The upcoming Lunar New Year got me thinking about jiaozi, and I realized that, except for notations on the 400+ restaurant Regional guide, there isn’t a Hungry Onion thread dedicated to restaurant-made dumplings you can buy frozen.
I will periodically update the below roundup with community tips. Let us know your favorite places, and specialties uncommon to other places like fish dumplings, shepherds purse dumplings, or notable vegetarian dumplings.
The post is geared towards northern-style boiled dumplings, but let me know if there are places with exceptional wontons, (steamed) xiao long bao, etc. The XLB at newly opened Pan Kee Food in Foster City (from the owner of San Jose’s Famous Dumpling House) and those comical-shaped XLB at descendants of Qinghe Li’s King of Dumpling have thinner skins than the machine-made supermarket and Trader Joe’s brands.
San Francisco
- Asian American Food Company (Parkside) frozen takeout only. Ancestor of Kingdom of Dumpling, founded in 1976 (h/t @Souperman). Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Bei Fang Style (SF Outer Sunset) CH.
- China North Dumpling (SF Outer Sunset, dumpling maker and/or owner from Shenyang) CH. Also has frozen XLB.
- King of Noodles (SF Inner Sunset) CH, CH. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Kingdom of Dumpling (SF Parkside) CH. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Shandong Deluxe (SF Parkside) CH. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Village House (SF Outer Richmond) .
- Yuanbao Jiaozi (SF Outer Sunset) Jonathan Kauffman 2019 SF Chronicle Top 100. Owners from Dongbei.
- Yummy Dumpling frozen takeout only. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
East Bay (northern)
- Shandong Restaurant (Oakland, Chinatown)
East Bay (southern)
- Bing’s Dumping (Fremont) Owner from Shandong.
- Din Ding Dumpling House (Fremont) Unknown whether their Union City location sells frozen dumplings.
- Gangnam House (Milpitas) “Gangnam” is a pun on Jiangnan, the area encompassing Shanghai
- House of Dumplings (Union City) CH. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Conical frozen XLB.
- King of Dumplings (Newark) Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Lai Young (Hayward) Frozen takeout only. Taiwanese. Frozen XLB too.
- Mom Dumplings (Milpitas)
- Thousand Tasty (Milpitas) Shaanxi items too.
Peninsula
- Dumpling City (Palo Alto) and Dumpling Garden (Mountain View). Frozen takeout only. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Dumpling Empire (South San Francisco) CH. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Conical frozen XLB.
- Eng’s Zongzi (Mountain View)
- iDumpling (Redwood City) CH. Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Little Shanghai (San Mateo) CH, CH, CH. Frozen XLB.
- Panda Dumpling (San Carlos) CH. Some Shanghainese items.
- Pan Kee Food (Foster City) jiaozi including fish dumplings, Frozen XLB (metal cups included, and bao. Same owner of San Jose’s Famous Dumpling House, which has some Shandong specialties.
- Zumpling (Los Gatos) machine made six types of pork dumplings and a vegan curry dumpling
South Bay
- ASJ Restaurant (San Jose) CH. Taiwanese.
- Bento Express (Sunnyvale). Taiwanese
- Ding’s Kitchen (Sunnyvale)
- Famous Food (Sunnyvale). Tianjin.
- Dumpling Depot (Sunnyvale) Kingdom of Dumpling descendant. Also has conical frozen XLB.
- Fuji Huoshao (San Jose) Specializes in pan-fried dumplings. Owner from Liaoning.
- Jenny’s Kitchen (San Jose) family-style takeout, owner from Hebei , Taiwanese influence too.
- Tong Dumpling (Cupertino) Shandong food
- Tong Soon Garden (Santa Clara). Korean-Chinese.
