Ling Long

"Good points : food comes out fast, relatively inexpensive, restaurant looks clean, and the people are nice like a mom and pop shop. However, the flavors are underwhelming. Everything we tried lacks a uniqueness that makes you want to come back for more. Not trying to be mean... but to me it felt like the food was made by someone at home strictly following a average recipe they found online. I would suggest to the restaurant to add chili oil and vinegar to the condiments selection."

"As I still sit here at my table, I'm delaying my departure in hopes a different staff member will talk to me. I ordered beef noodles and pan fried buns. I received pork noodles instead. I was okay with it but a bit disappointed with the lack of flavor and sides that typically accommodate. As I neared the completion of my meal I noticed a hair hiding in the noodles. I took photos and moved it to the rim of the bowl to show an employee who was walking around. He quickly said "sorry" and quickly walked away. I understand things happen but the customer service was the ending point for me. I'm from out of town and tried a few other places that were incredible! I saw the reviews of this place but unfortunately I had a bad experience. Back to Cooking Girl I go, that place was unbelievably delicious!"

"Yummy dumplings! Dumpling wrappers nice and chewy, cooked well with a good crisp on them. We had pork and chicken and both were great. Dumpling sauce was good too. Wait was a bit too long, we got there at 11:30am on a Friday and probably waited 20 minutes for our meal. There was no one else there, so it felt like a long wait. I know dumplings take time and they were generally worth the wait, but it was a deterrence from the experience."

"Ling Long has a simple but elegant menu. Every item we ordered was made extremely well. The ingredients used were of top quality. After dining there you will feel ready to go about your day and not lethargic at all. The chicken dumplings and chicken noodle soup are flavorful and excellent in your stomach. The tea egg and egg drop tomato soup were new items to try out. Remember to ask for the chili oil and the white pepper powder! The aesthetic and ambiance is welcoming and cool. There is actual artwork on their walls. The service was excellent, very friendly, and helpful. Would most definitely recommend to anyone in the area."

"Ling Long is a place that's quite affordable yet tastes... imperial. That's the best word I could come up with for it. It's one of those specialized-menu places that only have one or two real dishes, but do what it does quite well.These kinds of restaurants are very popular in Asia, yet for some reasons everywhere in the States seem to go the opposite direction, with as many items in the menu as possible. In any case, Ling Long's food is very simple, yet warm and filling. I usually grab a bite of each dish first, so I have some reviewing material, before finishing the dishes that don't store well for my dinner, and then refrigerate the rest after I'm full. But the chicken noodles broth was so good, it just kept me chowing down the bowl and forgetting this strategy. It's very warm and light, yet has a surprising depth of flavor. Exceptionally creamy, yet not sweet. And the amount of chili oil used is just enough to give it nice floral notes without becoming pungent. I normally am not a broth person, I care more about the toppings and the chicken does its job very well, but in this case it's truly the broth that's the star of the dish. The egg-tomato soup is similarly warm, light and aromatic, yet thick. It clearly uses a lot of sesame oil, yet never to the point where it overpowers the tomato flavor. If anything, it felt like I'm eating a traditional Saigon crab soup but instead of crab it's tomatoes instead. Together with the chicken noodles, these two dishes made me feel I'm inside a palace. Better yet, I'm inside a CHINESE palace. Good stuff. I actually didn't feel either way about the pork dumplings. On one hand the meat filling is pretty flavorful, on the other hand it's too doughy for me. If only the skin was thinner... The tea egg is also good, goes well with the leftover broth and I can see why tea egg noodles is a menu choice. Not sure how to describe it, though. It tastes like any other hard-boiled egg, but the tea mellowed out the harsh taste of the yolk and gave the whites some earthy flavor to balance it, I suppose. The egg tarts are egg tarts. Not gonna say too much about them. All in all, Ling Long is a solid A tier. The menu is limited, but sh- if you are looking for some soup then you'll get QUITE some soup. Actually GOOD restaurants are surprisingly hard to find in Houston, so I'm glad to have found something that's not only great but is close to my home too!"