The Dumpling House

A poster on the wall quoting Anne Frank. New motto for the wiki?

The Dumpling House is a restaurant that serves dumplings, including vegetarian dumplings. It is owned by the same people as Davis Noodle City and Red Orchid Restaurant.

On Sunday, January 31st, 2010, they will be donating proceeds to relief for the 2010 Haiti earthquake disaster.

The location was formerly London Fish'N Chips, and became The Dumpling House on 2010-01-25. They still serve fish 'n chips. They no longer serve the deep fried twinkies and snickers bars they were once known for. They also now have wait service, instead of the counter service that the fish n' chips restaurant had.

Menu - Page 01 Menu - Page 02

Dumplings! Mmmm...

Note: You must be logged in to add comments

2010-01-26 16:14:15   I just ate there on opening day and the dumplings (the vegetarian are awesome) are delicious. Sunday (January 31st), they will be donating proceeds to Haitian relief so I plan to eat there again! By the way, they still serve Fish 'N Chips and they have very pleasant service and nice background music. —GarySaylin

2010-01-28 16:24:43   I ate there today, the inside decor is very nice and cozy. My waitress was very friendly and nice, I asked for her recommendation and she said the pork with chives dumplings. She gave me a little tray of spicy cucumber salad as an apetizer and gave me seconds when I asked for it. My dumplings came as a very big portion for $6.25 (12 dumplings). They were very tasty, the meat and ingredients tasted fresh and flavorful but not oversalted or sweetened. I really felt like I was tasting pork, chives, garlic, and ginger instead of msg, vinegar, salt and sugar. The dipping suace was very good, that added the before mentioned acid, salt, and sweetness I was needing. The noodle wrapping was very chewy and moist, man it was damn good. Overall this place is very nice, the service was great and it is a very cozy place, I would recommend it for a date on a budget. The portions are good enough to share, or eat all for yourself like I did. I have had the fish'n chips here in the past and I would not recommend them
Update: I had the seafood dumplings and they are very tasty as well. The wrapping on the seafood dumplings is thinner than the pork and they are mostly chicken dabbled with shrimp and a bit of fish. I also had the calamari which was much less than unimpressive (bad). The calamari must be from the old fish n' chips menu because it tasted like something from Jack n' the box. It is not rings of whole calamari but chopped up bits clumped together and deep fried with too much batter. Stick with the dumplings and you will be very pleased.
—DagonJones

2010-01-29 21:47:33   Ate there tonight with my partner. We had the above mentioned spicy cucumber salad, veggie wontons, veggie dumplings, and a broccoli dish. The dumplings were plentiful though a little on the bland side, the sauce that came with them helped a lot. The wontons were quite good, similar to but a bit better than the Davis Noodle City wontons, but by far the best dish was the broccoli, which maintained a nice crispness and was served with slivered almonds (blanched, maybe?) and baked garlic in a broth that may have contained a bit of butter or some other fat. All was combined with tremendously good service, even as our waitress seemed to be the only one working a busy Friday night. Highly recommended! —IAmNewHere

2010-01-30 20:20:47   Wow! This place is so good, and you get alot of dumplings for the money also. The cucumber salad and fried green onion bread were also very good. The waitress always kept our water filled and was great. I love the Anne Frank quote on the wall. I hope I go back soon! —NickSchmalenberger

2010-01-31 14:16:03   My wife and I recently ate here, our bill was about $20, and we ordered eggrolls, pork wontons, and basil-tomato chicken with noodles.

We recieved immediately a small spicy cucumber salad, which some varitation of should be on the menu, since somethng this simple and tasty should be consumed in larger quantities.


The eggrolls were amazing. They came six in an order for about $4, and were hot, crispy, lots of fresh ginger, some veggies. They were, doughy?, inside, but doughy in a very hot delicious way. My wife doesn't like eggrolls with lots of "stringy vegatables" in them, so she loved these; they are almost pastry.


My wife ordered pork wontons. Now, sometimes wontons are a little scary, cause who knows what the hell is in them? This thought often crosses her mind when ordering Chinese, but she is always willing to give a new place a shot, because she LOVES wontons. She is ordering these again next time we go. Enough said. Well, I do want to add that these are absolutely the heartiest wontons ever. The order is equal to ordering over a pound of cooked meat (about $6) and it is some of the best ground pork you will ever put in your mouth. It is juicy, fresh, and very porky. The flavor is very simple, not clouded with alot of spices, just PORK PORK PORK. It is served in very thin noodle wraps with a light gravy (wrong word, but closish). If you were a Chinese body builder, you would probably eat this every day. For its price, it is an incredible deal for the amount of sustenance and protien you get out of it, not to mention that THIS IS THE CLEANEST, PUREST PORK YOU WILL EVER SHOVE INTO YOU MOUTH. IT is close to God in its purity of form. Eat it.


I ordered the Basil-Tomato Chicken with noodles. Sometimes, something tastes so delicious, makes you feel so aware of the beauty in the world, like you are consuming art. This is a dish so wonderful, it will make you cry. And if that does not make you cry, the 80 pounds of chile peppers will. This dish is labelled on the menu as "hot, hot" (or maybe "spicy, spicy") and it is. When it first came to the table, all I could smell was peppers, all anyone could smell was peppers, which was amazing since I am tired of being told something is hot and barely having my eyes water. This stuff is plutonium. The amazing thing though, was behind the peppers, sneaking in through mist of crying eyes, was the basil and tomato, not part of the usual line up of Asian flavoring agents. But as they entered, so faint and undetectable at first, they grew in power, until you did not even notice the spicy, only the basil-y goodness. It turned into a dish, flavor wise, that was so unexpected. Where you are usually punched in the face by someone's tomato-basil sauce, some wannabe Italian chef who buys the bulk tomatoes and 2 pounds of Basil and thinks blending these two tired ingrediants is art, you have here a subtle application, a sneak attack, a creeping sweetness, a hint of herb, a play around the edges of fiery goo formed from peppers and flour, something that you would not imagine you would find on this continent, something only cooked somewhere dark and magical. The chicken itself, was cooked perfectly. It was dark meat, juicy, succulent, full of flavor, lightly coated in flour, NOT some battered and deep fired heart stopper, cooked to a golden glow, red, almost orange in the basil-tomato-pepper sauce. I told my wife after only a few bites that if I only ever ate chicken cooked like this, for the rest of my life, nothing else but this chicken, I would be so happy, that it would be far worth the sacrfice of every hollow, breast meat only orange chicken culture fuck sprayed out of Panda Express' orifice all over the face of Chinese Cuisine. (By the way, what is UP with this white meat fetish? Seriously, go dark, now, before it is too late, before you lose your culinary soul to blandness.) Anyways, simply, BEST, CHICKEN, EVER, go eat this, right now, stop reading (if you haven't already) and go get this.

IT is certainly worth saying as well, that the noodles which came under the chicken and were coated in the spicy delicious, mob of a sauce, were as good as fresh bread, not greasy at all, cooked perfectly, dense, doughy, and mouthwatering.


So far, the food I have had here is simply constructed, simple ingrediants, and very high quality, prepared in an obviously masterful way, portions that would make card carrying members of a Roman vomitorium blush, and an elagance and complication of taste, an ambiguous muddling of flavors that leaves you confused and enlightened, and ceratinly full and happy. I cannot wait to eat here again. Restaurants like this, food like this, is what being alive is for; this is art worth dining for.

—tspsoda

2010-01-31 14:55:44   Tasty (I had basil chicken) and pretty good portion sizes. I would have preferred fresh basil to be cooked with the chicken, not dried, but I can't really complain with the price. It's no fancy Thai restaurant with a focus on basil. Very attentive service. Certainly one of the best values in downtown. —RyanMikulovsky

2010-01-31 15:32:23   Sounds great! That said, am I the only one who for some reason reads the name as "The Dumping House?" —rfrazier

2010-02-02 13:40:36   I'm shocked at all the great reviews here, maybe I went at a bad time? The food did not amaze me like it did everyone else. I came here with a friend to get dinner; we ordered the hot oil wontons, pork dumplings, onion bread, and a hot and sour soup. Hot and sour soup is one of my favorite soups to order at Chinese restaurants. The dumpling house's version should be relabeled as salty and spicy; it was not sour at all, instead it was like licking a salt rock. The onion bread was great, just like Noodle City's.

The dumplings and hot oil wontons are a bit off. I think they were good. However, when I noticed that the meat on the inside of both of these things were still pink it left me a little worried. Is this the way it's suppose to be? —ktru

Dont be scared, it is supposed to be pink. I have had a lot of dim sum from several places (some of them were even a bit creapy in San Francisco) the meat always seems to be a bit pink. I think it has something to do with the seasoning. -dagonjones

You've never had sausage that was pink? You've never had a medium rare steak? Pink with chicken is a no-no unless you are in Japan or some other place where you know the chicken is awesome. Pork, steak, and lamb are best pink. Say no to overcooked meat. http://www.chow.com/stories/10144 —CoffeeSnobDavis

2010-02-02 21:27:31   So my friend and I decided to eat here on sunday Jan 31st. We arrived around 1:30pm and it was actually a bit busy. We ordered the pork and chive dumplings as well as the pork and vegetable dumplings and chicken pot stickers.

We received the pork and vegetable dumplings first; it took them about 25 minutes to get to our table. These dumplings were a little bland, but the sauce they provided gave some taste to them. Then about 10 minutes afterwards the pork and chive dumplings came and they were pretty good. After waiting about 50 minutes total the pot stickers finally came and they were awful. It looked like they boiled them, but when they tried to fry them potentially they used to much oil and or the oil was not hot enough and so they were very oily and not even fried.

Overall I'd just get the pork and chive dumplings. They give a good amount about 10-12 and the size are pretty big. I foresee myself going here again just for the dumplings which are $6.25 which is good considering quicklys charges basically 5 bucks for 4 pieces of pot stickers.

—JasonKong

2010-02-05 14:49:32   I just had lunch there today with some friends. It was a cozy restaurant and the waitress/server was extremely cute and nice and hospitable. I felt so at ease there because she cared for us and made sure we were good. I had the pork and vegetable dumplings while my two other friends had the seafood dumplings. We also ordered a dish of egg rolls. They have very large portions and the food comes out steaming hot (the place was literally steaming), and looked so appetizing. I took a bite into mine and yes, it was amazing. I've had authentic Chinese food before and so I'd like to say I know my dumplings too. And I am so glad that this place opened up because they were delicious! My friends agreed as well. The dumpling wraps were cooked so it was soft, but not falling apart. The pork was hearty! They weren't bland, but they weren't overpowering. It had a crisp clean taste. It was definitely filling and the sauce that comes with it complemented the dumplings so well. The wraps on the egg rolls weren't too thick and it was crispy. Inside, it was well mixed and you could taste the different veggies in there which I guess means that they are indeed fresh and not frozen. We all felt sooo full afterwards and went home with full bellies and happy hearts. Yes, get the dumplings there. —PandasGoMoo

2010-02-12 13:58:01   This place is awesome and authentic. That is all. —tombrokaw

2010-02-12 17:17:30   The veggie wontons are my new favorite here. The veggie dumplings are really good, but there is something about the house sauce on the wontons that really set them apart. You wouldn't expect a plate of veggie wontons to be very filling, but they truly are. And I'm definitely a sucker for great service — this place does not disappoint. The main waitress here is quite a character and she makes sure you have everything you need the moment you sit down. Chances are you'll hear her before you see her! —MichellePalmer

2010-02-18 18:27:06   I had a random craving for Fish n Chips so I decided to give this place a try, again. I had the Fish n Chips about a year ago when it was London fish n chips and it wasn't very good. This time was about the same, the fish isn't terrible, it's ok...needed more salt but the french fries they serve with the fish are a disappointment. Overall, I ate the whole meal, but only because I was starving. I would not recommend this meal. The service was great! I'll forsure come back to this restaurant and try out there other items after reading the reviews (: —TICKtacTOEtag

2010-02-27 12:57:25   Tried them yesterday for lunch. All I can say is the seafood and pork/chive dumplings are DELICIOUS! Egg rolls and the won tons were good too. Kind of bummed that the won tons weren't deep fried as I'm used too. This spot is going into the rotation for sure. If I can make one suggestion, make the dumpling portions smaller and lower the price. This will allow people to order different kinds of dumplings without getting burnt out on one flavor. —103

2010-03-03 17:40:27   The "wontons" are authentic, Hunan (SE China) types, big ones, not the Cantonese type (the smaller ones from Southern China popular in places like Hong Kong). The "peanut/whatever" else sauce is not authentic, though more suitable for American taste :) —LeeY

2010-03-10 22:39:28   I just came by tonight and I would definitely come back for their SEAFOOD DUMPLINGS. Its the meatiest, tastiest shrimp/chicken/pork filling and its super fresh! I wouldn't get them "gyoza"/fried style, the steamed ones is better. The friendly lady who took our order was so sweet and gave us tons of reccommendations. The restaurant looks really nice now and has lots of seating indoor and outdoors. I did order the calamari, which I'd pass, it didn't taste that great and was really breaded. OH, and the dipping sauce for the dumplings was a nice touch, its vinegary/sweet/tangy. —MissAmyQ

2010-03-17 17:05:25   I love Davis Noodle City and the Red Orchid Restaurant (run by the same owners), so I expected to love this place, too. Unfortunately, the dumplings were not to my liking. I will say that everything seemed fresh and freshly made — it's just that the flavors were not to my liking. (I liked the veggie a bit better than the beef, but not enough to get it again). But since taste is a personal thing, others will have to try it themselves to see what they think. Oh, and the other downside was that they were woefully understaffed the day we went there, and so had to wait a long time to get waited on, to get our check, etc. —CovertProfessor