Early on a Monday evening—a time when few restaurants in Los Angeles will be fully booked—there is a line to get into the restaurant Din Tai Fung at a Westfield mall near Beverly Hills.
“Do you have a reservation?” inquires one of what looks like three hosts.
“There are no reservations!” responds the hopeful guest, a mother with two preteens in tow. She’s not wrong. Bookings for the chain are released weekly and almost always immediately snapped up for every location.
“The wait is 45 minutes to an hour,” responds the host. The mother sighs, but the preteens howl in protest at the suggestion of finding another spot for dinner. They move to the wait line.
A chain based in Taiwan with more than 170 units globally, including 13 in the U.S., Din Tai Fung is possibly one of the busiest restaurant concepts in the L.A. area. The attraction? Soup dumplings, or what in Asian cuisine is known as xiao long bao.
The classic xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung is made with Kurobuta pork and crab meat with a fragrant broth. | Photo by Lisa Jennings
Soup dumplings have been enjoyed in the U.S. for decades, and there are many smaller mom-and-pop restaurants offering the spoon-size pillows of dough filled with meat and flavorful broth, mostly in the San Gabriel Valley near L.A. and New York City. But Din Tai Fung is often credited with bringing the specialty to the mainstream.
In fact, xiao long bao have become so popular that a number of restaurant chains have popped up around the country hoping to capitalize on growing demand for the specialty dish.
“I don’t think everyone is fully aware of where it comes from, but it’s something they want to learn about. And we want to take them on that journey.”
Some say xiao long bao is the next ramen.
“What we’re seeing is that people are intrigued by the soup dumplings,” said Margaret Farrell, head of marketing for Vertex Hospitality Group, parent to the new Ugly Dumpling chain. “I don’t think everyone is fully aware of where it comes from, but it’s something they want to learn about. And we want to take them on that journey.”
Dumplings are made in full view of guests at Din Tai Fung. The chain has seven locations in Southern California, with two more coming soon. | Photo by Lisa Jennings
Classic xiao long bao
Din Tai Fung was founded by Yang Bing-yi, who died earlier this year. He opened the first location in Taipei in 1972, and that became the cornerstone of a growing franchise. So far in the U.S., the chain has grown mostly on the West Coast, but a unit is scheduled to open in New York City later this year.
The classic xiao long bao at Din Tai Fung are made with pork or pork and crab meat—each pleated 18 times, specifically—but the chain earlier this year added a chicken variation, for those who eschew pork, and there are vegan variations of steamed dumplings on the quite broad menu, which also includes a wide range of noodles, steamed buns and soups.
But the xiao long bao are the star of the show.
There’s a technique to eating xiao long bao. Most experienced eaters recommend avoiding the temptation to pop the whole thing in your mouth, which can cause serious burns.
The proper technique utilizes a spoon and chopsticks. Guests are instructed to gently pick up the dumpling with chopsticks and dip in the soy and vinegar sauce likely provided (three parts soy to one part vinegar is recommended). Then, use the chopsticks to open a hole in the dumpling, or carefully nibble a small hole in the delicate dough. Pour in a bit more sauce and some bits of ginger, or dump the broth into the spoon. Eat the dumpling and sip the broth.
Given the soup dumpling’s arrival in Trader Joe’s frozen food section, it seems the xiao long bao has been embraced by middle America, not just in coastal cities. And now that it is familiar enough, chefs are able to get more playful with the dish. At the Austin, Texas, restaurant Elementary, for example, the trendy birria is presented as a soup dumpling.
The fast-casual Nan Xiang Express takes highlights from the full-service menu. | Photo courtesy of Nan Xiang Group
A mom-and-pop dumpling shop is reborn
On the East Coast, Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao started as a mom-and-pop serving Shanghai-style dumplings in New York City’s borough of Queens, initially targeting the Asian community when it first opened in 2006. But the concept was discovered by food bloggers and YouTubers who fell in love with soup dumplings, and it wasn’t long before the restaurant had a broader following.
When the original owners decided to close the restaurant in 2019, there was outrage. Eddie Zheng, who was a fan as a customer, decided to pull together a group of investors to expand the brand, said Michael Ma, a spokesperson for the Nan Xiang Group.
The first step was to move the restaurant to a new location, and it was just getting going again when the pandemic hit. Ma said the new owners were able to make it work with takeout and delivery during the Covid years.
In fact, they also developed a frozen dumpling that people could purchase to steam at home, and perfecting that at-home product sparked the idea for smaller express locations that could be scaled using dumplings handmade in a centralized kitchen.
“But there’s no way you can hire enough people with the skills to freshly wrap these dumplings at every location,” said Ma. “So the frozen dumplings we created would be close enough to the actual fresh dumplings, and that gave us something that would enable us to expand.”
Taking a closer look
Dumplings are still made in-house at the full-service locations of Nan Xiang; that’s part of the theater of the concept and that will continue as the group opens more of the larger brand, said Ma. There are now three full-service locations, and two more Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao units are scheduled to open in 2024.
After testing an Express unit in Ellicott City, Md., the company opened the first Nan Xiang Express in Forest Hills, N.Y., earlier this year. Later came the first franchised unit in Brooklyn, and the franchisees there are planning additional locations in the New York City area, scheduled to open later this year.
In July, a franchised location of Nan Xiang Express opened in Boston.
The smaller Express locations are about 1,500- to 2,000 square feet, and guests order via kiosk or at a counter off of digital menu boards. In addition to the classic pork and crab dumplings, Nan Xiang has expanded with chicken and beef variations, as well as dumplings with truffles and seafood, which come in a rainbow of colors. The average check ranges from about $12-$13 per person to up to $20 with a bowl of noodles and order of dumplings, for example.
“At first, we envisioned it being more of an order-ahead, grab-and-go, bring-back-to-the-office-or-back-home thing, but we’re noticing a lot of people prefer to eat in-store too,” said Ma. “So newer locations will include more seating than the original.”
The dumpling-making "bao lab" is visible from the dining room at Ugly Dumpling. |Photo courtesy of Vertex Hospitality Group.
Ugly Dumpling
Also based in Queens, Vertex Hospitality Group operates and franchises about 115 restaurants under several brands, including the Cajun Seafood concept Hook & Reel, a Korean hot pot and barbecue concept called Kpot and the noodle shop Kinya Ramen. In April, the group launched the new concept Ugly Dumpling in Edison, N.J., a full-service Shanghai-style dumpling restaurant that will soon add an Express variation.
Like at other chains, the dumplings are made in-house in an open-kitchen “bao lab,” said Farrell, Vertex Hospitality’s head of marketing.
The full-service version has an extensive menu, with appetizers like spicy beef and tripe, spring rolls and scallion pancakes, along with more classic dim sum dumplings and buns, wok-fried noodles and beverages like milk tea and iced tea with sea salt foam and boba add-ins. There are dessert xiao long bao, with fillings like red bean and mochi, sweet taro, and sesame and mochi.
This fall, the first Ugly Dumpling Express is scheduled to open in Holmdel, N.J., taking some of the more popular items from the flagship restaurant—primarily soup dumplings—and serving in a more fast-casual footprint, she said. In both cases, the dumplings will be made in-house.
The fast-casual version will be more tech-driven, with kiosk ordering and digital ordering. “Our goal is to be accessible, and if you can’t do it on your phone, you’re not reaching everybody,” Farrell said.
The plan is to establish the two variations and then launch franchising in 2024, she added. But Ugly Dumpling is not looking at a commissary model.
“That daily making [of dumplings] is kind of our secret sauce,” said Farrell.
More contenders are coming
The Taipei-based 85C Bakery Cafe chain, which has six locations in Southern California, in July opened the first U.S. location of Jiou Chu Dumplings in the Los Angeles area. Jiou Chu has two locations in Taiwan.
The L.A. unit is a 2,700-square-foot space and a menu spotlighting Taiwanese-style xiao long bao, along with other types of dumplings, and some baked goods from the 85C menu.
Out of Seattle, Dough Zone has been growing at a steady pace, approaching 20 units. Specializing in all kinds of dumplings, not just xiao long bao, the latest Dough Zone opened in July in Beaverton, Ore., but the chain has units throughout the Pacific Northwest, as well as California, and two are coming soon to Houston.
What has been unique about soup dumplings is how popular they have become with little to no marketing, said Ma of Nan Xiang Group.
“Once people realized it wasn’t a gimmick, it just really took off,” he said.
UPDATE: This article has been updated to clarify information about Nan Xiang Group.