Dumpling House

My cousin has been here many times but wanted to come here for their rainbow dumplings. Well, we got one colour (green) ones. It's located in the original part of Chinatown.

We dropped in on a Wednesday afternoon (around 12:45pm). There's plenty of booth seating inside and you can even see them making fresh dumplings in the back. There's a TV in the middle of the restaurant that was playing some type of Asian music show. I was surprised to see that they give you water Korean style. Nice. 

The menu is massive with dumplings, noodles, rice & all day special combos, cold platter & salads, Northern Chinese cuisine, soup, pork, greens, Szechuan cuisine, chicken, beef/lamb, seafood and dessert. They also have a most popular menu (with pictures) if you need help choosing.

- Boiled chive & pork dumplings (#2) ($6.99 for 12) - can never go wrong with this classic combo. The filling was tasty. 
- Boiled dill & pork dumplings (#9A) ($6.99 for 12) - lots of dill flavour (which I love) but the pork was dry. Meat was way too chewy compared to the other dumplings. 
- Wonton in hot chili sesame sauce (#21) ($5.59) - my cousin really liked these. The meat inside was very tender and had an interesting mix of peanut sauce and chili oil on top.
- Green soup filled dumpling with ground pork (#24A) ($8.99 for 7) - these are green, spinach infused "XLB's". I say that in quotations because it's Chinese style. Wrapping was much thicker than normal. Still good but not quite the same. Random that they give you an odd number of dumplings.
- Spring onion pancake (#25) ($3.99) - haven't had a green onion pancake in ages. Nicely fried and went well with the side of hot sauce we asked for. 
- Minced pork with noodles in Peking sauce (#36) ($8.49) - we asked them to sub in fresh green noodles for this dish. Noodles were fantastic! Great toothsome bite. Minced pork wasn't too salty and it came with thinly sliced cucumbers. This was my favourite dish. 

It's no frills, cheap and filling. Cash or debit only (minimum $10.00).

While I may be wrong, it seems like I’ve found out what the Chinese equivalent to a “family diner” is. In a given medium/large city, there are at least three mandatory dives that are always busy, crank out cheap and tasty american style meals and have the title “family diner”. You could argue that those vague “wok take-out” are “asian” dive counterparts, but those are more akin to hotdog stands than actual restaurants. And honestly, those places are empty and freaking terrifying. Dumpling restaurants fill the role of a neighbourhood diner much better: humble yet friendly locations with busy staff and food that keeps drawing in lots and lots happy customers.

Dumpling House is the best addition to East Chinatown in a long time. Food is amazing - reminds me of my travels with every bite. Haven't found an item I didn't like. I don't agree with any online reviews re: bad service - my experience has been the exact opposite. The servers are extremely polite, friendly, and welcoming. The Chinese TV is great too. I just wish they had a wider beer selection!

Yummy dumplings. I went to this place after reading the reviews and was not disappointed. I originally went here because I didn't feel like driving to Spadina, but now I have a closer awesome dumpling place! had the chicken, and the veggie dumplings. Both had amazing flavors, the veggie probably had fennel (the vegetable not the seed). The chicken was so good you could eat it without sauce. The hot and sour soup large is big enough for two hungry people, and is quite spicy, tons of tofu, bamboo shoots and mushroom pieces. Also tried the deep fried tofu, which was a large portion, and was in a brown sauce. Restaurant is long and narrow, very tidy, and a woman was making the dumplings behind a counter. Great find!