Dumpling Dumpling

they’re gone!!! bboooo… :(

went out of business.
the new place is called Café Orchid. Check my review

I saw the Grand Opening banner and wanted to try. If I knew they were owned by the same people as Shanghai Dumpling, maybe I would have think twice.
There was the round table of 6 and another table of 4. Our waiter was a jerk. Right after we ordered, he asked if we wanted anything because kitchen is closing — shouldn’t you tell me that before I sat down? It only got worse because they proceeded to sit a table of 4 and 30 minutes later a table of 2. Makes no sense. The other waiter tried to make up for it by offering us free desserts.
What we ordered:
stir fried shanghai noodle w/​spinach and pork slices — looked and tasted good
soy sauce duck feet — it’s the drunstick — tasty, thick sweet sauce
vegetarian goose — ok, a little stale
xio lung bao — pretty good, lots of broth — better than the sister joint
sesame mochi rice in ginger sweet soup — you can do better making your own by cooking up frozen ones (happy to share recipe — send me a message)
pumpkin cake w/​red bean filling — free — it’s ok

This place I either «under construction» or closed. The place was gutted when I went there and workers told to come back later.

This place has the best dumplings south of SF!
Does anyone know why they closed???

Their shanghai dumplings (xiao long bao’s) are better than the ones at Shanghai Dumpling on Broadway, even though it’s supposedly owned by the same people. The skin (or dough) does not seem to be as thick and chewy as the Broadway location. The meat, flavor and juices all stand out, not overpowered by the dough.
They don’t have the extensive shanghai breakfast/​brunch menu like the other location so don’t come here if you want that.
The other dish ordered was the shanghai spare ribs which were good and had a sweet tangy sauce to it. Their stewed pork dish looked good as well, but didn’t get a chance to order it. Maybe next time.
The staff speaks competent English especially when it comes to ordering food so unless your English sucks, they’ll understand you. It’s a chinese hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant, you can’t really judge it on décor or ambiance! sometimes you Unilocalers are a little snooty and expect 5-​star experience for 2-​star dining.
If you like Shanghai Dumpling House on Broadway in Millbrae, most likely you’ll like this.

Went with 2 friends last Saturday evening, after their massage therapist recommended this place. Even though I’m a local, I shot right past it the first time I drove by! It’s right beside where 76 gas station is, on El Camino Real. There is parking in the rear, which you access via a narrow driveway from El Camino.
We ordered xiao long bao, fish & tofu soup, Shanghai sesame pancake, Mongolian beef, Shanghai thick stir-​fry noodle, and soy sauce braised pork. The xiao long bao was quite good, the skin was just a tad thick but still has great texture. The filling is very tender and juicy with the right balance of pork and ginger. It’s much better than the ones at Shanghai Dumpling IMO. Fish & tofu soup was like a West Lake beef soup, but with fish, and it was also quite good. There was a fair amount of white fish meat and tofu in it, and they didn’t put in too much corn starch, which I like. The sesame pancake was outstanding. It’s more bread-​like, with bits of green onion and a crust of sesame seeds. I liked it more than the green onion pancake, which the owner gave us for free because the sesame pancake came late. The Mongolian beef was surprisingly good. The beef was not buried under mountains of vegetables like some of the other restaurants, and it was very flavorful. Unfortunately, the Shanghai stir-​fry noodle and the braised pork is what made me give 3-​star instead of 4. The noodle itself was good, but for the price I would’ve expected more than just the noodles… meat and veggie, maybe? And the braised pork definitely needed more braising… the pork was rather tough, and the flavor not fully developed.
One thing I will say, though, is that their service was MUCH better than Shanghai Dumpling Shop. The servers actually said «thank you»! Just that fact is enough to make me want to eat there again… Maybe try their weekend brunch next time.

hmmm.
There is a small parking lot, but this tiny restaurant is at the end of the strip. It’s slightly awkward, but don’t complain — THERE IS PARKING.
hot & sour soup — you can’t really mess this up. the shredded pork in it was a strange size though, and they use bamboo pith rather than bamboo shoots. i’m not a fan of the pith, it tastes like dirt.
xiao long bao (2 orders) — they’re a little pricey but i’m used to that in the peninsula. the skin is a tad too thick for my taste but the soup inside the dumpling was nice. The meat filling had a significant amount of ginger and the meat was finely chopped, very good.
onion dry noodle — braised ramen looking type noodle tossed with grilled green onions. although this is supposed to be a «dry» dish, it just means there’s no soup. it’s a tad on the greasy side but I rather enjoyed it. The grilled green onions were very sweet and complimented the al dente ramenish noodles perfectly. It wasn’t too heavy on the onion taste either.
our bill came to $ 27, not too bad.
The waitress was very nice, she checked up on us a few times and gave us pumpkin cake on the house.
pumpkin cake — it looks a strange orange dough but it’s not too sweet until you get to the red bean paste on the inside. extremely chewy though, and it sticks to your teeth. i’m not too fond of this but it’s not bad. i think if it were served in a smaller portion like a mochi ball, it’d be better.

PARKING IS IN THE BACK!
Several of the reviewers have already complained about the lack of parking when in fact the spacious lot is behind the building. Poorly designed I know, but it was probably designed to make the businesses more visible from the street.
Went there on a quiet weeknight, so there were only 3 tables eating including us. The xiao lung bao was on par with Shanghai Dumpling on Broadway. Also had their regular dumplings which were also quite good.
We recognized the waiter from somewhere and confirmed that this place shares the same owners as the place on Broadway. Not sure the mixture of ownership that would cause them to open a store so close to Shanghai Dumpling, use a different name, and in such as bad location.
The food is decent and worth going for once they work out the kinks in service. The location is just unfortunate and not set up for success.

dumpling is in a corner of a strip mall. the design of the eatery is pleasant but strained. seating is L shaped with the kitchen occuping the rest of the rectangle. because «dumpling» faces the bay, dumpling may be cold when the doors are left open.
typical pricey chinese menu.
samplings:
–xlb (8/6.95)lots of tasty soup inside, miniscule meat tender but tasteless and a little gristly. (same as shanghai dumpling on broadway) eric y. says the owner is the same as here. btw, no ginger in red vinegar.
–hainese chicken (6.50/lunch special) came with a cup of yellowish rice, garlic dipping sauce and a pile of chicken that was COLD-​refegeriator cold, not room temperature. ate a few pieces, tastless and took the rest home.
the rice tasted a mix of short and long grain rice, nice sticky texture.
chicken tasted like free range chicken but was chopped too finely to taste any chicken flavor. only an ominous odor permeated from the chicken.
2 stars is being overgenerous.
was there before the rusn so service: was not a problem.
no immediate parking in front. one needs to park at least a block away.

My friends and I came here a few days after the Grand Opening. I thought the most memorable items were the xiao long bao and fried onion cake. In fact, I like the xiao long bao here better than at Shanghai Dumpling. The wrap seems thinner and less starchy, which I like. The fried onion cake was unique because it was not the typical pancake kind, but more doughy, and piping hot! The least memorable item we had was the chicken noodle soup, which came with ramen and bland broth. The waitress was very attentive. She asked us for feedback on the meal, and if we would come back. My main advice is that they should expand the dumplings options, given their moniker. Anyway, I get the sense that they are trying hard to gain business. There is parking in the rear, btw. With some menu improvements, I would come back.

No one here speaks English well enough to talk about the food they offer. That’s not meant to be judgmental – it’s just a fact. I WILL say, however, that it’s annoying the the server pretended to understand what I was saying.
I got the Malaysian eggplant and the pumpkin rice. The eggplant is probably good, but it’s not, in fact, vegetarian – rather, it comes with pork and shrimp. I had asked to get pumpkin rice instead of the steamed rice that comes with the eggplant dinner plate (expecting to pay a bit more). The server just said ‘No.’ – and then ‘Ok.’ My plate was served with plain white rice, but then 10 minutes later I got served a full plate of pumpkin rice (at full price, of course). Hm…
I guess it’s fine. I’m a easy-​going guy. The pumpkin rice was fine. I scraped off the meat and tried some of the eggplant… it was fine, but reeeeeally oily.
With all the other places around, I’m not sure why I’d ever go back.

I’ve seen this actual building space go from a computer gaming place to a Tapioca Express to now what it currently is: Dumpling Dumpling. It sits in between a 76 gas station and a tattoo/​ghetto-​ish clothing place. Parking is limited to… I think 3 cars? The place is very small. We were seated towards the back where you can clearly see the bathroom and its men and women signs.
For a place named Dumpling Dumpling, I was not expecting much. We ordered a few plates and the food was okay. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. It was just good enough to keep eating so that you would be able to be full or close to it by the end of the meal.

Small restaurant in a small plaza next to Comerica bank and Aero Physical Therapy/
Good dinner tonight with mom and mom came away happy which is difficult.
We ordered XLB, beef noodle soup, pan fried rice cake, and green onion pancake…
Everything was prepared very nicely. The beef noodle soup was not oily and fatty. The XLB was great with all the soupy goodness still inside as i bit into the dumpling.
I’m surprised we didn’t get whiplash looking at all the good looking food other tables were getting as well.
We finished off with the pumpkin cake (mochi type dessert) which was incredible…
I’ll definitely be back to try their «regular» dinner items.

2 stars look harsh but when I think about it, «meh» would suffice for this place. It’s not bad but it’s not good either come to think of it.
The place is kind of a fleeting moment of a distant subliminal message when you whizz by on El Camino and Millbrae Ave. but if you’re unlucky enough to get stuck at that 4 min. red light, you turn your head to the «Grand Opening» banner and notice that ah yes, there’s a new Chinese dumpling shop in town, wedged between two already quite reputable dim sum shops.
At 7 p.m. there were no patrons in the tiny dining room and while I don’t mind being accosted with incoherent Chinese, when I wave my right hand while saying, «I don’t speak Chinese,» I kind of expect them to STOP speaking Chinese to me again. And again. And yet again.
The owners seem friendly and eager to get your business so I’ll give him high marks on that but he has no charisma when it comes to talking to his guests. He seems to have that new stockboy/​bagboy mentality when it comes to conversing with his guests. So much so that he didn’t even look up at me while I was ordering my XLB’s to go. Pity.
The XLB’s themselves were pretty soupy inside but dry on top which might be because of the 10 minute drive home holding a clear plastic clamshell container normally used for grocery store salad bars which basically didn’t hold any moisture in. Boo! Boo I say! Regardless of the dry exterior, the dumplings themselves were palatable and went nicely with the soy sauce but I noticed I wasn’t given any chili sauce (even though it was requested.)
I’d give the dumplings themselves a 3 and everything from the wholesale lot furniture to the Christmas lights to the 2 cooks in the back chopping mangos with machetes. Literally, a butcher’s machete. I definitely wouldn’t eat here and apparently, judging from what I saw during my 20 minutes inside, neither would anyone else.

small little mom and pop shop, so i just had to try it. we ordered the shanghai dumplings, shanghai fried thick cake noodles, and a hainanese chicken rice.
the shanghai dumplings came out last when they should have come out first. the skin wrapping the soup and meat was rather thick yet punctured somewhat easily. the pork filling was very tasty but lacked in the quantity of the soup.
the fried cake noodles had a main flavor of white pepper. as someone noted, it is oily. it wasn’t bad at all, but it wasn’t great either.
the hainanese chicken rice was nicely plated. sadly, it was not nicely palated. the rice was sitting on top of a brown star anise sauce that made all the rice taste like licorice. it was not fragrant as hainanese chicken rice normally is. the chicken was a tad bit dry but tasted like… chicken.
just ok… not so sure i’d come back.

newest addition to millbrae chinese dining… small shop restaurant taking over former boba tea shop… inside remodeled and cleaner in comparison… fairly extensive brunch to dinner menu… fried donuts to braised pork… order steaming dumpling tray… fairly good… ginger soysauce dipping… casing little thicker and pork little porky… decent dumplings in comparison… pickled vegetables and pork noodle soup… small sized bowl of ramen like noodles… decent after add of black pepper and soysauce… each roughly $seven…glance side table… tremendous orders observed… gigantic meatballs… large platters of braised soysauce pork… only $eight each… looking good for sharing… next time try with bigger group… serving still spotty… orders taking forever… mistake or two made, but corrections made… still needing some time to improve and get business moving smoothly…

I saw the Grand Opening sign while driving by on El Camino Real, and with a name like Dumpling Dumpling, just had to give it a try.
There is a tiny parking lot out front (two regular and one handicap stalls), but a slightly larger parking lot in the rear (~10 stalls). The access to the rear parking lot is a single lane that turns off El Camino Real, so I’m not sure what anyone would do if someone was trying to get in while someone else was trying to get out… luckily this did not happen to us today.
The menu is reasonably extensive. We only tried sunday brunch food, but there were plenty of other things on the menu. Specific comments on the dishes we ordered:
— sweet soymilk (tian do jiang) — pretty good, standard fare
— salty soymilk (xian do jiang) — didn’t have a lot of flavor
— chinese donut (you tiao) — fresh made and crisp, but very greasy (even more so than most places)
— deep fried onion cake (tsong you bing) — so-​so, somewhat bready
— bake sesame onion cake (tsong you shao bing) — very similar to the deep fried onion cake, just seemed to be cut in a different manner
— shanghai xiao long bao dumpling (xiao long bao) — these were pretty good! my favorite for the whole meal. one order has 8 pieces, and they were tasty and hot, with soup inside just like you expect
— pan-​fried beef bun (sheng jian biao) — a generous serving with 6 large pieces, reasonably tasty but also fairly greasy. it was the last thing to come out, and we were already so full…
Anyway, the prices were also reasonable (about $ 30 for all of the above). I would definitely go back for the xiao long bao, and would try other things on the menu, but otherwise wouldn’t order the same dishes again as today. Overall, three stars!