Dumpling Zone, SF (thanks for the tip @hyperbowler !).
SJB were fantastic, crispy bottom, juicy rich savory broth. Big Plate Noodles (Chicken) with excellent hand made thick noodles to absorb the numbing Sichuan peppercorn sauce was great, but I would have like some veggies other than just onion and green peppers ( many places use potatoes in this dish). Green onion pancake was fine, not too greasy but could have been flakier. Vegetable dumplings were good. Har gow was OK, not a ton of shrimp. I thought the XLB were excellent though, thin wrappers that didn’t break, good amount of well balanced broth and tender pork. The spicy XLB had the same Mala flavor as the big plate chicken. Super friendly staff. Great addition to the area, I hope they stay around as that seems to be a cursed restaurant space.
The big plate chicken look great! Was your meal a good portion for two people?
Yeah, the location is weird but it was easy for me to park along the street, so that’s a major perk. Glad to know the veggie dumplings are good— along with some vegetarian appetizers, that’ll make it easy for me to convince the family to lemme order stuff via DoorDash.
The man who works the front of the house was most excited about the Shaanxi noodle dishes. He said those are popular now in Shandong, where he and the chef are from, and distinguish their menu from the other local restaurants where they’ve previously worked. He said that the Special Fish dumplings are the one menu item more traditional to Shandong.
The sour spicy dry noodles are a broth less version of saozi mian. The house made noodles were chewy, and covered in a salty and sour sauce made with snippets of pork belly along with cubes of potatoes, carrots, and celery. I liked these so much I may graduate to their soup version on a colder day.
(I also liked their sheng jian bao)
We had 4 people and were full after the following: XLB - 2 orders of 4, regular and spicy (I like that you can order 4 or 8 to an order as they have a handful of variations to try); Big Plate Chicken; Har Gow; Green Onion Pancake; Sheng Jian Bao; and vegetarian dumplings. Did you try the XLB - I was really impressed with them?
Also, they let us bring in a bottle of wine - they have beer only as far as I could tell.
No, I didn’t try the XLB. I may go for the spicy ones next time I’m there.
Is big plate chicken acceptable to people who are not good at eating spicy food? 
It definitely has that strong mala numbing from the Sichuan peppercorns, but my friend who is spice averse said it was fine for him. It’s not like Thai chilis or habanero tongue burning spice.
Thank you for your reply. I will try the big plate chicken .
Got the SJB and XLB again, both spot on. Also tried the sour spicy pork dry noodle - flavors are right up my alley, vinegary with cumin and slight sechuan peppercorn spice. More people there than last time but still light crowd and some takeout going out so starting to catch on I think.
Thanks for this — sounds right up my alley too. I live close enough to Dumpling Home and it’s one of my favorites so I’m sure I’ll like a lot of other stuff too.
Might have to take a muni trip through that tunnel for the first time in “who can remember anything time related anymore” years.
I’d be up for a group meal there sometime soon if other locals would be interested.
I’m down for a group meal there if we have interest.
We could be down as well if the timing works out (like I mentioned before, it’s a funky location for us, but could make it happen).
I had a very late lunch here last weekend. Very good! It’s a short walk uphill from the Forest Hill Muni station. They have these QR codes on the tables that you can order and pay from.
I had the shengjianbao, which were great, very similar to the ones at Dumpling Home, very crispy fried pleated end and also very juicy.
Meatball swimming in soup
And I also tried an order of four xiaolongbao (you can also get them as an order of eight). These were some fat XLB, and like the SJB also very juicy. Nice texture to the wrappers as @brisket44 observed - delicate but still held up to being picked up and didn’t spring leaks. Great as well.
And finally an order of four of the vegetable dumplings, which were filled with cabbage, tofu, mushroom, carrots, and probably some other veg. Quite good, and well seasoned.
An excellent addition to the SF dumpling scene.
@chandavkl, take note that the fish dumplings, which come two to a $14.99 order, would be a lighter complement to some of the dishes described elsewhere in this thread.
The filling holds together well. Like comparable fillings in the more diminutive fish jiaozi served at other Northern/Northeastern/Shandong restaurants. it’s made of a whitefish (tilapia here), chives, and a hint of white pepper.
But their hamburger size is their most unique feature for an SFBA dumpling. Despite the size, the wrapper is evenly cooked and the large footprint kinda remind me of eating a fish cheung fun.
Got takeout last night, shengjianbao held up well for takeout and I still can’t seem to eat one without squirting juice everywhere. The Big Plate Noodle with beef had a completely different flavor profile than the chicken, tomato based and quite sweet without the Sichuan peppercorns. I’ll have to try it with pork ribs next time.
I had a bowl of beef noodle soup ($14.99) at Dumpling Zone today for lunch. Very good, clean tasting broth and tender beef which I think was mostly brisket, and al dente noodles.
I also had another order of SJB ($12.99) which were as good as before.
SJB of course, still great. Big plate ribs had the same sauce as big plate beef - of the three big plates I liked big plate chicken the best, less sweet more spicy peppercorns. Bamboo shoots were excellent, serious Sichuan peppercorn tongue tingle.
