dancerobot, Philadelphia, PA

Posted on October 5, 2025 by rundlea

I did not completely get dancerobot’s concept, their web site describes it as “’80s-inflected Japanese izakaya” and the press articles running up to its opening describe it with variations of “Neon-lit ’80s Japanese izakaya”.  Other than the entranceway being papered in old anime and movie posters and the website looking like a Macintosh computer screen, if Mac screen’s had neon colors back in the 80’s, it is unclear how this restaurant relates to the ‘80’s.  Certainly, the dimly lit Victorian style bar/restaurant space has no neon lights.  dancerobot serves yōshoku style Japanese food, which is a style of Western-influenced cooking which began back in the mid-1800’s (not 1980s). The dishes are European dishes re-interpreted for the Japanese consumer, usually featuring Western-ish names.

The Cheesy Mentaiko Ommelette, which is an egg folded around Cooper sharp cheese with Mentaiko mayo on top of the egg, was good, but the cheese had such a strong flavor the Mentaiko was overwhelmed.  The Saba Shiovaki, grilled Norwegian Mackerel, was an excellent expertly grilled piece of Mackerel. 

Currently reservations are unavailable, so we got there at the 4pm opening hoping to grab some bar seats.  When we rolled up at 3:50, there was already a line of like-minded people, and we were lucky to get the last two seats at the bar.  A lot of dancerobot’s hype is due to it being the new restaurant from the team at Royal Izakaya and Sushi, but the stated concept seems to have gotten lost in the execution and food is good, but not yet living up to the hype.  We had a few dishes and then went to South Gate to finish our night of eating.

The Dumplings:  The Ebi Chili Gyoza are pan-fried flat dumplings filled with chunks of sweet fresh shrimp, served in a puddle of vinegar flavored soy sauce.  Separately the dumplings and the sauce probably would have tasted excellent, but when served together the dumplings got sodden in sauce, which becomes overpowering, and the gyoza wrappers lost their crunch.  This dish would have been much better if the sauce were served on the side for dipping.

Sorry the photos are pretty bad, dancerobot is dimly lit so it is hard to take photos

The Age Takoyaki was the best dish we ate at dancerobot.  These octopus balls are prepared with a sauce of brown butter and fish sauce and are adorned with caramelized fried shallots and bonito flakes.  The funk from the fish sauce and the crunch from the fried shallots were the perfect complement to the creaminess of the interior of the fried balls.  Each of the Takoyaki contained a generous portion of slightly chewy octopus. This was a great dish.

The Location:  dancerobot is on the 1700 block of Sansom street, in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse neighborhood.

Posted in Gyoza, Japanese, Pan Fried, Philadelphia, Shrimp, Takoyaki | Leave a comment

Hsu’s Gourmet, Atlanta GA

Posted on September 9, 2025 by rundlea

While at a recent conference in downtown Atlanta I was lucky to find Hsu’s Gourmet, a gloriously old school American Chinese restaurant.  Depending on which part of their web site you believe, Hsu’s opened in 1989 or 1983.  Hsu’s on the street level of a parking garage building and, because it only has windows on one side which have closed shades on them, it feels like you are eating in a dimly lit underground bunker. As you enter the restaurant take a minute to check out the wall of photos of celebrities posing with the owner – Betty White ate at Hsu’s, as did Spike Lee.   Hsu’s serves the classics of American style Szechuan and Cantonese dishes and they have a great hot and sour soup which comes with fried wonton chips on the side.  This area of Atalanta is not great for food – a taco place with lots of fried food, a Hooters, a Hard Rock Café, a faux Irish pub… – but Hsu’s is really worth checking out.

The Dumplings:  I was there for lunch and the lunch menu includes Shantung Dumplings, fried chicken dumplings, vegetable steamed dumplings and wonton soup.   The Shantung Dumplings are your basic pork and veg dumplings with the option of having them steamed or grilled.  The grilled version is the classic gyoza style dumpling that are pan-fried on the bottom surface, and were juicy and quite tasty.  The menu describes the dipping sauce as a “Ginger Soy Vinaigrette Dipping Sauce”, which is just the traditional soy sauce and rice vinegar mix with a little crushed ginger. 

I also got the wonton soup which came with two shrimp and pork wontons in a clear light, but tasty, broth.  Both wontons were missing part of the wrapper (you can see this in the photo) and I suspect they had been pre-made and sat in a refrigerator, such that the skins had stuck together and then tore a little during cooking.  But the wontons tasted fresh, with the shrimp providing a slight sweet counterpoint to the savory pork.  The soup came with fried wonton skin chips to add to the soup, which I liked a lot.  When I first moved to NYC, wonton soup always came with fried wontons chips, but it seems like this is becoming less common these days.

The Location:  Hsu’s is on the corner of Peachtree Center Ave and Andrew Young International Blvd, with its entrance on Peachtree Center Ave.  The building is otherwise a parking garage.

Posted in Chinese, Dipping Sauce, Pan Fried, Pork, Potsticker, Shrimp, Wontons | Leave a comment

OMNI Plant-Based Potstickers, Frozen Dumpling Review

Posted on August 18, 2025 by rundlea

It has become impossible to find OMNI’s excellent plant-based ground pork and pork shreds in stores over the past few months.  I made some really good vegan dumplings with the ground pork [see here and here] and the shreds were good for making vegan tacos.  Now it seems that the only OMNI products being stocked are the Teriyaki Bao, which were very good, and the Potstickers.  There are lots of comments on Reddit lamenting the missing ground pork and shreds products.

Unfortunately, the potstickers are nowhere near as good as the bao – they were utterly flavorless, just a flavor void.  This is surprising since the ingredients include soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger and yeast extract (a way food companies add MSG to food without having to include it on the ingredient list).  At best these dumplings served as a dipping sauce delivery vehicle.  I really hope that they bring back the ground pork product, I want to make my own vegan OMNI pork dumplings again.

Plate and bowl by Dumpling Hunter

Posted in Dipping Sauce, Frozen Dumpling Review, Gyoza, Pan Fried, Pork, Potsticker, Vegan, Vegan Recipe | Leave a comment

MoonNight, Philadelphia, PA

Posted on August 11, 2025 by rundlea

Philadelphia’s MoonNight serves Vietnamese and Japanese dishes, including Pho, Ramen, Chả Giò, Gyoza, Buns, Bánh Mì, Yakitori, Crispy Garlic Wings, and Fried Wontons. MoonNight serves several vegan options, including vegetarian spring rolls, spicy cucumber, vegie dumplings, a ramen, a Pho, and a Seitan Banh Mi. They also sell lots of fruit tea, some green teas, milk teas, smoothies, and Vietnamese coffees. It is a small brightly lit restaurant with 5 or 6 tables. This review reports on my first trip there, when I just needed a snack, and I will be going back to fully explore the menu.

The Dumplings: MoonNight sells pork gyoza, veggie gyoza, deep fried pork and shrimp wontons with sweet chili sauce, steamed veggie dumplings, pork buns, fried curry chicken dumplings and, because this is Philly, cheesesteak buns (cheesesteak, pickled cucumber and lettuce). I tried the pork buns which come two to an order and are steamed fluffy white buns, stuffed with braised pork belly, pickled cucumber, lettuce and a sesame spicy mayo dressing. These buns were delicious, the braised pork was tender and tasty and I really enjoyed the mayo dressing, which had a decent kick. There was enough sauce on these buns that eating them is a little messy.

The Location: MoonNight is on E. Passyunk Ave, just south of Mifflin street. The E. Passyunk Ave corridor is one the major nightlife districts in Philadelphia and has tons of restaurants, cafes and bars. MoonNight is very close to a triangular pocket park, which is home to the statue of the legendary Philly boxer Joey Giardello. This park has a few tables and is a great place to eat some to-go food from MoonNight.

Posted in Bao, Buns, Japanese, Philadelphia, Vegan, Vegetarian, Veggie Dumplings | Leave a comment

Because I Don’t Only Eat Dumplings: A Review of Lay’s Chinese Potato Chips

Posted on July 31, 2025 by rundlea

I spend a lot of time in Asian grocery stores picking out frozen dumplings to try. I am also fascinated by the packaged snack aisle, especially the huge variety of Lay’s Potato Chips from all over Asia. Why do we have so few flavor options marketed to us in the U.S.? I recently grabbed four bags from Lay’s Chinese flavors product line.

Roasted Garlic Oyster Flavor

These are my favorite of the four bags I sampled for this post and the best of all of the flavors I have tried over the past year. These chips have a legit, solid garlic flavor and totally remind me of roasted oysters.

The ingredients are pretty cryptic, the third flavor is “food flavor”. The ingredient list includes Disodium 5′-ribonucleotide, aspartame (sweetener) and TBHC (oil stabilizer which prolongs shelf life). Disodium 5′-ribonucleotide works synergistically with MSG to produce umami flavor.

Smoked Rib Flavor.

The ingredient list includes only a few ingredients I associate with BBQ ribs. “BBQ seasoning” is listed, but appears to mainly be comprised of salt, sugar and yeast extract, the last of which is a way to get MSG into food. Far down the ingredient list there is ginger, star anise and ginger, which I associate with Asian BBQ flavor. Soy sauce is listed three times among the ingredients. MSG is high up the ingredient list and in combination with the yeast extract, you know that there is a good dose of MSG in these chips (not that is a bad thing).

The chips have a vaguely porky-savory flavor but no discernible smoke flavor or BBQ flavor. If you are looking for a nondescript savory flavor these chips will work.

Zibo Barbecue Style

I did not understand the concept of this variety of chips. Zibo Barbeque Style have a nondescript savory flavor without any particular flavor profile or direction. The ingredients list “Zibo Barbecue Seasoning (citric acid, Disodium 5′-ribonucleotide, aspartame)”, which provides no clue as to what this chips are supposed to taste like.

I think part of the confusion is that, as best I can tell, Zibo BBQ describes a style of eating not a signature flavor. Zibo is a city in China that became a viral foodie destination in 2022/2023 for its outdoor BBQ restaurants. In the Zibo style of BBQ, you grill meat skewers on tabletop charcoal stoves and then wrap them in a thin crepe or pancake with a raw green onion stalk and a smear of hot sauce. Other than mentions of cumin commonly being an ingredient, I have not been able to find a description of a unifying flavor for Zibo BBQ, it appears that lots of different sauces and marinades are used.

It seems like these potato chips are not really about a specific flavor profile but invoke a style of dining. The packaging depicts what appear to be chunks of grilled meat, on a crepe with a scallion stalk.

Hot and Sour Lemon Braised Chicken Feet Flavor

I can find recipes and YouTube videos for Lemon Braised Chicken Feet (柠檬凤爪), so I think this is a legit Chinese dish. Of Lays Chinese flavors, this one is one of the best and these chips deliver the exact flavor promised on the bag – they are hot, sour and lemony. I am not sure if there is any contribution of chicken feet flavor, but from what I have read chicken feet do not have much flavor, which is part of why they are often cooked by braising them with strong aromatics and spices.

These chips also have a cryptic ingredient list – the third ingredient is “Flavor”. Followed on the list by our friend Disodium 5′-ribonucleotide, and then DL-malic acid (a sour flavor), capsaicin, aspartame and TBHC.

Posted in Chinese, Pork, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hong’s Dumplings – Frozen Dumpling Review

Posted on July 13, 2025 by rundlea

In the overwhelming, colorfully kaleidoscopic frozen dumpling aisle at H-Mart, Hong’s Dumplings caught my eye for its austere black and white packaging. It reminded me of the generic black and white labelled “Food” and “Beer” eaten in the classic film Repo Man. Hong’s Dumplings are made by Hong Jin-kyung Co., Ltd, founded by the South Korean model, variety show host, comedian and actress, Hong Jin-kyung.  Her food business began in 2004 focused on kimchi and achieved the No. 1 spot in online kimchi sales.  The company soon expanded into dumplings, japchae, galbi, gomtang, doenjang, gochujang, and various sauces.

I picked up a bag of mushroom dumpling and a bag of kimchi dumplings, which were both excellent and are both are vegan.  The kimchi dumplings are filled with kimchi, glass noodles, tofu, dried radish, green onion, onion, and leek. The dumplings have strong kimchi punch and are quite spicy, but a little oily. The front of the packaging for the mushroom dumplings features shiitake and black fungus, so I was surprised that these dumplings did not have a strong mushroom flavor and tasted more like a traditional veg dumpling.  When I looked more closely, I saw the package says, with a surprising precision, shiitake 4.18% and black fungus 3.69%.  The filling also includes carrot, green onion, tofu, dried radish, onion, cabbage and leeks.  So with these dumplings you won’t get much mushroom flavor but they are a very tasty veg dumpling.  Both of these dumplings are going to become a staple in my freezer.

Posted in Frozen Dumpling Review, Kimchi, Korean, Pan Fried, Potsticker, Vegan, Vegetarian, Veggie Dumplings | Leave a comment

Chengdu Center City, Philadelphia, PA

Posted on July 6, 2025 by rundlea

Su Xing House, Philadelphia’s long running vegetarian Chinese restaurant has closed and been replaced by Chengdu Center City, an outpost of University City’s Chengdu Famous Food.  Chengdu serves Sichuan style Chinese food but thankfully has kept a lot of Su Xing’s vegetarian dishes; the General Tso’s Seitan is excellent.  Su Xing House will be missed a great deal, but I have been enjoying Chengdu a lot and Philly still has Unit Su Vege serving excellent vegetarian Chinese food.

The Dumplings:  Chengdu has a good selection of dumplings and buns, several of which, including the steamed and pan-fried dumplings, are vegan.  The steamed dumplings, which are filled with cabbage, carrot, chive, radish, green onion, ginger, garlic, and soy, were good, but not as good as remember Su Xing’s being.  The Pork Wonton’s with Chili oil were very good, and I am definitely going to get these again. Part of what I liked about their wontons is that they had lots of excess noodle for the sauce to cling to.  The chili sauce had lip and tongue tingling Sichuan pepper corns as an ingredient, which is unusual in this dish.

The star of the meal though was the, construct it yourself, Five Spice Pork buns.  This dish arrives as a platter of sliced braised pork belly, a bowl of Hoisin sauce, slivered scallions and cucumber, and three white fluffy steamed Lotus leaf style buns. These buns are sort of clam shell shaped and have a horizontal fold that can be opened up so the buns can be stuffed with your choice of filling.  This dish lets you build a bun with your personal mix of savory and sweet flavors and mix of pork meat and pork fat.  My only complaint with this dish is that it only comes with three buns, while there is enough pork belly and greens to fill five or six buns.

The location: Chendgu Center City is on Sansom Street near the corner of 15th street.  This block, between 15th and 16th street, is a row of excellent bars and restaurants.  As an appetizer before going to Chengdu, I got a couple of happy-hour oysters at the Sansom Street Oyster House, which I highly recommend.            

Posted in Bao, Buns, Gyoza, Pan Fried, Philadelphia, Pork, Potsticker, Sichuan Dumplings, Wontons | Leave a comment

Din Tai Fung, Santa Monica, CA

Posted on June 28, 2025 by rundlea

Continuing my tour of U.S. Din Tai Fung locations, on a recent trip to LA I checked out the Santa Monica location.  I have long argued that Din Tai Fung’s Xiao Long Bao are over-rated and Santa Monica reinforced my point of view.  On the plus side the dumplings are consistent across locations and visits and they are rarely over cooked, but I have had more flavorful soup dumplings at plenty of other dumpling spots.  For this outing we got two steamers of pork soup dumplings and a steamer of pork and truffle soup dumplings, which were amazing at the downtown Seattle location.  All three steamers of dumplings suffered from the same issue, the top of the dumplings, where the folds were pinched together, were dry and crunchy.  Our hypothesis was that the dumplings had not been made to order and had been sitting out for a while. As a result, the tops dried out and the steam cooking was not able to refresh this denser part of the dough wrapper. 

The Vegan Spicy Wontons (filled with bean curd, baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, glass noodles, and jicama) and the Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Pot Stickers were both really good and far more enjoyable than the soup dumplings.  The pot stickers were prepared with a golden crispy skirt of fried batter, which I always enjoy. The steamed vegan dumplings had the same filling as the vegan spicy wontons, and were good, but I preferred the wontons. Din Tai Fung has also upped it vegan game in recent years, the Spinach with garlic and String beans with garlic were both great.

Posted in Chinese, Gyoza, Pan Fried, Pork, Potsticker, Shanghai, Steamed, Vegan, Vegetarian, Veggie Dumplings, Xiao Long Bao | Leave a comment

Mr. Paik’s Noodles, Grenada Hills, CA

Posted on June 15, 2025 by rundlea

I have been a fan of Baek Jong-won (aka Mr. Paik) since becoming addicted to his show Delicious Rendezvous during the pandemic.  The Korean food documentaries that he co-hosts on Netflix are also excellent (the KFood Show A Nation of [Insert Korean Food] series and the [Insert Korean Food] Rhapsody series).  He has several global restaurant chains and a large packaged food company.  But he has been taking some heat lately for poor quality control across his empire and he has stepped back from hosting TV shows to focus on his food companies.

His Korean-Chinese fast casual chain, Mr. Paik’s Noodles, now has 300 locations, and I recently tried the Granada Hills, CA location.  The Jjamppong (noodles, vegetables, seafood and pork in a spicy broth) and the Tangsuyu (sweet and sour pork) were both excellent.  We also got the Mapo Tufo, which I am not a fan of overall, but my dining companions reported that the version at Mr. Paik’s was very good.  The two-part Netflix show Jjajangmyeon Rhapsody gives a hunger inducing overview of Korean-Chinese food, including covering Jjamppong and Tangsuyu.

The Dumplings: Mandu (dumplings) came to Korea from China, so it makes sense that they are part of the Mr. Paik’s Noodles menu.  Deep fried, pork and vegetable filled dumplings are the only style that serve. The dumplings were really tasty, but a little greasy, they needed to have been shaken a little more before serving to remove the grease.  I pounced on the dumplings as soon as they arrived at the table and the first dumpling I had was deliciously crispy.  But then I got distracted for a few minutes by the other dishes and by the time I returned to the dumplings the bottoms of the dumplings had gotten soggy with oil and lost their crunch.  My recommendation is to eat the dumplings first, while they are still crispy.     

The Location:  There are 14 Mr. Paik Noodles locations in California with a bunch of them in the LA area.  The local intel is that because the locations are franchises, the quality varies a lot between locations, with the Grenada Hills location being the best. This location is at 10650 Zelzah Ave, at the corner of Kingsbury Street.

Posted in Chinese, Gyoza, Jjampppong, Korean, Los Angeles, Mandoo, Noodles, Pan Fried, Potsticker | Leave a comment

DD Soup Dumplings & Hibachi

Posted on May 25, 2025 by rundlea

I generally avoid the Times Square area in NYC, but I needed to get A to the train after a session at Local 42, a great dive bar on 9th ave, and ended up walking along 42nd street. Thankfully I stumbled upon DD Soup Dumpling & Hibachi, which is a fusion restaurant that sells Shanghainese soup dumplings and shumai, American-Chinese food and Teppanyaki with the full show experience.  Teppanyaki is food cooked on a large flattop grill in front of group of diners, and the cooking is accompanied by a show put on by the chef, who might juggle utensils, flip food through the air, and create flaming food volcanoes.  Teppanyaki is thought to have originated in 1945 in Japan when the restaurant chain Misono developed the concept of cooking Western-influenced food on the teppan (flattop grill).  This concept proved popular with tourists to Japan but not so much among the Japanese.  Teppanyaki restaurants focusing on Japanese diners sell yakisoba and okonomiyaki and downplay the show.  Teppanyaki was popularized in the US by the Benihana chain.          

DD Soup Dumpling & Hibachi has a half dozen Teppanyaki stations, table seating for maybe 20 diners and a small cocktail bar. The Chinese menu has a Dim Sum with a good selection of dumpling options, and then sections covering all the usual American-Chinese dishes.The Teppanyaki menu offers a wide selection of grilled meat options. 

The Dumplings: The Dim Sum menu offers pork soup dumplings, crab meat and pork soup dumplings, pan fried veg and pork dumplings, steamed shrimp dumplings, steamed chicken dumplings, boiled seafood and pork dumplings, Shanghai style sticky rice Shumai, Shepherds purse wontons, steamed veg dumplings, pan fried pork buns and vegetable buns with mushrooms.

Both styles of soup dumpling were excellent, with a lot of flavorful soup and tasty meat filling.  They were also prepared really well, so they were blazing hot but not over cooked, and each of the dumplings maintained its integrity as they were lifted out of the steamer.  Too often soup dumplings are over cooked and the wrappers lose their integrity and the soup spills out, either in the steamer or when you pick them up. 

We also got the pan-fried pork buns, which were also really tasty and actually had soup inside. But the buns needed to be fried a little browner on the bottom to develop deeper flavors from the Maillard reaction. But I will give DD Soup Dumplings props for actually having soup in their pork buns.  In the US you rarely find restaurants serving pan-fried pork soup dumplings (Shen Jian Bao) with actual soup in them.  It always seems like the soup has been absorbed into the soft, bready bun wrapper during the cooking process.

The Location:  DD Soup Dumplings and Hibachi is on 42nd street between 8th and 9th avenues in NYC’s Times Square neighborhood.  I am hoping that DD stands for Dumplings on the Deuce. 

Posted in Bao, Buns, Chinese, Dim Sum, New York City, Pan Fried, Pork, Sheng Jian Bao, Soup Dumpling, Steamed, Xiao Long Bao | Leave a comment