The "mother" in "Mother's Dumplings" is truly reflective of the homey feel of their food, for which I was grateful. Coming from the North York-Markham area leaves me really disappointed in the Chinese options downtown sometimes, despite living near a so-called "Chinatown", whose variety seems to consist of Vietnamese food and Southern Chinese cuisine in shades varying from gross to mediocre to okay.
So of course I was pretty excited when I found out about Mother's Dumplings, with advertised Northern Chinese fare and specialising in dumplings! I love my Cantonese dim sum as much as the next person but yay! finally some taste of home.
I wasn't disappointed. The interior and food actually reminds me of some restaurants I've eaten at in China. The food is also comparable -- not the best I've ever had, but a good an option as any in Toronto. You can taste the homemade-ness in these dumplings (in a good way). The skins are thick but not too thick and come in piles of 20 or something just like at my mom's dinner parties. The flavours they come in are also standard Northern Chinese fare, including my favourite (pork & chives) and my least favourite (dill). Their zhajiangmian is not bad and the scallion pancakes OK too, but the dumplings are definitely best.
The atmosphere is actually better than most Chinatown restaurants (not including the shiny new young people teashops of course). I mean, don't have crazy expectations or anything but there's space and a bit of decoration and colour. Service is OK -- what you'd expect from most Chinese restaurants. Nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. I once went their with some friends just when they were supposed to be closing (we didn't realise this since there were still people inside finishing up their food) and they took us in anyway and let us get in the last order.
So yeah, whether they compare to your own mother's dumplings (if she makes any) is probably dependent on your mother, but overall this place is relatively great!