New iBuilding: Dumpling Kitchen in San Francisco

Feeding the Shanghai Dumpling Frenzy
1935 Taraval St. (between 29th and 30th Avenues), San Francisco
Sunset District
PH: 415.682.8938
Mon.--–Tue., Thu.-–Fri., 11 a.m.-–9:30 p.m.; Sat.-–Sun., 10:30 a.m.–9:30 p.m.
Major credit cards accepted; no reservations
Web site

I love xiao lung bao, the Shanghai dumplings with the burst of broth folded inside. And last week I checked out another dumpling restaurant that opened last year called Dumpling Kitchen.

The restaurant is on Taraval Street, just a couple of blocks down from the popular Kingdom of Dumpling, which always has a group of people waiting outside. So Dumpling Kitchen has positioned itself to pick up the overflow and feed this city’s hunger for the comforting dumplings.

Joining me for lunch was my friend Sylvia who was visiting from New York during the holidays. Despite being less than a year old, Dumpling Kitchen looks a bit dumpy and stark. So it’s not the fanciest of Chinese restaurants; we were there for the food.

Although the food is primarily Shanghai specialties, there were a few Cantonese-type dishes thrown in. So you can get dumplings and several plates of entrees from beef to chicken to shrimp.

The specialty Shanghai-style dumplings, known as xiao lung bao, are also one of the best values, with a steamer of 10 pieces selling for $6. When they arrived, I thought they weren’t necessarily the prettiest dumpling shapes I’ve seen, but I was surprised by what I tasted.

There was a nice filling of pork and vegetables, but it was the burst of soup that got me. The flavor of the broth was unlike anything I’ve tried before, not meaty and rich but almost fragrant and herbal. It was compelling and made me want to eat more and more.

But we had another plate of food to try, and that was an order of the Shanghai-style stir-fried rice cakes ($7.50). Sylvia and I were both curious about the rice cakes, thinking they were like rice crispies, but when the plate arrive, they looked like the Cantonese chow fun, which are thick rice noodles almost like fettuccine. I guess they call them rice cakes because the noodles are short like little rice medallions.

The stir-fried rice cakes with vegetables and pork were nicely pulled together, with the right balance of soy sauce and oil.

I always feel eating Chinese food can be heavy on the starch and meat, so Sylvia and I decided to order a plate of vegetables. Our server recommend the dry-braised string beans ($7), which she said was very popular. I can see why. The crunchy fresh green beans are stir-fried with a salty substance (not the typical black beans or oyster sauce) almost like anchovies. The clean, tasty beans were a nice counter balance to the rice cakes.

As you can tell, this was all a lot of food for us, so we were quite full and satisfied by this point. (Although I think I probably could have ordered more of those xiao lung bao.) I’ve never tried the popular Kingdom of Dumpling, but I don’t think it’s a mistake to visit Dumpling Kitchen first.

Single guy rating: 3.25 stars (Value Dumplings)

Explanation of the single guy's rating system:
1 star = perfect for college students
2 stars = perfect for new diners
3 stars = perfect for foodies
4 stars = perfect for expense accounts
5 stars = perfect for any guy's dream dinner