Fortune Dumpling

Not good. Food is greasy. Be careful when ordering fried pork dumplings. The pork was raw.

I’m sad to learned Fortune Dumpling has closed. They have great prices and delicious juicy pork dumplings, pan fried dumplings, beef rolls and shanghainese rice cake.
I’ve eaten here a few times and also have ordered take outs many other times.
Just too bad that Atlantic Time Square loss another decent restaurant.

I know restaurants in this hood come and go quickly, but I was disappointed to see Fortune Dumpling had closed.
Despite mediocre service and food that was only above average at best, there was a special place in my heart for Fortune Dumpling because I thought it had some really good valued lunch specials. ($ 4 XLBs at lunch!?) Plus, it was a nice, clean restaurant. Sadly, I never saw it full of people, so I’m not exactly shocked that it’s gone.
That said, I probably came here 5 – 6 times and almost all of those times were in the evening! I really liked their potstickers and various «special» dumplings, as well as braised pork belly dish.
But most importantly, there isn’t another dumpling place in this complex, so that’s why the generous stars.
Oh well, it’s closed now, so this review is written as a memorial tribute. Farewell, Fortune Dumpling!

Xiao Long Bao!!! (juicy shanghai pork dumplings) $ 3.99 dine in! (when order over $ 10.00). How awesome is that!!! Their xiao long bao is not as good as Din Tai Fung but. the line at Din Tai Fung is way too long. so if you don’t feel like waiting for that long line. Fortune Dumpling’s xiao long bao will suffice the cravings.
Their house special pan fried onion pancake skin with veggies, eggs, and pork all stir fried together. it’s also really really good. highly recommend that! it’s call «jia xiang chao bing”(in mandarin)
Beef noodle soup/​Beef tendon and beef stew noodle soup– very flavorful broth, the spices are just right. with the sour veggies.. perfect portion if you are super hungry. you can also share with another person if you just want to try it.
Beef Rolls– I prefer going to Noodle 101 Express for the beef rolls. The beef rolls here don’t have any flavor and it’s really dry. very little cilantro. hmm. just different.
Pork Rolls– (similar to beef rolls but just substitute with pork) — this roll is a bit better and there’s some spicy sauce that gives it a kick.
They also have BOGO boba. never had it before but I’m sure it’s decent.
This is the default dumpling location when I don’t want to line up at Din Tai Fung.
Located inside the Atlantic time Square. Plenty of parking. but parking can be pretty chaotic during peak hours. people go to the gym. dinner. etc etc.

PROS
*Fortune Dumpling is famous for its Fortune Dumpling Combo, which has been written up in various LA foodie publications and blogs. Although the dumplings tasted good, I’m guessing they get so much attention because of the presentation, which is a plate of bright green, orange, and magenta dumplings. Although I preferred the xiao long bao over the combo, I still recommend newbies try the combo at least once.
*Modern décor
*Boba special of 2 for 1
*Xiao long bao was tasty (Nothing is as good as Din Tai Fung, but the Fortune Dumpling xiao long bar were still worth coming back for)
*Shanghai rice cakes had a lot of vegetables and nice flavor
*Dumplings are made with homemade skins
*The price is inexpensive. I love the San Gabriel Valley!
*Free parking in the Atlantic Times Square garage
CONS
*IMO, none!

My favorite dumpling place!
There are too many Chinese restaurants in L.A. that attempts to serve authentic Xiao long bao.
This one does it right for the right price.
The quality and service are consistent every time.
And, it’s clean and spacious.

So it’s no Din Tai Fung but its close enough if you don’t want to wait.
I met my cousin and her daughter here for lunch. I got there around 11am and it was just opening and fairly empty. I got seated and asked for a booster and she brought it, in addition to a kids bowl and plate which I thought was nice.
My cousin had eaten there before so she recommended the salt and pepper popcorn chicken and the onion pancake. Of course we got the juicy pork dumplings (first batch is only $ 3.99). The chicken was delicious — not too flavorful or too fatty. The pancake was delicious, flaky and not oily like other places. The pork dumplings were nice and juicy, not quite as good as DTF but pretty dang delicious!
In the end the bill was just under 20 bucks, which rocks! Very satisfied and full from this place and will defintely come back!

Sis and I were in this area and decided to stop here to check out Daiso (the Japanese version of the .99c store) and to grab a bite to eat since I was starving.
So we walked around and settled on Fortune Dumpling b/​c 1) I was jonesing for ANY type of dumplings; 2) what a cute name and 3) they had a Xiao Long Bao special.
Here is what we ordered:
— XLB special: spend $ 10, get the XLB for $ 3.99 (10 pieces).
I cannot tell you HOW happy I was w/​the XLB here. Sis and I both thought they would suck b/​c the $ 3.99 price was crazy ridiculous.
But the XLB skin was so thin, so perfect. One of THE worst things that can happen during an XLB experience is seeing the skin broken and all the XLB soup running out before you have had a chance to eat them.
That didn’t happen here. I was so surprised. Each piece retained it’s own soup to the very end. The ground pork mixture was nice and the soup was ‘burn your mouth’ hot.
— Green Onion Pancake $ 3.75
This is a staple thing to order every time we go out. It’s our gauge to see how good a restaurant can be.
Sis liked this but I found it to be very bland. It was made really well: flaky, crispy, layered. But I wish they added more salt and sesame oil.
— Panfried pork dumplings $ 6.50
There were 10 pieces. I believe the skin was hand made. I wasn’t a fan of these dumplings. The skin was too thick. It reminded me of flour tortillas. And the pork filling wasn’t great. The dumpling left a strange after taste in my mouth for some reason. I couldn’t pin point why.
— Braised pork belly with bamboo shoots $ 8.75
I’m a fan of pork belly — especially if it’s prepared Taiwanese/​Chinese style. Brings back memories of my childhood eats. The pork belly was indeed fatty. Almost too fatty but manageable. I didn’t like the soy based sauce that covered the belly though.
— Fried garlic spareribs $ 7.50
This is their version of the salt and pepper fried spareribs. The spareribs had a nice amount of fat and cartilage to it. And I loved the seasoning they used for the ribs. It wasn’t just salt and pepper. We tasted garlic powder and maybe cumin? The taste and smell of these fried spareribs reminded me of the street food in Taiwan that I would get.
Overall, the meal was ok. I thought the $ 33.24 total wasn’t bad. I would come back solely for the XLB though.

I went to this place with my friends who had been going for some time. They love the quite a few things on their menu so they come back when they are craving.
Unfortunately for me, all the dumplings on their menu have pork or seafood in them, except for their veggie dumplings. Since I don’t eat pork or seafood, I was stuck with the veggie dumplings. They were not that great. I was disappointed. But — since my friends have a list of items they always order, got to enjoy the green onion pancake and this burrito looking thing that has beef in it. The salt and pepper chicken is also great. it’s basically a simple popcorn chicken. Next time I’ll have to get the chicken wings instead of those veggie dumplings.

Their beef noodles way too oily…
Fortune Dumpling, your Xiaolong Baos are still great, however, your beef noodle sucked. I was really disappointed when we got our food.
Ordered.
Braised beef tendon and meat noodle —
The noodle did not look like it got rinsed over water to washout the starch because the noodle came out partly stuck together. Ugh… and the soup was just way too oily. I love eating preserved veggies, but after seeing the amount of oil on top, I gave up trying to eat the veggies. Ate everything else but the broth :(So sad… the broth was suppose to be the best part!
Mapo Tofu —
Boyfriend wanted it since he couldn’t chew well yet. Tastes bleh… I think I would prefer getting this dish at a Chinese Restaurant. Couldn’t taste any taste other than the spicy.
Xiaolong Baos —
Only dish that came out good. Came out with a dish of vinegar and slices of ginger. I have no complains on this. Very juicy!
Overall, I had to take a star away. Oily food = yucks I would much rather stick with the Xiao Long Baos

Since we didn’t wait in line for all the popular restaurants in Alhambra on a Friday night, we came here and got seated pretty. We did drive around for 7 minutes before we found parking in the underground parking lot.
Ordered:
1. Juicy Pork Soup Dumplings– Broth and meat content was good though the ground up (vs. smooth) texture of the meat was less preferred.
2. Shrimp, Pork, Leek Dumplings– Good.
3. Pan Fried Pork Dumplings– Meh. Content was ok. the dumpling skin was too thick and it was fried crispy the way I like it. Interestingly, they roll them up like tacos.
4. Jia Jian Noodles– Sauce is pretty tasty though wish it had more meat and tofu.
Very affordable.

3.5 stars… but I’d probably go here again if in the area.
My brother had been here before and recommended it for our family dinner. I love dumplings and beef wrap, so I was excited about this place. I had looked on Unilocal before and noticed the under 4 star rating, but was still excited and hopeful.
To start off, this place is serviceable as a dumpling place. I still (as of the time I’m writing this review) preferring 101 Noodle House in Irvine (see review). But this place was decent. They have your XLB (first batch of 10 is only $ 3.95… regular $ 6.50 after that). Tried their pork n’ leek… decent (but nothing to rave about). Also had to try their multi-​colored ones. Spinach (green), Beet (red), and Carrot (orange). The spinach and carrot have pork… the beet has chicken inside. They were decently flavored.
Ones I was so-​so about were the fish dumplings. The cod dumplings I will not try again next time. The sole w/​leek was better tasting.
Beef wrap experience… *shrug* eh! It’s interesting b/​c they use braised beef instead of those sliced kind you find in beef noodle soup. That’s actually pretty good. It’s the use of the lettuce inside that was not really cool with the taste. I also love the green stuff they have at 101 Noodle House, which this place didn’t have (sorry, don’t know what that stuff is called, but it’s BOMB).
Also, tea is priced per person… just a little tip.
It’s cool that they take reservations. Wasn’t crowded when we went, but able to reserve is always a plus. The acoustics there are very echo-​y… which was not good b/​c we had some loud kids behind us. Other than that, this place is pretty cheap for a dumpling place… but there are probably better tasting places elsewhere. Still worth a try.

I eat like a white person. the dumplings, some stringy noodle thingy and pork appetizers were great! It’s Taiwanese style chinese so they use short grain rice and actually use good quality tea.
Underground parking is large and complex so take a pic of our car and the location of where you left it as it took me 45 mintues to find my car.

I don’t know what happened here but something changed from the last time I came here till now, and it’s not a good change.
FOOD QUALITY:
What was a good XLB turned into a lump of grainy ground meat. The taste was absolutely fine but how the heck did they prepare the meat such that it was like eating chunks of sand? Same with the fried dumplings too! What happened!
Jia Jiang mien! Texturally correct but where was the flavor?! Only thing I could taste was the mushrooms, even with all that sauce. What made it worse was that I put the hot sauce in, but that didn’t even change the taste of it either! Ungh! ⁰⁄₅
You know it’s really bad when you actually go to another restaurant just to get some more food to eat NOT because the previous one served too little food…

Located near the main street of Atlantic. This place is of decent size and very clean. We came here for lunch and it was crowded. Because of the large windows in this establishment, during the day, it is very bright.
Service was okay, not too bad. You definitely have to flag down the servers/​waiters running around.
Quality isn’t as good, compared with say. Din Tai Fung. Prices are cheaper so it was kind of expected. Don’t get me wrong but the food was still good.

I could see why this place garners a three star rating as the food isn’t amazing and the atmosphere isn’t amazing and there’s just not that hype factor you feel at some other places but my experiences have been quite good here.
I usually get the Beef noodle soup here or some variation of that with a pallet of juicy dumplings. I find both to be good sized, good priced, and quite tasty. Service isn’t amazing but the place usually isn’t crowded so it’s not too difficult to flag down a server.
I like the décor of the place and it fits in quite nicely with the rest of Atlantic Square. For a dumpling place it’s dumplings could be better but I rate the place as being very solid and very reasonably priced. I think it’s compared harshly as compared to Din Tai Fung or some earlier failures, but it has picked up it’s game and you can avoid the big lines and prices of DTF.
If you want solid noodle soup and dumplings in the Atlantic Blvd. region, this is a very good choice my friend. Also TenRen, Phoenix, or Half and Half are walking distance afterwords :).

Went on a carb overload here after a decent workout at the gym next door. I was surprised that I had to wait a little bit on a sunday afternoon around 2pm. But it wasn’t too bad. Quickly sat down, looked at the menu, exactly what I have expected from a chinese place like this. The menus we got were inconsistent with pricing and dishes. We didn’t care and just ordered whatever we wanted to eat without thinking about the price.
Got the 3 treasures (red/​green/​orange) dumplings. They were just ok. The one with seaweed was kiinda bad, i didnt like it. But if you like seaweed, you might like it.
The potstickers. Probably the best thing we had there. Full of flavor and the texture was good. Crispy outside, and delicious insides.
Xiao long bao (XLB) aka juicy pork dumplings, the inside filling was delicious. The skin isnt up to par with Din Tai Fung (DTF). Just like any other XLB, you best eat it while its hot. Dont let it chill. All the juices will dry up.
Also got the flaky hand tossed pancake, it was pretty good. But then again, kinda hard to mess this up.
The wintermelon tea was kinda too sweet. But it was good when you eat it with the hot sauce on the table. I haven’t tried their regular dumplings yet, but when I do… I’ll update and rereview this place.

Came here for lunch and tried the xiao long bao, green onion pancake, beef roll, and beef noodle soup. They had a special where you get a free order of red bean xiao long bao if you spend over $ 20. That special had ended by the time I went back to try their dumplings.
The xiao long bao was good with a thin shell and a decent amount of soup. The filling was very soft and white rather than pink at most other places. The beef roll had too much sauce in it so it made the roll kind of soggy but it is big and comes in 6 pieces. They use thick noodles for the beef noodle soup. The dish has a lot of noodles in it or maybe it seems that was because the noodles expanded and absorbed all of the soup. The red bean xiao long bao also had a nice thin shell and was not too sweet. I liked it but my friend didn’t care for it.
I know xiao long bao is not the specialty here but the pricing and ambiance begs for comparison with din tai fung in Arcadia. For the money, din tai fung is better. Compared to other Taiwanese restaurants, you can get better food for your money. All of the dishes here are $ 2 higher than most Taiwanese restaurants. I prefer the following: beef roll at 101 Noodle Express, beef noodle soup at Noodle King in Alhambra, and xiao long bao at Mama Lu’s in Monterey Park or Mei Long Village in San Gabriel.
Update: Tried the dumplings and they are very good. They are very juicy. They have different flavor/​color shells but they all taste the same to me.

I had been waiting forever for this place to open. And then it did, and I found out this is the new location and name for Dumpling 10 053. Yay! Double winner. I liked 10 053 a lot because it had the largest variety of dumplings around and tasty. So it’s great that it’s now in this larger, new space.
This visit, we had the house special dumpling: pork, crab, sea cucumber. Really good. Excellent flavors.
Beef noodle soup: in Chinese, the description is beef, not beef stew. Usually that would mean sliced flank steak. But it turned out to actually be beef stew noodle soup, thank goodness. It was very good. Heavy on the five spice, but still very good. My only complaint is there’s not enough broth. I had to conserve broth with each spoonful to make sure I’d still have some at the end. They serve it in a modern style bowl that’s angled at the top. I’d rather they serve it in a large regular bowl so they could put more broth in it. I like my soups brothy!
Prices are great! A lot of dishes at $ 6.50. Tea is free! Our waiter spoke Cantonese! All was good.
And btw, for crying out loud, people, this place does not claim to specialize in xlb. They have it on the menu, but it’s their other dumplings that are the focus. Get over your xlb fixation and stop judging every restaurant that happens to serve it, by that one dish.

Found out that Dumpling 10 053 has relocated into this new residence/​shopping mall on Atlantic Blvd. Though Dumpling 10 053 has now gone through 3 different owners I was pleased to find out that the 2^nd owner decided to reopen here.
After having driven by a few times to see people inside, I finally got word that Fortune Dumpling was officially open for business. Decided to come here for lunch with some friends today.
Arrived early and was quickly seated at a big round table near the window. One thing different now is that they don’t offer you tea and is now listed on the menu.
Appetizers:
We typically order the marinated spicy cucumbers
and also the shredded bean curd. Was disappointed to find out that they ran out of the bean curd today. The cucumbers were tasty and had a slight kick to them.
Pork, crab and sea cucumber dumplings (I believe they are #4 on the menu)
. These are the best dumplings in my opinion and are also what made the original Dumpling 10 053 famous a few years ago. Don’t let the sea cucumber dissuade you from ordering them as they are tasty! Mix a small dish of hot sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar to dip these bad boys in and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how well the 3 ingredients compliment one another. The sea cucumber literally has no taste and only adds a unique texture to the filling.
Xiao long bao
. I still prefer the xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung or at Mama Lu’s but these don’t disappoint.
Pan fried pork dumplings
. Probably the worst dish of the meal as they could’ve been pan fried longer. I noticed a few tables over that other patrons dumplings were crispier (color of the dumpling skin was darker).
Fried pork chop
. I remember these tasting better at the other location as it seemed as though the pork chop wasn’t marinated or seasoned as well. Still tasty but I remember them being better.
Perhaps this location still has some settling to do, I am still pleased with the food they offer. Will be back to try again to see if they have made any improvements on a few of their dishes.