Tompopo is a small restaurant in West Philly that has been serving home-style Korean and Japanese food of the past 20 years. The menu includes Banchan, rice bowls, bento boxes, dumplings, bib-bim-bob, noodle dishes, and soups. Food is ordered at the counter and the menu is a combination of traditional laminated menus, signs sitting on the counter and signs on the wall behind the counter. Although this is not clear on the menu, there are a couple of vegan options on the menu and several other dishes can be prepared vegan.
Dumplings: Tompopo serves: steamed, pan-fried and deep-fried gyoza stuffed with your choice of pork, shrimp, chicken or vegetables; steamed spicy seafood gyoza; and steamed or deep-fried shrimp shumai. I tried the steamed and deep fried versions of the pork gyoza and the steamed spicy seafood gyoza, all of which appeared to have been made in house. Both styles of pork dumplings were flavorful and juicy, with the deep fired ones being my favorite of the two – deep frying usually makes things even better. The filling of the spicy seafood gyoza included glass noodles and kimchi, but it was unclear to me what seafood was in these dumplings, maybe shrimp. These were the best of the three styles of dumpling I tried, really spicy, almost painful for me, with a great kimchi sour, funk, salty flavor.
The Location: Tampopo is located in West Philly on the western edge of the University City neighborhood. It is on South 44th Street between Spruce and Locust.
