The food was reasonably tasty. The owner told me a couple of months ago that business was not so good. But if the city padlocked it, my guess would be health violations.

Went by this weekend and saw a notice that the restaurant was padlocked by the city....does anyone know why? I thought the food was alright for a quick fix.

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this is still my favorite description of any restaurant, ever.

i was there a few nights ago and usually i put up with the nonsense. but they are just out of control there I was a little buzzed so i found it amusing when the chef??? was screaming at the top of his lungs at the girl attempting to sweep the floor. I thought she was not going to react to his verbal assault but then (like all good ninjas) she launched a sneak attack scream right in his ear after she crept up on him. pure comedy

That gives me a great idea to bring a universal remote to the place next time and mute the tv myself. What kind of tv is it again?

Went there last week. The dumplings were watery and the sauce was way tooo salty. The tv tooo loud...just annoying.

yeah I still love the food but the last couple times I've ordered over the phone, they get distracted for 5 minutes while I'm waiting to place my order, and then it takes forever to arrive.

I stopped going there six months ago for the same reasons. It took ridiculously long just to get a small order of dumplings and I couldn't stand the baby drama. Also, it seems like the quality of the food has gone downhill. If I remember correctly, their dumplings were made fresh when they first opened, but then they fell back on boiling up frozen dumplings. I was tempted to ask them to just sell me the dumplings frozen and I'd boil or steam 'em at home myself. While I was waiting, I basically was jumping in to keep the baby from tumbling off chairs and table tops, and grabbing stuff like the stapler out of her hands. I get the impression that they're sort of counting on the goodness of customers to keep an eye on her and keep her from seriously hurting herself (though from snippets of the conversation I overheard, she had already taken a couple of hard falls).

I'm just surprised that they haven't been reported for child endangerment. The restaurant/kitchen is no place for a free-range toddler. I can sympathize that they're recent immigrants and child care is tough to find and probably unaffordable for them. But I can't see how the status quo benefits anyone. Customers are turned off and driven away, and the kid remains in a not-so-safe environment.

Agreed. It's a shame because the dumplings are actually pretty good and roast pork lo mein was good too. It has to be the most unorganized business I've ever confronted between slow service, indifferent attitude, inadequate facilities (sitting, non-functioning / dirty bathroom) and of course the child running around and disrupting patrons. Overall, very unprofessional thus the reason we too stopped ordering from there.

Funny story - I actually saw the women deliver food to a neighbor of mine with stroller and baby in tow.

I walked by it the other night and the little girl was making a break for it. One of the owners ran and grabbed her before she got too far down the street, but it seems like it probably happens pretty frequently.

I haven't been tempted to go back after my first visit. The family tableau was kind of novel as performance art at first but the baby screaming and crying was awful. Also it took about half an hour to get four dumplings, in large part because no one bothered to notice the completed order behind the counter for 15 minutes.

I haven't been back to this place since around New Years. I went for an early evening snack and it was a disaster. The whole place was filled with smoke, a TV was on blasting The Titanic while music was also being played, the little girl was running around offering us pieces of her dinner or just standing by our table staring at us, and the 2 plates of dumplings took about 30min to manufacture.

I was really annoyed that the guy at the register made no effort to control the child. We were obviously not amused by her.

It was open a few days ago. I love the wonton soup and dumplings--so good--but it's still a wacky scene.

Is this place still open?

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dumplings AND entertainment?
oh, man... i have got to go here. this place sounds like a much needed addition to the jc "scene"

i dont even go there for the dumplings anymore, the sideshow is worth the trip. the baby is awesome. my gf says its its like showing up at someone's house uninvited and asking them to make you dinner.

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I'm glad to see an innovative new business in the neighborhood, but no doubt people will complain about the baby flavored dumplings (Mmmmm...) and it will have to close. Bummer.

huh, I haven't been there for a while but when it first opened it was pretty good. Strange that it's gotten MORE chaotic as time has gone by.

I stopped in this week. It took 30 mins to fill my order, but that's actually not why I'm writing here. Like most have posted here already, it was pretty chaotic. The place is small, and it doesn't seem well ventilated. One employee thought it was a good idea to operate an industrial size vaccuum while I was there. Another employee swept the floor and then emptied the dust pan in a garbage can directly next to a counter where food was being prepped.

One employee (could be the owner) stepped outside to smoke. By outside I mean the doorway, meaning the smoke drifted into the small restaurant.

Most alarmingly and why I've decided to write this is that there was a baby crawling on the floor of the kitchen area. The negligence and danger should be obvious. (As an aside, if a restaurant can afford 10 employees working at the same time, it should be able to afford a babysitter.)

This place is a disaster. I'm worried about the child.

the food is legitimately awesome but every time I walk in there I feel like I'm walking straight into a movie

Went there the other night and couldn't believe how terrible the service was. Order took forever and there had to be about 7-10 employees walking around, going outside for smoking breaks, and watching TV. The owner is crazy paranoid with what is written online, so hopefully he's reading this site and makes some changes fast. Easily one of the most inefficient cluster-Fs i've seen in a long time (with the exception of Hard Grove on 5/5 - woof).

Ordered today online. I thought the food was great but the service abysmal.

It took nearly 2 hours for my food to arrive. I ordered through grubhub.com - grubhub were also shocked by the delivery time and they compensated me for the full cost of the order on the spot (kudos to grubhub).

I also discovered that D&Ds had substituted shrimp fried rice ($5) for my order of lobster tails ($13.50) without bothering to give me a call. When I called them, they claimed they had run out of lobster the night before. I admit they offered to send a replacement of my choice after I complained - but that was just rubbing salt in the wound in my view. Duckys were over 70 minutes late. Duckys tried to deceive me as a customer, when it would have been easier to give me a call.

Grubhub gets 5/5 for service. Duckys and Dumplings get 0/5. Cheaters don't win.

Funny that Kilgore should comment on the noise level.

I *just* walked by duckys and dumplings and could hear a male employee SCREAMING at a female employee as I walked by on the street. I even stopped for a while to watch as two or three customers uncomfortably watched the woman get dressed down.

The spectacle felt a bit like an SNL sketch.

This place has come a long way since they opened. They were terribly slow in taking orders, cooking, and delivery. Also they ran out of things constantly and all the staff yelled at each other constantly.

Now, food is prepared quickly, quietly, and excellently. Prices are dirt cheap and every thing I've had to date was delicious. Their soups really helped me make it through this bitter cold winter.

From the Village Voice:

Chinese-Dumpling Man Gets With the Kimchee-Taco Trend
By Daniel Maurer

All that talk of scallion pancakes got us hungry for them yesterday, so while visiting Jersey City, we skipped the Lucinda Creperie stand in favor of a take-out joint, Duckys & Dumplings, that has started serving kimchee scallion pancakes and kimchee avocado dumplings. The owner, Eddie Cheung, is Chinese, but tells us he gets about twenty pounds of Napa cabbage kimchee every week from a 60-year-old woman who grows it in the backyard of her Flushing home and supplies it to in-the-know restaurants. In the next week, he?ll start offering $2.50 kimchee tacos as well as ?kimchidillas,? made with avocado, tomato, cilantro, provolone, Cheddar, and mozzarella; both can be stuffed with either chicken or bulgogi beef. Cheung figures the Krave BBQ truck (the first to bring kimchidillas to the area) is only around from noon till 2 p.m. and from 5:30 till 8:30 p.m., so he?ll pick up the slack during their off-hours. Let the bulgogi battle begin.


http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2011/02 ... mpling_man_gets_with.html

you guys, we are talking about dumplings here, it's not a gourmet meal with a vast amount of ingredients. ducky's could use some organization and maybe a little more professionalism. but the dumplings are worth what you pay for them. the rest of the food is meh, and i wouldn't order sushi if they paid me, but i have to say, the kimchee and avacado dumplings may be the best i have ever had. they have made their way into my rotation of JC addictions, including: pork tacos and steak quesadilla (taq), shwarma and hummous sandwich (ibbys), maupau tofu and sichuan wontons (grand sich), mac n cheese (marco), and currywurst (beer garden).

just order them, it will change your opinion.

Ordered from there last week. Not good.

tried pork, veggie and chicken last night. all were good, actualy liked the chicken best.

what an experience though:

- hard to tell if their ventilation works, was pretty smoked out in there.
- pure comedy watching them try to pull a small section of ribs out of the freezer and cook in a toaster oven for a delivery order.
- baby in a crib crying the entire time I am waiting for takeout.
- guy at register sitting down, watching a russian vampire movie at max volume, eating a pint of ice cream.
- at one point all this is going on, including intense banging of cleaver trying to break down the ribs... and my order is sitting there finished but no one will hand it to me.

i did enjoy the food though! would go back... will wait outside next time though.

Tried this place last night. I can safely say I am never ordering from them again. This meal was worse than Taco Bell.

Pork dumplings: adequate, nothing special, a bit too salty.
Shrimp dumplings: completely f'n disgusting. No shrimp flavor, all salt.
Vegetable fried rice: completely bland, except for, again... a salt taste. The "vegetables" were a few meager pieces of cabbage and miniscule amounts of scallions.

The shrimp dumplings I threw out after one bite, they were completely inedible. The fried rice stayed in the fridge to be used later for an adequate stir fry with actual taste.

To be clear, I don't dislike salt. I use it in almost every meal, and I cook with soy/teryaki/hoisin/oyster sauce on a regular basis.

Great dumplings!!!

We got takeout on Saturday -- the food was definitely prepared fresh (I know because it tasted fresh and because it took a looong time to get our order... I recommend calling ahead).

I thought the dumplings were fantastic. We also had a couple soups which were decidedly meh. They tasted fresh and seemingly authentic, but had little flavor.

I'll definitely order from Ducky's in the future, but I'm going to focus on the dumplings next time and skip the soup.