Move over Stranger Things-induced 1980s nostalgia, because the ’90s are where it’s at. You can keep your Eggo Waffles, just give me Power Rangers, Heath Ledger, AOL and glitter on every surface.
Now that the kids who grew up crying while watching Dawson’s Creek are old enough to start their own businesses, it’s no surprise that Dope! Noodle and Dumpling Shop not only exists (exclamation point included), but is also thriving.
A restaurant for ’90s-kids-turned-young-professionals is smart. And Dope! is only open for the downtown lunch crowd.
The menu is simple yet playful, featuring dishes like Da Bomb Nutty Chicken Noodle, Notorious ‘Veg’ Dan Dan Noodles and the No Diggity Seared Lemongrass Chicken. The space is splashed with theatrical posters for movies like Braveheart and Austin Powers, but the theme almost didn’t happen.
“We were going to call the restaurant Little Huit,” says Kam Siu, culinary maestro and one of Dope!’s proprietors.
But when the restaurant was still under construction, a mural concept was created that featured a guy slurping down a noodle bowl with the word “Dope!” in a cartoon bubble by his head. When the mural was sent to Siu and Co., they figured the place was going to be called Dope!.
“It was a sign,” Siu says. “And so we arrived at Dope! Noodle and Dumpling Shop’s ’90s theme, too. I was born in 1981 and grew up in the ’90s. The pop culture stuck with us. ‘Dope’ was used for everything.”
If you recognize the name Huit, you may be a Cincinnati foodie. Dope! was created by the same team behind Asian fusion restaurants Huit, Lalo and the former Neuf. Dope! actually took over the Huit space on Court Street in a rebranding.
With the space available, the team pondered what to do next. When they considered the prospect of opening a dumpling shop, Siu said they all thought, “Sure, why not? Let’s give it a go.”
And away it has gone. When I stopped in to grab lunch, the place was bustling.
While Dope! features salads and rice bowls, the dumplings and noodles are where it’s at. I ordered the veggie dumplings ($6 for five) and Hella Spicy Miso Ramen ($8.50). The dumplings come stuffed with pork, chicken, veggies or shrimp and can be steamed or pan seared.
Dope! offers a variety of unique dumpling sauces to spice up your visit including hot chili oil with green onion slices, soy vinaigrette with pickled carrots, roasted garlic Sriracha aioli with cilantro, coconut peanut and gochujang honey.
I can’t stand a dumpling that is too thick to eat with chopsticks and explodes on first bite, but I didn’t run into that problem at all at Dope! — their dumplings were on the thin side and pan seared to a nice crisp.
The vegetables inside had a good flavor (which reminded me a little bit of pickled vegetables) and retained a bit of crunch. I opted for the coconut peanut sauce to dip. It had all the comfort of pad Thai with a nice coconut ring.
The Hella Spicy Miso Ramen was beautiful. There is nothing more comforting than a full bowl of ramen, teeming with vegetables, meats and eggs. The soup features large hunks of barbecue pork, which hold up perfectly against the excellent noodles and nuanced miso broth. The blanched kale and green onion were meaty enough to balance the pork.
I ordered a medium-level spice and it was just hot enough to get my attention while not being totally uncomfortable to consume.
Siu tells me that the Hella Spicy Miso Ramen has been one of the most popular menu items.
“We use a Japanese-style barbecue pork,” he says. “Twelve to 24 hours goes into that pork. Braising, marinating in a Japanese marinade for 24 hours. The Japanese soft-boil egg in the ramen is also marinated in the same marinade.”
It’s a symphony of flavor and texture in one soup bowl. The noodles reminded me of my all-time favorite Fortune Noodle House in Clifton, which specializes in hand-pulled Chinese noodles. There was a freshness to them that I haven’t found anywhere else in Cincinnati, and it’s amazing to get it in such a quick and cozy lunch dish.
If you’re like me and can’t finish a full bowl of ramen and dumplings for lunch, or if you’re ordering Dope! to eat later that night after the restaurant has closed, both the dumplings and ramen held up exceedingly well as leftovers. I wasn’t sure about microwaving the ramen’s egg and kale components, but surprisingly both were excellent. Dope!’s portion sizes are pretty big for lunch, so this is a win for leftover lovers.
The most nostalgic part of the ’90s to me, a certified ’90s baby, was how friendly everything felt in that decade. No problem couldn’t be solved in an hour or less, like an after-school special. The future was exciting, the internet was exciting, food was exciting.
And Dope! manages to bring that feeling back by creating playful yet delicious dishes in a genuinely welcoming environment.
Dope!’s staff even encourages people to bring in their own memories of the ’90s, because nostalgia is better when shared.
“We encourage people to come in, give us ideas, song selections, tell us what you want to hear,” Siu says. “Good food, good music, good vibes.”
Dope! Noodle and Dumpling Shop
Go: 29 E. Court St., Downtown;
Call: 513-381-4848;
Internet: dopecincinnati.com;
Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon-4 p.m. Saturday*.
*the print version of this story incorrectly listed restaurant hours as noon-4 p.m. Sunday
This article appears in Dec 6-13, 2017.