Dumplings.
(Erin Jang / For The Times)
Our favorite dumplings in Los Angeles
We’re lucky enough to live in a city that offers pan-fried, boiled, deep-fried, grilled and steamed dumplings from all over the world. There’s mandu in Koreatown, dozens of varieties of dumplings in the San Gabriel Valley and soup dumplings almost everywhere. And as I filmed season 2 of “The Bucket List” video series,” with 11 episodes devoted to dumplings, we attempted to try them all.
This is an evolving list of some of our favorites, updated on the heels of the Lunar New Year, including places featured in the series. There are restaurants specializing in xiao long bao, gyoza, hui tou, dim sum, manti, stuffed pasta and every rendition in between.
From gyoza to ravioli to mandu, Jenn Harris explores different dumplings and the stories behind them.
If you have a favorite, please let us know in the comments.
Showing Places
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Beauty & Essex
Hollywood American $$$
Chef Daniel Kotz says the three Beauty & Essex restaurants around the country collectively make around 800,000 grilled cheese dumplings a year. The dumplings, which are about the width of a quarter, manage to capture the melted gooey cheesy goodness of a grilled cheese sandwich and the comfort of a bowl of tomato soup in a single bite. Served in a spoonful of tomato soup, the dumplings are crunchy and fried on the outside with six varieties of cheese in the middle, including sharp cheddar, aged cheddar and smoked goat cheese.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Cali Dumpling at Smorgasburg
Downtown L.A. Chinese $
The Cali Dumpling pop-up is known for its creative fillings. At their booth at the weekly Smorgasburg Sunday market, co-owner Allan Tea serves up xiao long bao filled with tom yum soup flavors. The middle is a vibrant broth packed with the familiar flavors of lemongrass, makrut lime leaf, chiles and fish sauce. He’s also making pan-fried pizza dumplings filled with bits of pepperoni, cheese and tomato sauce. It’s the ideal version of a giant pizza Hot Pocket. If you’re looking for more traditional flavors, Cali Dumpling also has a delivery service that regularly offers 12 different dumplings including pork xiao long bao and vegetarian dumplings.
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Mandu sampler from CHD in Koreatown.
(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
CHD Mandu
Koreatown Korean $
CHD Mandu is a dumpling specialist that has dozens of locations in Seoul. At the Koreatown location, you can order plates of the signature mandu sampler, an impressive array of dumplings that includes galbi, shrimp, pork, kimchi and jalapeño-stuffed mandu. The dumplings are steamed and then pan-fried on the flat top until crisp on both sides. CHD is known as much for its dipping sauces as it is for the mandu. You can choose from a selection that includes lime mayo, gourmet soy sauce and black pepper.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Go Go Gyoza
Culver City Japanese $
Brandon Kida of Hinoki and the Bird started his Go Go Gyoza dumpling delivery business during the pandemic as a way to raise money for his staff. Kida’s Kurobuta heritage pork dumplings are the gold standard, plump with pork, ginger, garlic, chives and cabbage. They’re crisp on one side and chewy on the other. He also makes chicken gyoza, vegetable gyoza and dipping sauces including aromatic soy sauce and chile sesame oil. You can find them fresh at Kida’s fried chicken restaurant, Go Go Bird, at Citizen Public Market in Culver City.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Hui Tou Xiang
San Gabriel Valley Chinese $
The hui tou dumplings from this San Gabriel restaurant are the savory blintzes of the Chinese dumpling world. The blistered, chewy skins are swollen with garlicky pork or beef filling. They’re usually juicy to the point of explosion. It’s highly likely that someone will squirt hot meat juice across the table after the first bite.
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(Amy Scattergood / Los Angeles Times)
Long Xing Ji Juicy Dumpling
San Gabriel Valley Chinese $
This is a longtime favorite for three key varieties of xiao long bao. You can order the regular, with thin skins, full of pork and hot broth. There’s the sweet version, with just a hint of sugar in the filling to bring out the pork flavor. And then there’s the jumbo Wuxi-style pork and crab soup dumplings that you pierce with a straw and devour by sucking out all the juices inside. Order all three.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Lotus Dim Sum Dumpling House
Santa Monica Chinese cuisine $$
Wu gok can seem otherworldly, the result of the taro and wheat dough creating a cobweb-like structure when it’s fried. The shaggy exterior — skinny filaments of crunchy dough — protrudes at all angles. The version at Lotus Dim Sum Dumpling House in Santa Monica is excellent, with a crisp shell surrounding pale purple taro that’s starchy and sweet with a middle of minced pork and mushrooms.
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(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Kang Kang Food Court
Alhambra Chinese $
You can typically find an order of sheng jian bao on every table at Kang Kang Food Court. The dumplings are part yeasted bun, part potsticker and they’re full of hot soup and a ground pork filling. The version at Kang Kang Food Court have crispy, thick bottoms, a fluffy middle and perfectly chewy tops. Just beware of the dumplings’ squirt and avoid sticking the entire dumpling in your mouth. The soup in the middle tends to be scalding hot when the order hits the table.
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(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Lunasia Dim Sum House Cerritos
Cerritos Chinese $
The shumai at Lunasia Dim Sum House are the size of golf balls, tightly packed with plenty of shrimp and pork filling. The har gow are just as compelling, with whole pieces of shrimp you can spy through the translucent wrappers.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Monta Factory
Glendale Restaurant $
The Monta Factory specializes in a single style of manti. The open-style, meat-filled dumplings resemble small boats with a thin layer of dough wrapped around a tiny meatball in the center. They are assembled in foil trays and baked until the middle is just cooked and the tops are crisp around the edges. They’re like the best parts of a meatball and a potsticker in one. The dumplings are served with a tomato sauce and creamy yogurt garlic sauce. Or you can eat them plain. Do whatever feels right to you.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Myung In
Koreatown Korean $
Owner Jessica Kim’s steamed king mandu are as big as softballs, buoyant and teeming with bits of chopped pork and kimchi, glass noodles and chives. She also makes a version filled with red bean. Kim suggests ripping off pieces of the pillowy soft dough and using it to scoop the sweet bean filling. I prefer this method, but the choice is yours. Depending on when you visit, you might catch Kim or chef Li Li stuffing, folding and shaping the mandu behind the counter. It’s mesmerizing.
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(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)
Ms. Chi Cafe
Culver City Chinese $$
Shirley Chung created her cheeseburger potstickers during her stint as a contestant on “Top Chef.” They were such a hit that she makes a version at her Culver City restaurant. The dumplings are stuffed with ground chuck, diced red onion and shredded cheddar cheese. She also adds a square of cheese to the middle of each dumpling to ensure lots of gooey melted cheese in each bite. There’s a side of bacon tomato jam for dipping, but these dumplings need no condiments.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Pao Jao Dumpling House
Koreatown Korean $
Pao Jao Dumpling House is a stall inside the food court at Koreatown Plaza. Owners Eunice Lee and Seong Cho moved to the U.S. from Seoul in the ’90s. Cho makes a variety of styles of mandu, but two favorites are the spicy shrimp dumplings and the grilled fried dumplings. The spicy shrimp are rolled into fat cigars with exposed sides, so you can see the chopped shrimp filling inside. The grilled fried dumplings are large disks filled with chopped vegetables and glass noodles. They’re steamed then fried until the wrappers are crispy and bubbly, creating a highly craveable dumpling doughnut.
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(Paradise Dynasty)
Paradise Dynasty
Costa Mesa Asian $$
This dumpling restaurant from Singapore specializes in colorful flavored soup dumplings with chewy, delicate skins. In addition to the traditional pork filling, you’ll find dumplings infused with kimchi, garlic, cheese, crab roe and more.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Pasta Sisters
Culver City Italian Restaurant $$
Paola Da Re’s tortellini are so labor-intensive that they’re only available during the holidays or by special order. The tiny stuffed pasta are full of cheese, pork and beef and seasoned with just the right amount of nutmeg. They’re tossed in a simple sauce of either butter and cheese or cream to allow the tortellini to really shine.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
PP Pop
Monterey Park Taiwanese $
The dish you’ll find on everyone’s table at this Taiwanese restaurant in Monterey Park is the pan-fried dumplings. They arrive upside down to show off a disk of dumpling lace across the top. It shatters as you eat it and tastes like the best parts of a good, crisp cookie. Inside, the dumplings are brimming with juicy pork and shrimp.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Rossoblu
Downtown L.A. Italian $$$
Steve Samson makes three varieties of stuffed pasta at Rossoblu: tortellini, tortelloni and sfoglia lorda, the latter a stuffed sheet that’s folded over, cut into small squares and served in hot broth.
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Yang Chow
East Pasadena Chinese $$
If you’ve ever wanted to drink your vinegar and chile-laced dumpling dipping sauce, these are the dumplings for you. At Yang Chow, the spicy wonton soup is essentially a giant bowl of dipping sauce made with plenty of vinegar, soy and chiles. The restaurant adds hot broth to create a highly slurpable soup. It’s full of thin-skinned wontons filled with minced pork and shrimp. They are the perfect vessels to soak up all the soup.
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(Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times)
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
Rosemead Chinese $$
Sea Harbour Seafood serves some of the most consistently excellent dim sum in the San Gabriel Valley. No visit is complete without two orders of shumai (so no one argues) and the har gow, plump shrimp dumplings with translucent skins that are perfectly chewy. If you’re looking for something fancy, you can order your har gow with gold leaf and your shumai topped with truffle.
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Eat your way across L.A.
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