If you were to ask me yesterday where the best dumplings in San Diego were, I'd just say there are a couple of places that are okay, but no strong endorsements.Meet Dumpling has completely changed that for me; they are the real deal. This family is from Northeast China, and in China their area is famous for being 水饺 (boiled dumpling) masters.Everything we tried was "the best" (read, our favorite) version of that dish that we've had in San Diego, and any one of them would have been top tier even back in China.The flavors here are perfectly balanced, the ingredients are high quality and fresh, and you can tell the owners and staff put incredible care and a huge amount of work into this place.Their daughter is also super cute and sassy! I still haven't beaten her in Uno but I'll be trying again soon.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup, Steamed Dumplings, Celery w Beef Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings, Green Chive w Shrimp & Pork Dumplings, Green Chive Pockets
Caden Sun
super cute small dumpling shop. great service and
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
matt b.
We are HUGE dumpling geeks and we LOVE this authentic northern Chinese dumpling spot. It's legit. We are about halfway through trying everything on the menu (it's a modest size menu) and can't wait to reorder some of our favorites and new items too. All the pork dumplings are amazing and we really like the cucumber salad, shredded potato salad, and pancakes. It's a cute and small and clean and new space but has kind of a sixties diner charm feel. You can watch through a window as the kitchen makes and prepares your delicious treats from scratch in the kitchen. It's a family run little business and the people could not be more friendly. A great new addition to our roster of favorite dumpling joints. Oh, and it is very reasonably priced! Love this place! Well earned perfect 5-Star.
Laura G.
Wow!!! What a hidden gem!!! Quaint little place. Obviously handmade every thing! Yeeeeees! Yees! Yes! Chive pockets were AMAZING! Beef noodle soup is a CAN NOT MISS... make sure you get dumplings in your favorite flavor because they are ALL GREAT!
Kimberly B.
Deeeeelish! Family owned and operated amazing food. Dumplings made fresh and there is a window into the kitchen so you can watch them being made. Small space wise but very clean and well run. We had the tofu dumplings and the pork and cabbage dumplings. Tons of dumplings for a reasonable price, especially considering the quality.
Vivian T.
I came to Meet Dumpling and what was going to be a takeout order resulted me in dining in. The space itself was small and can fit parties of up to 4-5 but I wouldn't recommend any parties larger than that. The menu was a short selection of appetizers and dumplings. I split an order of Cucumber and Wood Ear Mushroom Salad, Marinated Beef, and Pork, Shrimp, and Chive dumplings. The cucumber salad was the most flavorful, but extremely garlicky. If you love garlic, you will want to order this! The worker suggested we dip our dumpling into the sauce as well. It was a nice appetizer and the smashed cucumbers were a nice crunch. The marinated beef was straight forward and was served chilled with some sweet sauce. It was bland so I ended up dipping it in the cucumber salad sauce. The chive dumplings were soft and had a generous amount of filling inside. The wrapper could be more chewier in my opinion, but the flavor of the chives was prominent. The condiments on the table included soy sauce, vinegar, and sambal chili. I do wish I knew that they had chili oil on the table as well, as I ordered a takeout order and they provided some in the bag. Chili oil is a must I feel like for some more flavor to dip the dumplings! Overall, Meet Dumpling is more casual than expected with average prices for their set of dumplings and appetizers. The location does prevent me from coming back, however, the flavor was excellent and nothing is over the top here.
P P.
Food: we had chicken mushroom dumplings, wood ear mushroom salad and scallion cakes. All were delicious. The dumplings were hand made fresh to order and oh so good. The salad dressing was so tasty we dunked our dumplings in it. The scallion cakes were crispy delicious. Because everything was made to order and the restaurant was understaffed on this day, our food did take 45 minutes. Luckily, we were not in a rush. Service: attentive Ambiance: cozy and clean Recommend!
Ed A.
My wife and I dropped in here on a random Saturday night. Great service. Great food. Simple menu but great quality and flavors all around! We will be back.
anthony h
Stopped in last night and really enjoyed our meal. Got the wonton soup, the pork+shrimp dumplings, the scallion pancake and finally the cucumber salad. Everything tastes fresh and the dumpling wrappers are so soft!If I could recommend anything, it would be for the owners to use black Chinese vinegar instead of the clear. I'm nitpicking but that's the only thing that would have made it better.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Wonton Soup, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
Cathy G.
Charming family run dumpling restaurant. We enjoyed the pork, shrimp and chive dumplings and cucumber woodear salad so much we got a bag of frozen dumplings for home. They have a wide variety of dumplings to choose from. I look forward to returning to try the unfamiliar ones.
Beautifully crafted authentic dumplings.I look forward to tasting all of them!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Carrot w Beef Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
Felisha Dix
We will definitely be back for more. Sending our family here too! We absolutely loved the dumplings and the cucumber salad with mushrooms.The beef soup - has a sechuan spice, delicious meat, bochoy, and noodles. We liked it, mainly because sechuan is the best. Although I do wish it were smaller like an appetizer so we could have had more dumplings ?The shrimp and pork dumplings - so fresh and delicious, we are dumping connoisseurs and this was by far the best we've had. Fresh ingredients inside and wonderful flavor.Wood ear mushroom and cucumber salad - fantastic vinegar flavor, such a great addition to any dish. We even dipped our dumplings in the sauce. My husband at one point was ready to drink the leftover liquid marinade before we left!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
Clay Wilson
It’s a small little place. But it is totally worth it. I was in town for a couple of days for work and I really wanted to give it a try. The dumplings were the best dumplings I’ve ever had outside of Beijing. The scallion pancakes were fantastic and the celery and peanuts were fantastic. 1000% if you’re looking for a really solid meal that is remarkable. Go here.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Green Pepper with Pork Dumplings 14pcs
Wanting H.
It's our first time visiting Meet Dumpling after seeing some good reviews on Yelp. It's a small dumpling restaurant, but very popular! They were really busy on a Saturday night with many take-out orders, as well as dine in customers. We decided to order a spread of food, so we get the best sample of their dishes. There are the dishes we had: Cucumber and Wood Ear Mushroom Salad - highly recommend! Excellent flavors. The cucumber was so refreshing and crunchy. It's a perfect way to start the meal. Green Onion Pancake - least favorite item of the night. It was fried too much, so it was hard to actually taste the green onion pancake. For the quality of the green onion pancake, it would be better to pan fried it instead of deep fried. Beef Noodle Soup - excellent flavored soup. It's slightly spicy, but very tolerable even for people who don't usually eat spicy food. The noodles were softer than what we usually like. If they would cook it more firm, it would be perfect. Chive and Pork and Shrimp dumplings - excellent quality! The filling flavors were great. The dumpling skin looked handmade and good quality. We ended up buying 2 bags of frozen dumplings home. We would totally come back again! It's a cute dumpling restaurant that has good dumplings.
Kelly H.
Best dumplings I've ever had. We live up the street and my husband walked them 15 minutes to our house and they were still perfect. We had the mushroom chicken dumplings and I can't wait to try all the others. Great addition to the neighborhood. :)
If you were to ask me yesterday where the best dumplings in San Diego were, I'd just say there are a couple of places that are okay, but no strong endorsements.Meet Dumpling has completely changed that for me; they are the real deal. This family is from Northeast China, and in China their area is famous for being 水饺 (boiled dumpling) masters.Everything we tried was "the best" (read, our favorite) version of that dish that we've had in San Diego, and any one of them would have been top tier even back in China.The flavors here are perfectly balanced, the ingredients are high quality and fresh, and you can tell the owners and staff put incredible care and a huge amount of work into this place.Their daughter is also super cute and sassy! I still haven't beaten her in Uno but I'll be trying again soon.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup, Steamed Dumplings, Celery w Beef Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings, Green Chive w Shrimp & Pork Dumplings, Green Chive Pockets
super cute small dumpling shop. great service and
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
We are HUGE dumpling geeks and we LOVE this authentic northern Chinese dumpling spot. It's legit. We are about halfway through trying everything on the menu (it's a modest size menu) and can't wait to reorder some of our favorites and new items too. All the pork dumplings are amazing and we really like the cucumber salad, shredded potato salad, and pancakes. It's a cute and small and clean and new space but has kind of a sixties diner charm feel. You can watch through a window as the kitchen makes and prepares your delicious treats from scratch in the kitchen. It's a family run little business and the people could not be more friendly. A great new addition to our roster of favorite dumpling joints. Oh, and it is very reasonably priced! Love this place! Well earned perfect 5-Star.
Wow!!! What a hidden gem!!! Quaint little place. Obviously handmade every thing! Yeeeeees! Yees! Yes! Chive pockets were AMAZING! Beef noodle soup is a CAN NOT MISS... make sure you get dumplings in your favorite flavor because they are ALL GREAT!
Deeeeelish! Family owned and operated amazing food. Dumplings made fresh and there is a window into the kitchen so you can watch them being made. Small space wise but very clean and well run. We had the tofu dumplings and the pork and cabbage dumplings. Tons of dumplings for a reasonable price, especially considering the quality.
I came to Meet Dumpling and what was going to be a takeout order resulted me in dining in. The space itself was small and can fit parties of up to 4-5 but I wouldn't recommend any parties larger than that. The menu was a short selection of appetizers and dumplings. I split an order of Cucumber and Wood Ear Mushroom Salad, Marinated Beef, and Pork, Shrimp, and Chive dumplings. The cucumber salad was the most flavorful, but extremely garlicky. If you love garlic, you will want to order this! The worker suggested we dip our dumpling into the sauce as well. It was a nice appetizer and the smashed cucumbers were a nice crunch. The marinated beef was straight forward and was served chilled with some sweet sauce. It was bland so I ended up dipping it in the cucumber salad sauce. The chive dumplings were soft and had a generous amount of filling inside. The wrapper could be more chewier in my opinion, but the flavor of the chives was prominent. The condiments on the table included soy sauce, vinegar, and sambal chili. I do wish I knew that they had chili oil on the table as well, as I ordered a takeout order and they provided some in the bag. Chili oil is a must I feel like for some more flavor to dip the dumplings! Overall, Meet Dumpling is more casual than expected with average prices for their set of dumplings and appetizers. The location does prevent me from coming back, however, the flavor was excellent and nothing is over the top here.
Food: we had chicken mushroom dumplings, wood ear mushroom salad and scallion cakes. All were delicious. The dumplings were hand made fresh to order and oh so good. The salad dressing was so tasty we dunked our dumplings in it. The scallion cakes were crispy delicious. Because everything was made to order and the restaurant was understaffed on this day, our food did take 45 minutes. Luckily, we were not in a rush. Service: attentive Ambiance: cozy and clean Recommend!
My wife and I dropped in here on a random Saturday night. Great service. Great food. Simple menu but great quality and flavors all around! We will be back.
Stopped in last night and really enjoyed our meal. Got the wonton soup, the pork+shrimp dumplings, the scallion pancake and finally the cucumber salad. Everything tastes fresh and the dumpling wrappers are so soft!If I could recommend anything, it would be for the owners to use black Chinese vinegar instead of the clear. I'm nitpicking but that's the only thing that would have made it better.
Atmosphere: 4
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Wonton Soup, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
Charming family run dumpling restaurant. We enjoyed the pork, shrimp and chive dumplings and cucumber woodear salad so much we got a bag of frozen dumplings for home. They have a wide variety of dumplings to choose from. I look forward to returning to try the unfamiliar ones.
Restaurantji Recommends
Beautifully crafted authentic dumplings.I look forward to tasting all of them!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Carrot w Beef Dumplings, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
We will definitely be back for more. Sending our family here too! We absolutely loved the dumplings and the cucumber salad with mushrooms.The beef soup - has a sechuan spice, delicious meat, bochoy, and noodles. We liked it, mainly because sechuan is the best. Although I do wish it were smaller like an appetizer so we could have had more dumplings ?The shrimp and pork dumplings - so fresh and delicious, we are dumping connoisseurs and this was by far the best we've had. Fresh ingredients inside and wonderful flavor.Wood ear mushroom and cucumber salad - fantastic vinegar flavor, such a great addition to any dish. We even dipped our dumplings in the sauce. My husband at one point was ready to drink the leftover liquid marinade before we left!
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Beef Noodle Soup, Shrimp and Pork Dumplings
It’s a small little place. But it is totally worth it. I was in town for a couple of days for work and I really wanted to give it a try. The dumplings were the best dumplings I’ve ever had outside of Beijing. The scallion pancakes were fantastic and the celery and peanuts were fantastic. 1000% if you’re looking for a really solid meal that is remarkable. Go here.
Atmosphere: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Recommended dishes: Green Pepper with Pork Dumplings 14pcs
It's our first time visiting Meet Dumpling after seeing some good reviews on Yelp. It's a small dumpling restaurant, but very popular! They were really busy on a Saturday night with many take-out orders, as well as dine in customers. We decided to order a spread of food, so we get the best sample of their dishes. There are the dishes we had: Cucumber and Wood Ear Mushroom Salad - highly recommend! Excellent flavors. The cucumber was so refreshing and crunchy. It's a perfect way to start the meal. Green Onion Pancake - least favorite item of the night. It was fried too much, so it was hard to actually taste the green onion pancake. For the quality of the green onion pancake, it would be better to pan fried it instead of deep fried. Beef Noodle Soup - excellent flavored soup. It's slightly spicy, but very tolerable even for people who don't usually eat spicy food. The noodles were softer than what we usually like. If they would cook it more firm, it would be perfect. Chive and Pork and Shrimp dumplings - excellent quality! The filling flavors were great. The dumpling skin looked handmade and good quality. We ended up buying 2 bags of frozen dumplings home. We would totally come back again! It's a cute dumpling restaurant that has good dumplings.
Best dumplings I've ever had. We live up the street and my husband walked them 15 minutes to our house and they were still perfect. We had the mushroom chicken dumplings and I can't wait to try all the others. Great addition to the neighborhood. :)