I love their soup dumplings and spicy tofu, will have to remember to try their sticky rice dumplings while they are featured for the next few weeks. I’m a sucker for sticky rice!
Via Facebook:
Dear Dough Zone Patrons,
Starting May 20th to June 15th, Dough zone CrossRoad mall location will server seasonal sticky rice dumpling (or zongzi, 粽子) with pork filling or sweat bean paste filling.
Eating sticky rice dumping has been one of focus activities to celebrate tanditional Chinese Duanwu (端午) festival - or dragon boat festival. The festival commemorates the death of the poet and minister Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) of the ancient state of Chu during the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty of China.
Based on this thread alone, I tried to take my fam for a late late dinner on Sat after a piano recital. We got there at 8:35 pm (they close at 9), and there were crowds of people milling around the front door. When my husband tried to put his name on the list, he was told no. They already had people on the list - enough to put them well behind closing at 9. My little was so sad - as sad as you can be when you have visions of dumplings in your head and are then denied. Is this a typical experience? Is there a better time to go?
I went to the Dough Zone™ in Seattle for an early dinner before taking the train to the airport. It’s conveniently located across the street from the International District/Chinatown Link station. There are now 5 Dough Zones in the Seattle area. It was very busy on an early Sunday evening with people waiting for a seat. It has a good number of tables though and lots of counter seats, so I was able to get seated pretty quickly. They use Yelp waitlist, so you can put your name in the tablet at the front or through the Yelp app.
Dan Dan Noodle ($5.50)
A snack sized dan dan mian. Al dente yellow noodles with a good Q-ness, in a very good sesame and chili flavored mala sauce that was spicy and quite numbing.
Really good! Some of the best XLBs that I have had (I have not been to Shanghai and haven’t tried Din Tai Fung’s yet either). Nicely textured thin wrappers yet firm enough that they didn’t leak. Medium amount of soup. It came with a little bowl of thinly sliced ginger and you add the black vinegar yourself from a dispenser on the counter.
I found it amusing that they trademarked their name and also their Q-BAO®. Labelled on the menu as a “must order.” These are basically sheng jian bao. Pan fried dumplings with a soupy pork center. As you can see from the pics they are browned on the bottom side. Crispy yet not super crispy bottoms. Good amount of soup inside, and the outer dough was not overly thick. There was quite a bit of room around the dough and the meatball. I don’t know if they are necessarily a must order but they were good. I was also getting pretty full at this point so that may have colored my impressions as well.
