Mama's Dumpling & Coffee — Restaurant in Richmond

If you were to ask what one food item seems to cross cultural boundaries, it’s probably the humble dumpling. Whether you call it a dumpling, gyoza, perogy, ravioli, or samosa… every culture has some form of dumpling. And, if you ask someone, they’ll usually say that no one makes dumplings like Mama (I don’t know from experience because my mother never made dumplings – but that’s another story).

The reason why I’m talking about dumplings (and dumplings made by Mama in particular) is because I heard about a place called Mama’s Dumplings out in Richmond. As it so happens, we were out at the Richmond Sunflower Festival in September and decided to stop by Mama’s Dumplings for some lunch afterwards. First thing that you need to know is that Mama’s is a bit difficult to find if you don’t know where they’re located. They’re actually in a semi-industrial complex located behind the Coppersmith Shopping Centre.

Once you find your way inside, grab a table and a laminated order sheet to decide what you want to eat. When you’re ready, bring it up to the front counter to order and pay. Apparently, they’re known for their Shanghai-style fried pork buns but this usually takes a while to come out so we stuck with some basic items… Fried Beef Rice Noodles aka Chow Fun ($10.99), Mapo Tofu ($9.99), Nanxiang Style Xiao Long Bao ($6.99), and Boiled Pork and Cilantro Dumplings ($10.9).

First off, the XLB were pretty good. The skin was fairly thin and there was an adequate amount of “soup” in the filling. Despite the XLB being freshly prepared and steaming hot, I didn’t find the filling to be super hot. Perhaps that’s a good thing because you don’t want to burn yourself on the liquids… just found that a bit odd. In any case, a pretty respectable dumpling in my opinion… even better because none of the dumplings broke.

Next up was the boiled dumplings. These puppies have a thicker wrapper (which is required to withstand the boiling process). There’s a number of different variations that they have available and I found the pork and cilantro to be pretty good.

We don’t order Mapo Tofu very often but sometimes you just have a craving for it. Generally, I prefer the ones with meat in it but I didn’t mind this version. It had a nice level of spiciness but wasn’t overpowering. You really need some type of carbs to soak up the sauce and white rice is the perfect vessel for that job.

Last up was the modest Chow Fun dish. It really doesn’t get much more like comfort food that a plate of pan-fried noodles. This particular version is a bit basic… rice noodles, onions, and beef. A couple of sprigs of chopped green onions would have made all the difference here.

So, overall, if you can find this place, it’s got some pretty good Shanghainese dishes.

Update Apr 2024: It's been about 4 years since our last visit here and sure enough, we got a but lost trying to remember where it's located.

Ordered the #101 Nanxiang xiao long bao ($7.99), #108 Stewed beef green onion pancake wrap ($6.99). #503 Shanghai style fried noodle with pork ($10.99).

We liked the beef pancake as it had enough hoisin sauce to it. Also good noodles but it could have used with a bit more wok hei. Juicy dumplings still. Very quiet here with only one other customer that showed up...

Four of us came to try out this restaurant after work because this place’s got good Google reviews. Hidden gem and all that jazz. Food is okay. I’ve had better pan fried dumplings elsewhere in Richmond. The experience we had there was HORRIBLE, so horrible that I need to leave a Google review for it.

Went in at 6:45 pm and was told that we could not dine in because they’ve cleaned up all the tables for the day when their opening hour on Google and front door sign clearly state they close at 8 pm. We were told we can still order take out since their take out last call is 7:30 pm. So we decided to do take-out. Okay, not a big deal.

While we look through the menu, we asked politely the middle aged Chinese lady at the counter what food items were popular among diners because it’s our first time here and wanted to try a variety of their food. Not only she didn’t answer us, she rushed us to order instead. Mind you that the take out order last call is 7:30 pm, and it was 6:50 pm at the time.

While waiting for the take out, one of us went to use the washroom. The middle-aged Chinese lady went to see the washroom after and complained loudly that our shoes were dirty, and she needed to clean the bathroom floor again. She then proceeded to shut the washroom door, and put a chair in front to block it, while us heard her complaint, and watching her in an arm length. 🙃

This is undoubtedly the worst the service I ever had. I’m also extremely disappointed and embarrassed by this Chinese lady’s rude attitude as I am Chinese, and her behavior doesn’t represent my values and culture.

I personally will never come back to this place. The location is truly hidden, pretty sure...

We ordered dumping, fry bun, rice dish, beef roll, non of them called tasty, and all use paper plates, plastics, we were there dine in, not for take out! They put one temperature detector on the entrance, which is good, so, why can't they use proper plates for dine in customer⁈ Plus, I've never had beef roll with no sauce apply inside⁈ No water supply? Don't say the paper plates and utensil are good for environment, ( single use container if it's paper made, yes it can be degradable, but how many tree have to be cut down to make the papers⁇also restaurant use plastic container for rice dish for dine in, single use? If not, how you do with plastics ⁇) if take out you may have no choice, but dine in ⁇ I just can't believe this, run a restaurant must have a dishwasher, should be enough for cleaning the dishes for dine in customer, if reuse the utensil will cause the disease, it means your dishwasher not qualified‼

I think good reviews mostly from years ago, but even inflation, bad corp,etc..the flavour of food shouldn't change‼ We still go several restaurants to dine in to support them， they all doing hard to hold their business, price went up, acceptable, reduce food volume acceptable, but don't use proper ingredients and don't care food flavour, quality, presentation, that's not respect to the customer. Sorry ‼ I give a bad comment, but restaurant want to continue for long term need to hear this, restaurant may have in a good location (in the light industrial business area, no other comparison) but if restaurant keep like this eventually will be closed. Hope it can...