Family Dumpling House

The «Paw-​Paw» of Family Dumpling House was the nicest and sweetest person alive!
We ordered the pork and bak choi dumplings boiled and pan fried. We also had the corn flour steamed dumpling, hot & sour soup and a bowl of noodles which were all delicious.
Didn’t realize that this was not Mother’s Dumplings until I read the reviews here! No regrets in coming here though and ended up coming here all three days of our three day trip to YYZ. «Paw-​Paw» treated us to lunch on our last day here before our flight, so NICE of her!

there is considerable drama surrounding family dumpling house, and mothers dumplings. with their identical menu (read: word for word, exact same), same signage, and the fact that family dumpling house moved into mothers dumplings old location…
but here’s what really matters: the dumplings are so phenomenally delicious !!! thin dough surrounding the juiciest pork and chive mixture, coming straight from the steamer. honestly i think these were the best dumplings of my life (and i have had my fair share). one of the best parts was the the pork and chive filling was not a giant lump that if you bit into the wrong way falls out of its too thick dough covering. not here. these dumplings had great texture and we just oh so tasty. ohhhh how i wish we had tried more of these dumplings. (sadly, we had 3 other meals to eat that day…)
we also tried the scallion pancake. i would leave it in exchange for more space for dumplings next time !! the family that runs this shop is overly attentive and eager to please, show up hungry and you will leave happy :)

Ahhh! The same thing happened to me as Wayne C. I was trying to go to Mother’s Dumplings but ended up at Family’s Dumpings! As we were the only people in the restaurant at 3pm on a Saturday, I wondered to myself how many others were tricked to eat here… but all was not lost because this place wasn’t too shabby! Biking along Spaldina the same day we happened to come across Mother’s Dumplings and decided to have a second dinner!
Things Better at Family Dumplings:
1. Pancake beef roll — not as dry as Mother’s, thicker pancake with better texture, beef was more flavorful and again had better texture
2. Service — the server reminded me of a Chinese grandma: welcoming, eager to please, very vested in her food, ready to give suggestions on what to eat based on your mood. However, I don’t think she speaks English. Welcoming us first in Cantonese, she switched to Mandarin as we found a common dialect we could communicate in.
Things Better at Mother’s Dumplings:
1. Soup buns (xiao long bao (xlb)) — at Family Dumplings the skin was too thick and there wasn’t enough soupy goodness inside. Mother’s xlb’s skin was a perfect thickness/​thinness and the the bao was juicy.
2. Unique food pairings — At Mother’s I really enjoyed the pork and pickled cabbage dumplings made out of wheat flour. I expected to like the dumplings because I like everything the dumpling is made out of. First dumpling I ate, I thought… eh, it’s okay. Second dumpling I ate, I thought, actually this is pretty good. Third dumpling I ate, I thought, wow, I really like this! We ordered the lamb shu mai, but they ran out, it’s something different and interesting that I wished I could’ve tried!
In the end, I would rather eat at Mother’s Dumplings than Family Dumplings… but if you end up at Family Dumplings all is not lost!

I followed the Unilocal address for Mother’s Dumplings and found Family Dumpling House instead! Like one of the Unilocalers on the Mother’s Dumpling review wrote, the NEW address is 421 Spadina however 79 Huron St. has Family Dumpling House.
From the reviews for Mother’s Dumplings, it almost seems IDENTICAL in every way when I visited FDH. Menu is 90% the same, the staff is probably different and I could have told you if I’ve been to Mother’s before but I haven’t.
I have to agree with a previous Unilocaler that the steamed dumplings were DRY on the inside which is unusual to me personally, but I did enjoy the dumpling skin which even when sticking with each other inside the bamboo steam tray I was able to remove it from each other without breaking the skin on every attempt.
The assorted salad side dish was nothing out of the ordinary from other Northern Chinese restaurants either. We got the Vegetarian Steam, Pork & Chives Boiled, Chicken Cabbage Mushroom Boiled. I enjoyed them just like I enjoy the frozen ones I get from a Dumpling place in Scarborough.
I’m a NOODLE guy so we got the Beef Noodle in Clear Broth, and the Da-​Lu Noodle (Egg, Pork, etc…). The Beef Noodle was good in terms of Beef and Broth but the Noodles themselves where a bit more doughy and undercooked than what I’m used to.
The Da-​Lu Noodle was good in a way where it’s less SALTY than the ones I’ve had so I can taste the flavours of Egg, Pork, Pickled Cabbage, Sauce, Cilantro, etc… My friend and I were tasting it and tasting it to find out what the base was and I found it to have the Peanut/​Sesame flavor similar to Dan-​Dan Noodles.
For the 6 of us the bill came to $ 56+, so around $ 10+ per head with tips which was definitely a VALUE. The young waitress and the older lady were very FRIENDLY and always topped up our teapot.
It’s a good thing I asked if I’ve ordered enough food, because I was about to order less than what we had. I could have eaten HALF of the order myself if I wasn’t so busy chatting with friends. Next time you can ring me up for $ 25+!