According to various filings, a Kenny Qiu is connected to Dumpling Garden, Dumpling City (Palo Alto), and Dumpling Depot (Sunnyvale). All three businesses are registered to a Wawona St, address in San Francisco. The same address is used by dumpling baron Qinghe Li (Kingdom of Dumpling, Yummy Dumpling. Town of Dumpling. House of Dumpling, KIng of Noodles, King of Dumpling, iDumpling, Dumpling Empire). You figure it out. 
From corporationwiki.com:
Iāve finally incorporated all the chatter from the 1st half of 2018 into the original post.
So I donāt know what heās talking about that Dumpling Garden being his first restaurant then.
If you find a la mian joint with a chef from Qinghai, let me know. Thatās what Iām used to in Shanghai, where nearly all the āLanzhouā lamian restaurants are owned by muslims from Hualong Hui Autonomous County in Qinghai.
In the 1980s, Hualong pivoted from making illegal guns to serving Lanzhou lamian. It was an unusual move, with the county government providing financial incentives for residents to open eateries, starting locally and spreading outward.
The chef from Chef Z mentioned that there is no good Sichuan in the south bay (other than his, lol. He said thatās why he opened his).
He said Little Sichuan Restaurant in San Mateo used to be good years ago. Now he likes South Legend Szechuan Cuisine (å·“å±±čę°“) in Milpitas.
He heard recommendations for either Chili House or Z&Y in SF but he hasnāt been.
He has another recommendation but I forgot what he said.
Silk Road and Chaoshan?! Since when did the silk road go all the day to Shantou? (I guess the high speed rail probably does nowadays.)
Ha! At this point I canāt tell if itās a change of ownership or a rebranding under a different chef. Either way, adding to Teo, now there are two Chaoshan hot pot places.
I went to the Teo website to look up their hotpot. Interesting they also sell frozen beef and pork balls for pickup:
Does MK Noodle have naked oat noodles on the menu?
FWIW, thereās a Taiyuan Restaurant somewhere in the South Bay. They might have some non-noodle Shanxi dishes is thereās anything in the name.
I just noticed Peak Point was closed when I walked byāscheduled to become yet another tea place.
Only wheat noodles unfortunately!
Phonetically similar Taiyuans, but different characters å¤Ŗå for the capital of Shanxi, å¤Ŗęŗ for the Cantonese seafood restaurant in Daly City (if thatās the one youāre referring to).
At some point I have to ask, do people in the Bay Area now officially like those boba tea places more than Taiwan?
I had the same thought, whenever I think the market is saturated I see another new one. We ate at Szechuan Cuisine on Irving Saturday and right next store is new to me TPUMP milk tea/boba, which I at first read as TRUMP.
Then again I had similar thought years ago about Starbucks also.
Yes, but boba is an invasive species.
That makes seven closed Shanghainese/Jiangnan places since Jan. 2018. No need to worry about the Shanghai scene though---- since 2015, the number of Shanghainese restaurants has been stableā 16 opened, 15 closed. And thatās not including generally northern places that specialize in XLB, like Din Ding and Bingās.
@chandavkl brought up the topic of mainland chains on a Foodtalkcentral conversation that has some history to it. In 2013, @chandavkl asked why there werenāt more Chinese restaurant chains. By 2016, he commented on the influx, and in 2018, several have opened, which matches a broader trend of chain Asian restaurants opening in the SFBA. Hereās a running list, which Iām now keeping in the original post. Iām generally leaving out pastry/dessert and tea shops, as theyāre too numerous to keep track of. Lemme know if Iāve missed any.
US Chains
