Dumpling Home

Our meal was well worth the wait! Highlights were the juicy pork pan fried dumplings and mushroom boiled dumplings. Both of those were exceptional! The 炸酱面 were okay, but not the best. I’d definitely stick to the dumplings. XLB were delicious too, and there’s a convenient soup spoon that makes eating them super easy! We were seated quickly as a party of 2.

Wow wow wow. Everything we ordered was fantastic! The baos were bursting with flavor and had such thin skin. The Dan Dan noodles were bouncy and chewy. The chicken wings had such a crispy and light coating but drenched in such a sticky sauce. We will definitely be coming back on our next trip and will highly recommend to all our friends.

Food 9/10 Definitely get the 生煎包 aka pan-fried dumplings. The pork ones are the OG, and they literally tasted exactly like home. I really missed Shanghai after this meal, but the meal itself was super heartwarming and made me super full. Definitely ask for chili oil to pair with them. We also got the pork and crab soup dumplings, but I think those could be skipped. The flavor of the soup inside them just wasn’t even close to the pan-fried ones, so that left me a bit disappointed. The green beans are fine and a good way to balance the copious amounts of dumplings we were inhaling. Atmosphere 8/10 A normal Chinese restaurant I guess Service 8/10 Very sad we arrived and waited around an hour before our time on the waitlist came to be. But it was worth the wait. I don’t mind. Service is solid, but we were starving at that point, so whenever we saw a plate of dumplings go by and swerve to another table, we got sad.

I’ve been to a decent amount of Dim Sum restaurants both in the Bay Area and outside and while this is not a “traditional” cart dim sum style restaurant - the food is wonderful and the flavors are spot on. The ambiance is so so but everything else more than makes up for that. I would say that ultimately this location is currently tied as my favorite SF dim sum spot with Yank Sing.

My friends and I got there half an hour before they opened on the weekend, but there was already a line forming outside the restaurant. The line was really big by the time the restaurant opened. Dumpling home has both indoor and outdoor seating areas. We tried their following items from their menu - 1. Numb and spicy pork XLB 2. Pork XLB 3. Green onion pan cake 4. Seasoned beef with special sauce 5. Dry shrimp egg and chives pockets 6. Pork bao 7. Ginger and green onion noodles 8. Pork and vegetable pot stickers 9. Seasoned beef pockets 10. Thai iced tea Let me start by saying that the food was overall delicious. The XLB soup was very flavorful, and the pork filling was juicy and soft. There was a decent amount of soup inside the XLBs. They also provide you with a soup spoon so its easier to break open the XLB without spilling the soup. The numb and spicy pork XLB wasn't really spicy at all. The covering of the XLBs was firm enough not to break that easily when grabbing it, but it was slightly thicker. The green onion pan cake was very thin and didn't have much flavor. The seasoned beef and seasoned beef pockets are exactly the same thing, except one comes with pockets, and the other doesn't. The beef was a bit dry, and the oil/sauce it came with was a saving grace. It's better to order one of the two dishes (seasoned beef or seasoned beef pockets) because they taste exactly the same. The ginger and green onion noodles were slightly firm and quite flavorful. Shrimp egg and chives pockets were pretty decent, too. The service was fast. A little more attention from the serves would have been nice (nothing serious), but the place was packed, so I understand. I mostly came to get my XLB fix, and I wasn't disappointed.