Dough Zone: review

This is a review of the Dough Zone restaurant in Seattle's CapHill neighborhood.

I went to this place a month ago with friends SK and AS.

Ordered a bunch of small plates, seven or eight of them between the three of us, and the total bill including a small bottle of rice wine was solidly in the mid-twenties, after the tip. Which is an amazing deal.

It can probably be described as a corporatized but not fully Americanized introduction to Chinese dumplings, and chinese appetizers and snacks. Think of this as being to Chinese food in America what TGIF is to American food in China. It's not exactly wrong or inauthentic, and the food items are great, but with the overly corporate vibe of the place, and a menu that seems to talk down to the patron a little bit -- specially in a city like Seattle, with it's Asian history -- the place feels a bit too quaint, cute even, in how hard it's trying to fit in.

The dumplings were all good, as always it's not too hard to get simple veggie dumplings produced in large quantities wrong, the sauces were decent. Appetizers were pretty good -- smashed cucumber in garlic sauce was particularly memorable, but that's about it. We were seated on the outside patio, and it was getting dark and cold quick, there was a point when we almost regretted being seated outside. But it wasn't their fault, we requested to be put outside.

If I had to be really ungenerous to it, I'd say it's the Chinese/Asian restaurant for the sort of people who're unsure or afraid about going to Chinese/Asian restaurants, but really want to try something beyond the typical Chinese-American fare found in boring old takeout places. It's a decent place, I have nothing against it, just a tad boring and uninspired.