12 delicious dumplings every Portlander should try

There was a time, 10 years ago, say, when I could have told you where to find good Uzbek manti, adorable boiled gyoza, fist-sized Georgian khinkali and everything in between. But for simple dumplings of the style I ate almost daily while living in Taiwan, I was at a loss.

Our dumpling options are a little less geographically diverse these days. Restaurant Uzbekistan is long gone, as are its vereniki and manti. Ditto the Foggy Notion and its great weekly pierogi specials. Kargi Gogo, the Georgian food cart turned restaurant, closed during the pandemic, taking its khinkali with it. Even Tad’s Chicken ‘n Dumplins, the venerable Troutdale roadhouse, last served its namesake dish in 2020.

But what we lost in variety, we might have made up for in quality. Portland no longer has much manti or khinkali, but we do have gyoza and mandu good enough to draw notice in Japan or Korea, respectively.

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Last week, we revisited (and reconsidered) Master Kong, a Chinese restaurant now with two locations and arguably (I argued it) the best everyday dumplings found in Portland. For this roundup, we brought together our dozen favorite Portland dumplings, regardless of the country of origin, listed in alphabetical order.

‘Winged’ gyoza at Afuri

Afuri, the Tokyo-based ramen specialists who picked Portland for their first international location (for the quality of the tap water, they said) now has dozens of restaurants in Japan, the United States, Canada and Portugal, including three in Portland and one in Beaverton. But they didn’t just bring citrus-scented ramen from Japan. The original Southeast Portland restaurant with hot and cold izakaya dishes, sushi and robata-grilled skewers, as well as these distinctive gyoza made from a starchy slurry that crisps up alongside the dumplings.

Location: Various

Shrimp dumplings at Chinese Delicacy

Chinese Delicacy used to be best known for its Chinese-Korean hybrid dishes, including a decent take on jjajangmyeon, the savory black bean noodles. But before the arrival of Master Kong or Chin’s Kitchen, this was also my go-to boiled dumpling option, a gem we found through old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting. Back then, dumplings came 18 to an order, with a generous filling inside a thick boiled wrapper.

Location: 6411 S.E. 82nd Ave.

Dong bei jiaozi at Chin’s Kitchen

At Chin’s Kitchen, owner Wendy Li oversees the production of these thicker skinned, Northeastern-style dumplings made with a half dozen fillings (try the pork and Chinese sauerkraut) in the style of her hometown, Harbin, about 750 miles northeast of Beijing. Get them with a side of rice and an order of Harbin’s original-recipe sweet-and-sour pork.

Location: 4126 N.E. Broadway

Crab-pork soup dumplings at Din Tai Fung

A dumpling lover’s paradise, this international Taiwanese chain opened its first Oregon restaurant at Tigard’s Washington Square Mall in 2018, and plans to expand with a second at downtown Portland’s Pioneer Place this summer. With dozens of different dumplings, wontons and buns — including dessert dumplings! — it can be hard to narrow down an order. But consider starting with these sui generis surf-and-turf soup dumplings, or xiao long bao, the dumpling style that made Din Tai Fung famous.

Location: 9724 S.W. Washington Square Rd., Tigard

Q-bao at Dough Zone

Along with the spiralized cucumber, this is the signature dish at Dough Zone, a Seattle-based dumpling competitor for Din Tai that opened its first Portland location last year in South Waterfront’s soaring former Lucier space. These puffy little bao, stuffed with the same pork and aspic combo as the restaurant’s soup dumplings, are both steamed and pan-fried, giving the base a golden crisp. (Note: Wei Wei, the Taiwanese restaurant at 7835 S.E. 13th Ave. #102 in Sellwood and Shanghai’s Best at Pine Street Market, 126 S.W. Second Ave., make their own versions of pan-fried bao, more commonly called sheng jian bao.)

Location: 1910 S. River Dr.

Chile oil wontons at Duck House

We recently reviewed Tasty Corner, a new Portland State University-area Sichuan restaurant offering students and those who live nearby a solid neighborhood Chinese option. Still, as much as I liked the mapo tofu and dry-fried ribs, any dumpling fan worth their soy sauce knows that Duck House is the place to go when a craving arises. Among the restaurant’s handful of dumpling options, my favorite are these lacey boiled wontons in a pool of fragrant, chile-spiced oil.

Location: 1968 S.W. Fifth Ave.

Mandu at Han Oak

You can’t just stroll up to Han Oak anymore. But if you make a reservation for the restaurant’s $65 hot pot experience, you can order a round of these plump Korean dumplings, shaped a little like a toy sailor hat, sometimes topped with a slice of Fresno chile and served in a pool of black vinegar, a move inspired by the dipping sauce at Din Tai Fung. Come prepared to sing karaoke.

Location: 511 N.E. 24th Ave.

Siberian pelmeni at Kachka

One of the happier moments early in the pandemic came when I learned that Green Zebra would start carrying frozen pelmeni from Kachka. One week later, the Green Zebra market most convenient for me closed (followed this month by the rest of the company). You can still order those hexagonal dumplings stuffed with pork and veal (or with sheep’s cheese or sour cherry, the vegetarian dumplings known as vareniki) frozen from Lavka, Kachka’s upstairs deli. But you’re probably better off just visiting the cafe or restaurant itself and ordering a batch boiled and served in Kachka’s “fancy broth.”

Location: 960 S.E. 11th Ave.

‘Chinese potstickers’ at Master Kong

With its new restaurant just off Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, Master Kong is our new everyday dumplings restaurant. Here you can order a half dozen different dumplings, wontons and buns either steamed, boiled or pan-fried (most $7-$9 per order) from a large vertical touch screen like the ones they have at McDonald’s. If it’s your first time, get one order of the “Chinese potstickers,” thin, loosely pinched purses of ground pork given a light, golden-crisp base not unlike Afuri’s gyoza, and a second of the “handmade” boiled dumplings, either chicken or pork, each equally juicy.

Location: 8435 S.E. Division St. and 1522 S.E. 32nd Ave.

Veggie momos at Nepali Kitchen and Chai Garden

I grew up eating momos and have tried most of the versions to appear in Portland over the past 15 years or so. But these braided beauties, stuffed with a mix of soft veggies, are the best I’ve found so far. Better yet, they’re less than $10 an order, and served in a peaceful garden overlooking Northeast Fremont Street.

Location: 3434 N.E. 49th Ave.

Xiao Long Bao at XLB

If Master Kong is our favorite boiled dumpling place in Portland, XLB is the city’s go-to for soup dumplings, with impressively thin skins wrapped around pork and aspic that melts into a rich broth as the dumplings steam. We’ll take any opportunity we can find to visit this locally owned restaurant for a taste of their namesake xiao long bao and a cool glass of lychee soda.

Location: 4090 N. Williams Ave.

Har gow at Pure Spice

You won’t find carts, but that only means the dim sum at this unassuming Cantonese restaurant is as fresh as any you’ll find in Portland. Start with the har gow, shrimp and pork fat dumplings wrapped in a translucent skin and served in a metal steamer baskets straight from the kitchen, meaning they’re still piping hot when they hit the table.

Location: 2446 S.E. 87th Ave.

Read more:

(Re)introducing Master Kong, Portland’s best everyday dumpling restaurant

— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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