Tong Dumpling Pot

They changed to selling congee /​porridge. No more dumpling at this place. Food is ok.

Their dumplings are good and it’s great that you can buy them togo however their service is horrible.
The younger workers here always seem so annoyed and definitely NOT thankful that you are shopping with them.
Makes me sad because the product seems to have a lot of heart in it, but the sellers seem to just hate being there which is what interfaces with the customer.
You can take a 30-​pieces or 50-​pieces. Forget about ordering the 30-​pieces because they’ll tell you they don’t have it with a pissed off look like you said something offensive.

Dude…
This place is closed!

Their dumplings are to die for!
The downside is that their staff is incredibly rude and are extremely grumpy. Although they only have dumplings in their Cupertino location now which is a bit out of the way, I don’t mind going there for my dumplings since the staff there seem to be a lot better at speaking with non-​Chinese speaking customers. This location definitely gets no love from me.
Go to the Cupertino location if you want great dumplings and you don’t want to be spoken to rudely!

I finally made it to Tong Dumpling Pot! I’ve been reading about this place ever since I moved to Cupertino. I knew it was in the Safeway shopping center area, but I never knew exactly where, so this weekend, after picking up my Greek yogurts, I decided it was time to go find it. They are actually located pretty far from Safeway, facing Miller at the far southern end of the shopping plaza. The restaurant is very small, seating maybe 25 people max. But I wanted my pork and chive dumplings to go, so that wasn’t an issue. I stepped up to the counter where several staff were making the dumplings fresh. One man was rolling out the doughy skins while two other women were using a spatula to get just enough filling for each dumpling! It was a pretty fascinating process to watch because they are so efficient.
At the cash register, the manager took my order for 12 freshly cooked pork and chive dumplings, and I paid him the $ 7.95 ($ 8.61 after tax). He said it would take about 10 minutes, so I had a seat at one of the empty tables and took at look at their to-​go menu. They serve a variety of other Chinese dishes, but I was only interested in the dumplings. I was pleased to find that they also sell frozen dumplings to go, 50 to each bag, with prices ranging from about $ 15.50 to $ 18 or so, depending on the fillings. And now they apparently also feature 30 fresh (not frozen) dumplings that you can pick up for about $ 12 to take home and cook for yourself.
I don’t think I will be returning for take-​out now that I know about all these other options. I don’t live so far away, and nor am I THAT lazy that I can’t cook these babies for myself. I just wanted to stop by and try them before committing to spending more. But now that I’ve tried their dumplings, I know they’re really good! My dumplings were perfect. They were piping hot, having just been cooked, and the skins were nice and chewy, but cooked all the way through. Also, they had so much juice on the inside! And the soup was very savory and delicious. I actually thought that the seasoning was so good, no extra soy sauce or hot sauce or sesame oil was necessary! They were kind enough to provide these babies in a styrofoam clam-​shell that was lined on the bottom with tin foil so the dumplings wouldn’t stick or get holes. And the pair of disposable chopsticks and napkins ensured that it was a quick and easy meal with minimal cleanup. Highly recommended!
Definitely come by during the weekdays for lunch where they feature a lunch special: Buy 12 dumplings and get a complimentary soup and side for free, so just $ 7.95 + tax and tip!

Tong’s isn’t the kind of place that you necessarily want to tell people about. It’s pretty tiny, and it would be terrible if couldn’t get a seat because people started talking about this place.
Tong’s is a bit non-​descript, nuzzled between a salon that is ready for Tabitha’s Salon Takeover, and a store that sells water. Or water filters? I’m not sure really. But tongs sells dumplings. Steamed or fried. Or frozen if you need to be able to satisfy a midnight craving. And they’re authentic, because every time I go, I watch a magical woman in a Winnie the Pooh apron fill the dumpling dough with precision that rivals a fine timepiece.
The dumpling filling has a great consistency and is nicely seasoned. And their green onion pancakes and dry fried green beans are some of my favorites in the area.
All this at a price that you just can’t beat.

As I’m of Chinese/​Taiwanese descent, I’ve always been a fan of dumplings so I came here one night to try their dumplings out.
First thing I noticed was that the room was a little cramped, but that’s okay. For such a small room, there’s not much that can be helped. My father and I were seated on the side of the room and were given menus and a hot pot of tea. Always appreciated! On a side note, I’ve noticed that most Chinese restaurants do this and if they don’t, I actually think it’s a little weird.
Well anyways, there were plenty of people inside for such a tiny restaurant but it wasn’t too cramped, which was a good indicator. We ordered a plate of pork and chive dumplings, green onion pancake, and a bowl of beef noodle soup, all of which were relatively cheap – about $ 7 each except for the green onion pancake, which was about $ 3(?).
The green onion pancake and the plate of dumplings came out first. Both were really fresh and surprisingly delicious! The green onion pancake was very rich, crispy, and full of flavor – very authentic and nicely done, though I thought it was a tiny bit on the greasy side and a tad thin. The dumplings were very authentic as well… I was actually very impressed! As a child, my favorite part of eating a dumpling has always been the skin, and Tong Dumpling Pot did not disappoint. Their handmade skin had the perfect amount of thickness and chewiness and reminded me of how delicious my grandmother’s hand wrapped dumplings are. If you’ve ever tried to hand wrap dumplings on your own before, you know how hard it is to get right, but Tong Dumpling Pot does well! The filling was all right, but it didn’t impress me like the wrap did.
The beef noodle soup came about five minutes later, and our waitress was gracious enough to give us a soup ladle and two serving bowls (again, very usual of a Chinese restaurant but still much appreciated). The soup was a bit bland and the beef was a little stringy, but I did appreciate the spinach and the quality of the noodles. The noodles were very «Q” – a Taiwanese way to describe the good chewiness of food – very reminiscent of my roots, and again, very authentic!
To wrap Tong Dumpling up, I’d say that it was an average Chinese restaurant with decent food and decent service. Not amazing, but not bad, either. I’d give it another try especially for the authenticity of the food… and especially for their dumpling skins.

I ate here last year in December, but since I waited so long before I could Unilocal this place, I actually couldn’t remember much about the restaurant. So in order to write a review, I decided to go back to this place again to refresh my memory!
This time, I made a mental note to remember our orders:
1. deluxe fried dumpling — best out of 3, probably cuz they’re fried, lol…
2. lamb boiled dumpling — I didn’t try this at all because I dislike lamb, but the 2 guys I went with tried it and said they were okay…
3. pork with green bean boiled dumpling — this was a little strange since I’ve never had dumplings with green bean inside. It was slightly sour (probably because green beans aren’t meant to be in dumplings) but okay overall…
4. green onion pancake — this was delicious! not sure if they make this themselves or it’s store-​bought though…
5. seasoned cucumber — this dish tasted like it was freshly seasoned and didn’t have time for the flavors to set in…
6. chive pie — this was delicious! I kind of wish each order was bigger since we had to split 2 pieces between 4 people… I guess we could have ordered 2 but then it would have been too much food!
7. zha jiang mien — this was pretty good also. not exactly what I expected since I prefer the Korean version but this was not bad at all.
I was very impressed with this place the very first time I went, but this time around, it was a little less so. The dumplings were very good, but some of the side dishes weren’t as good as I expected them to be. I wouldn’t mind coming back here again in the future if we ever felt like dumplings though!

WOW — ALERT!
This place just provided me a WTF experience and you should avoid this place after hearing my story because the management is a jerk.
Story:
My girlfriend and arrive at this place the day before Thanksgiving. My girlfriend has been going here off and on for awhile with her family and bring new people here.
It’s a mom and pop store that’s tiny but they serve fresh stuff. I love dumplings and I have always been happy to come to this place.
So we start ordering and realize they have nothing available. We order some of the dumplings but we want other stuff too because eating just dumplings is repetitive. We are nice, understanding and so is our waitress even though we are not speaking her native tongue.
So since they rejected all our choices, we go with just a fried dumpling dish. Trust me, it’s hard to sit and order things that they don’t have.
We look at the menu again (as it is sitting on a table nearby) and just feel out other options. We’re not angry or acting like jerks. We ask the waitress if they have another few items and he says they don’t.
We get the dumplings and they are good but we decide to order another order of it since nothing else is available.
Manager dude flips on us and acts like we just insulted him when all we did was just make another order. I think he did the math on our check already so he is pissed… anyway, we split because we didn’t like his atitude but he went off for no reason!
So my advice is this:
This joint has decent food but the manager is a jerk. Avoid this place to avoid his drama.
Don’t support JERKS.

This place brings me back to my childhood. As an ABC growing up in San Francisco, I remember my grandparents schlepping us onto the 31 Balboa to downtown and then onto the 30 Stockton for the hour long ride to Chinatown. We’d walk up and down Stockton Street buying the fresh veggies and fruits and socializing with the other older Chinese men and women along the crowded streets. When we were ready to eat, we’d find a hole in the wall restaurant with minimal seating, quick service and great food! Tong Dumpling brought back memories of walking into a hole in the wall place in Chinatown where none of the waiters spoke any English.
If you want dumplings, eat at this restaurant. If you want service, this may not be the place for you.

Maybe it’s just been a while since I last went to this place, but it seems like the menu has been expanded.
Went here with Catherine H. on a Friday night since we didn’t feel like eating at home, but didn’t want to have an elaborate and fancy meal.
The ambiance of the place reminds me of the many hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurants that I have been to in Taiwan where you have the bright flourescent lights, bare white walls, simple table and chairs, and a self-​serve generic fridge with sodas and side dishes. The only thing that was missing was the flies buzzing around.
In the past, I have always remembered the menu being all dumplings, with little else, but maybe I’m just getting old. This last time, there were quite a few rice and noodle dishes on the menu as well.
So we shared a plate of lamb dumplings, za-​jiang noodles (a little different from the korean version), and beef noodle soup. Yes, it was carb overload, but it was definitely good.
In the past, I have dropped by here to buy some frozen dumplings to take home and cook myself, and it has never disappointed. I took some home again on this visit.
Overall, if you come to this place, you really should focus all your attention on the food, and don’t worry about the ambiance since there is none here. The place is really cramped, so you get pretty good attention from the waitstaff since they are always no more than 5 feet away from you.
I’m giving it 4 stars mainly because I don’t give out 5 stars easily, and while I really like the place, and would easily come back for more, it just doesn’t have that extra something to warrant a 5-​star review.

It’s all about the pork chive dumplings for me. I think I could probably eat like 20 – 30 of them in one sitting. I’d probably feel super gross afterwards, but they’re so addicting!
I personally love buying the dumplings frozen so I can take them home and cook them at my own leisure. Midnight craving? How about a savory dumpling midnight snack! Don’t know what to eat for breakfast? Leftover dumplings!
The dumplings generally have really good skin. Not too thin and flimsy, not too thick. Just the right amount of chewiness.
The place is tiny, though, so I’ve actually never eaten inside the store. But still, pork and chive dumplings… mmm…

I came here with a big group of 8 people after spending the weekend camping at Big Basin. I wasn’t the one who ordered so I can’t comment on the rudeness of the staff. We didn’t have any problems. But then again we ordered a lot of food and only ordered once.
All the dumplings were really good. Maybe we were influenced by the camping, because everything tastes good when camping, right? However, we weren’t roughing it at all so it’s not like we were starving that day. In fact, we take camping as an opportunity to eat and drink a lot. So there was really no need to stuff ourselves after just having a late large breakfast. But those dumplings… so hard to resist!
Even better than the dumplings were the green onion pancakes. I could have eaten several platefuls on my own. Best green onion pancakes I’ve had so far in the Bay Area. Ditto on the dumplings. Better than Shanghai Dumpling King or San Tung in the SF.

Straight up this is probably mine and my family’s favorite dumpling place. We even buy the frozen dumplings to make at home pretty frequently. You can get the dumplings both pan fried or boiled and they come in a variety of different fillings. They’re all good in my opinion but I particularly like the deluxe filling ones. Aside from the awesome dumplings, they also serve a wicked onion pancake, decent noodles, and even have boiled peanuts. I don’t think there’s really anything else to want. The food is great, the service is very friendly, and pricing is very good.
If you’re in the area, this is where you should be eating or buying dumplings. Period.

I think I remember this place being better. One thing that’s still the same is their homemade noodles in their zha jiang mian. They are still nice, chewy and elastic, just the way I like it! The sauce, however, was too watery and liquidy and a little muddy in flavor. I would have liked a brighter, more refined sauce.
We also ordered three sets of dumplings: vegetable, pork and shrimp with chive. The skins were thicker than I remember (a little too thick for me), but at least they still had a chewiness to it. The fillings were all pretty flavorful. I like the vegetable one best since it has tofu and rice noodles inside. The shrimp one had nice chunks of shrimp with aromatic chive. The pork was flavorful and juicy.

Saturday evening with my parental units, and the place was full besides one table. So we luckily didn’t have to wait long, but there was steady flow of customers ordering to-​go and eating in as well.
We ordered 3 sets of dumplings, one with chicken, and two with pork, a green onion pancake (pipping hot, thin and crispy), and also some green beans. Yumminess! Good fresh made dumplings, though I’m not a big fan of the thicker flour-​y skin… that’s how you know it’s so fresh! That alone makes me all warm and giddy inside. :) I believe both this location and the new Milpitas location are closed on Tuesdays? Something like that, but please don’t hold me to it!

I have driven by this place a dozen or more times. Their banner always catches my eyes, so, on this fine day I decided to find out what all the fuss was about.
Since I was somewhat hungry, I ordered their beef noodle soup and an order of pork/​shrimp/​chives dumplings.
The beef noodles were a run-​of-​the-​mill noodles with nothing spectacular. What I do remember was that the noodles themselves were a little bit more chewy than I like.
Then the main event arrived, I was not expecting something spectacular, but, with the a name like that, they do build themselves up. They do make their own dumplings in house, so I know they are fresh. The filling was tasty, but the portion was small. I also found the skin/​wrapping to be a little thicker than I like.
All in all, A-​OK. Perhaps the dumplings will be better pan fried (50 cents extra).

My best friend visited me and wanted some really good Chinese so we decided to check this place out. It’s a tiny restaurant that reminds me of eating on Canton St. in Tsim Sha Tsui with her back in ’07 when we went to HK. It’s tiny, not fancy at all and has a «homey» feel in that you can see the women in the kitchen kneading dough and preparing food.
The service was good. The food… amazing. The green onion pancake changed my life. I almost shed a tear. So good.
As for the dumplings… delish! The shrimp, pork and chives ones were really good. My friend also ordered a vegetable pie that had an earthy fresh taste. The green tea made me feel soothed.
This is definitely a place to try for a great meal at a fair price. I really enjoyed it and I hope to visit again sometime soon.

I came here last week with my boyfriend for our usual Wednesday date night. The only reason I even found this place was because the vet I take my dog to is right next door. We ordered the seaweed salad, green onion pancake, one order of the deluxe (pork, shrimp, chives), and one order of the vegetarian dumplings (each order comes with 12 pieces).
Overall, the food was delicious! The dumplings were just the right size and very tasty. The food came really fast; we hardly had to wait. I preferred the dumplings with meat over the ones with just vegetables (the typical filling we use when my mom makes them at home is pork + chives), but I liked the fact that you can request these to be cooked either boiled or pan fried based on your preference.
I would definitely come here again, maybe to try some of their noodle dishes.
–L.

I really enjoyed this place because I think they have great dumplings and it’s such a cute hole in the wall type of place that you would not expect in a large Safeway and Rite-​Aid ridden parking lot.
The staff is very friendly because I think its definitely a family business, and these dumplings are made in house! Fresh dumplings taste miles better than any frozen panda branded food from Costco. They also have good soups and noodles, the basic staples of Chinese cuisine.