BEST DIM SUM NYC PRO

We also recommend getting congee, scallion pancakes and Chinese broccoli with hoisin sauce. The filling is rich, a little oily but not overly fatty. Do you really want to be drinking a vat of that from a giant bun? But I digress… At Noodle Village, the XLB wrapper is thin, but stays intact when you lift the dumpling. Remember, most XLB are filled with a fatty meat soup that steams out into the dumpling. These XLBs are the right size for the human mouth (not like some terrifying ones out there that are head size).

You’ll bypass the usual long tourist line at Joe’s. If you want xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) in Chinatown, we would recommend here. Cantonese noodle soup with shrimp and pork wontons, a dash of red vinegar and white pepper is fucking magic. If you have a headache the size of Texas, a paper cut, a broken heart, whatever - this place can heal your ailment. It’s a one stop shop if you want to grab all your snacks + dessert in one place for a great price. They also serve traditional Taiwanese desserts such as Taiwanese shaved ice with taro and grass jelly. These plump pork and vegetable wontons are served in chili oil and garnished with cilantro + minced garlic. Their giant wontons are not to be missed. Their salt + pepper chicken rice, fried pork chop with pickled mustard rice and Taiwanese fried chicken dishes all satisfy my craving for home (even the shouting over each other to order food). When I’m craving Taiwanese food and don’t feel like cooking, Taiwan Pork Chop House hits the spot. For Jeromy’s 30th birthday party, I ordered 75 of these (shout out to the Lams for picking them up), so I guess you can also do catering carry-out here if you ask nice enough. Their soups are also legit if you wanna slurp some noodles.

BEST DIM SUM NYC PRO

Pro tip is to smother them with generous amounts of black rice vinegar and chili oil. The menu isn’t fussy dumplings are 8 for $4 and you can choose pan-fried or boiled. This is a great place if you have a large group of your brother’s (cheap) friends from college visiting. They’ve now moved to a larger location with group sized tables on Bowery, which also serves beer + wine now. One of the OGs on this list, Lam Zhou opened as a tiny cubby on Broadway in 2007. Also, let’s take a moment to fondly remember one of my favorite dumpling places which closed recently (RIP East Dumpling). We linked each restaurant name to a Google Maps list since a lot of these places don’t have their own website (and you can see how close you are to one right now). When visiting these spots, make sure to have cash on you because CTown def wants to avoid them credit card fees. Y’all know Asian parents the most judgemental about food, so that’s why we put together this list of our top 10 dumpling spots in Manhattan! These are in no particular order. There are definitely other dumpling lists out there, but I can’t say with confidence that i’d rely on them to take my dad or Jeromy’s parents around town. If we’re taking visitors around town - we love heading down to Chinatown with a nice bottle of bodega bottle wine, which pairs elegantly with a $3 plate of dumplings. So we’ve lived in NYC for 2 years and have eaten our fair share of restaurant dumplings.

Best dim sum nyc