was good meat, too, not the cheap tendonous stuff you get at American-​Chinese take-​out.
The dumplings on the dim sum platter were huge! Wow! They do not skimp on the servings or the meat. I’ve been to other dim sum places where you get half as much meaty filling as here. They serve the dim sum with a little dipping platter of chili in oil and a slightly sweet soy dipping sauce. OMG the sweet soy dipping sauce was such a *sweet* surprise! It was pleasantly unexpected, providing the slight sweetness amongst a bit of tangy vinegar to round out a typically meaty and salty food.
(sideline rant) I went to the Din Tai Fung that opened up in Costa Mesa last year and was SORELY DISAPPOINTED at their xiao long bao (XLB). After all the hype about Din Tai Fung, I was let down by a tiny dumpling that had little soup with nothing special about the soup. My mother’s wonton noodle soup was far superior and comes in a huge phở-​sized bowl and does NOT cost $ 10. From that experience, I was apprehensive about trying the XLB here. I did not want to be let down…(end rant). I WAS SO HAPPY THE XLB HERE LIVED UP TO EXPECTATIONS. I could definitely tell the broth was made from pork bones and aromatics. I unfortunately lost some broth in picking the XLB up from the steamer (T_​T) so I didn’t get the full, longer lasting euphoria of broth that I desired. Nevertheless, eating the rest of the dumpling was delicious. The wrappers are nice, a little chewy in a good way. I loved the bouncy, airy texture of the har gow when you bite into it. The zheng jiao was filled with a huge chunk of pork and chive and garlic. The filling was juicy and light. Again, I am so surprised how much meaty filling they put into these dumplings!
To round out the whole heavenly eating experience, our server was prompt, nice, and attentive. Water was regularly refilled. Appropriate tableware was brought out before and with food. Food came out quickly. Check was given quickly. This place rocks. It is a bit pricey, but the quality and the amount of food you get cannot be beat. Please, come try this place. If you do, please ask me to tag along so I can try more of their food!!!

When you talk about Mall food, what’s the first thing you think about? Dairy Queen? Chopstix? Panda Exrpress? Bad food in malls are the norm, not the exception.
Thankfully, this is not the case with the Galleria. We saw one of our friends with their daughter at the children’s play area, and they recommended E-​Tao. They said it’s good, but definitely not as cheap as Chinatown. Since our in-​laws were in town, we decided, «why not?»
When you look at E-​Tao from the outside, you don’t think, «Chinese restaurant.» Thankfully the food is authentic Chinese. We had the green onion pancake, which came out nicely plated and was shaped as the letter «E.» The first thing my in-​laws commented was, «That smells good.» This is always a good sign that the food is authentic when your in-​laws from LA says it smells good. It was pretty decent, a good balance between crunchiness and taste.
Next we had the beef chow fun. Again, my in-​laws said, «this smells pretty good.» I had to agree when I tasted it. Usually they get this dish all wrong, and it comes out too oily and the beef gets rubbery. But this chow fun was spot on.
The highlight of our meal was yin yang fried rice. It comes with two sauces, a red sauce and a white sauce. We all agreed that the red sauce was much more flavorful and tasty. It was a huge portion too, in which four adults could not finish it.
The gailan and the pork chop was icing on the cake. The gailan was fresh, good color, and plentiful. The pork chop was appropriately seasoned, and tender. Add to the aesthetic quality of the plating — from the pyramid rice to the e-​shaped green onion pancake, it’s hard to believe, but this place is pretty good. Definitely be prepared to spend a little more — but it’s somewhere you can trust for great food without leaving the mall!

The place was full of Asian customers, so I thought this would be a good place to try, right? WRONG. I ordered the dim sum platter (about $ 16 incl. tax), and it was not good. For the platter, you get 2 pieces each of the dumplings listed below and 1 item of sticky rice.
Soup Dumplings
These were a far cry from Dim Sum Garden in Philly. I was surprised to see meat inside the dumpling along with the soup. I prefer my soup dumplings to only have soup. The soup part had floating bits of meat in it, making it hardly a soup. There was no taste aside from saltiness.
Har Gow
The shrimp dumplings were ok, but definitely not memorable, even though I just ate them for lunch today. Bland in taste, they were smaller in size compared to dim sum places in Chinatown. The shrimp were not chopped very finely and in fact, it seemed the kitchen was lazy in that whole shrimp were stuffed into the dumpling. This causes uneven cooking.
Steamed Dumpling
The menu does not specify the kind of steamed dumpling that comes with the platter, and I can see why. I think it’s a way for the restaurant to get rid of their leftovers. The steamed dumpling I was given had a bitter, extremely dark green vegetable with meat that was slightly pink in the middle (so not cooked thoroughly). I want to say the vegetable was almost like gailan, but it’s hard to tell. I can see why the kitchen probably had this kind of extra dumplings.
Siu Mai
I don’t know about you, but I like my meat brown after it’s been cooked. Maybe a light brown is okay, but certainly not gray on the outside and then pink inside, as if undercooked. This place puts a shrimp on top, but I don’t feel this adds any taste at all.
Sticky Rice
Yuck. I couldn’t tell if the meat was ground pork or ground beef. There were no vegetables (chives, onions, etc), and there wasn’t a lot of meat either. All I could really taste was the grape leaf for the rice along the outside, but all taste had evaporated by the time you tried to eat the middle.
When the waiter asks if the food’s good, I wish people wouldn’t lie and say it is. This place will never improve if people lie. A Chinese family next to me visiting from Indianapolis but originally from Shanghai told the waiter the food’s good. I wanted to wring their necks! Maybe they’ve forgotten what non-​Americanized Chinese food is, which is truly sad. Kim Son in Chinatown has better dim sum and cheaper prices!

The seed needs the water
Before it grows out of the ground
But it just keeps on getting hotter
And the hunger more profound at… E-​TAO! — Ed Sheeran (make it rain)
A legit dim-​sum place inside a shopping mall! What? Located inside the infamous galleria, this place is a great alternative to normal mall options. It’s usually a good sign when the place is pretty busy even though items are a little overpriced. It’s also a good sign when they can speak both languages fluently.
Good things:
The dim sum is very authentic. The food comes out fairly quickly and service is on point.
Not so good things:
The tables are SUPER close together, even closer than romantic date spots. The difference is that date places are generally much quieter. They charge more than usual for tea per person, and everyone at the table has to order it.
Overall, I was very pleased by the food given my expectations inside a mall — legit!

This location is located near Nordstrom on the 2^nd floor. I absolutely love these guys!
The food is always great tasting and filling. The Pad Thai and the shrimp fried rice you can never go wrong. The spicy red sauce that they use is really good if you want spicy, if you work in the mall there is a 15% discount.
Whenever I come here I definitely like calling ahead so that way I don’t have to wait for my food to come. They can have you food already prepared for you before you come which is great if you are short on time.
This place is definitely quiet and has a nice vibe from the rest of the mall. You forget for a moment you are in the mall sometimes. The reception in the restaurant is very poor and your cellular service and wifi is practically nonexistent when you sit in tables and booths in the back of the restaurant.