dan modern chinese - pasadena — Restaurant in Pasadena

We’ve been here three times and hope it’ll stay as good as it is!

Our favorites are their vegetable dumplings (steamed), short rib and mushroom noodles, xiao long bao (juicy dumplings) with pork, and our new favorite—classic black milk tea with boba!🧋

Their vegetable dumplings are filled with leafy greens and thin glass noodles and the flavors are subtle yet tasty—and addicting! The wrapper is chewy and thin. I haven’t had veg dumplings like these anywhere else. Try enjoying them without adding any sauce. It has a unique herby and savory taste. This dish is by far my favorite of favorites.

The short rib and mushrooms go well together with the greens and the chewy thick noodles. I think a tad bit less sauce would be even better for my liking, but it’s still pretty well-balanced. The short ribs are tender and they don’t skimp on the short ribs! The dish has the flavors of fire and adds more depth to the flavors. The portion is generous.

The xiao long bao are well-executed. The wrapper is so thin but they didn’t tear when we picked them up! They’re handmade (can’t stand machine-made xiao long baos!), and each dumpling is full of juice!!! I love putting it in the spoon with the sliced ginger and black vinegar and slurping it. Soooo good.

Lastly, tried boba tea cause we saw it being served in a glass. When do you ever see boba tea actually served in a glass?? The black milk tea didn’t disappoint. The boba was cooked fresh and chewy (very important) and seasoned in black sugar syrup. The tea wasn’t too sweet, and they used real milk (not non-dairy creamer). I wish all boba tea places do the same!

I love that the only trash we had after eating all of the food was just the napkins, a straw and the straw wrapper. Thank you for minimizing waste!

Every time we’ve been there, service was top-notch, employees seemed to enjoy being there, restaurant was clean and you can see the entire kitchen through the big windows. I don’t have to worry about the cleanliness inside the kitchen or how my food is prepared.

The pricing is very reasonable considering the quality of food, services, location, environment and vibe. This place has become our go to for modern...

Peaceful dumpling restaurant for a nice hangout.

Parking: The location of this restaurant is in a hip part of Pasadena. It's been a while since I've been in this area and it was refreshing to come back. Parking can be found across the street at The Commons for a fee, but I parked a block over for 90 minutes free behind Veggie Grill.

Wait Time: I was expecting Dan to be super packed since many people compared this place to Din Tai Fung. Din Tai Fung is notorious for their long wait times, but Dan had absolutely no one inside except for my friend and me. The time it took to prepare the dumplings was kind of slow, or maybe I was hangry. Either way, the quality is there and with delicacies like their xiao long bao, it's worth the wait.

Food: I enjoyed the xiao long bao at Dan and would compare it to Din Tai Fung's because of the price. I would rate it higher than Din Tai Fung, in the xiao long bao category, and would strictly order xiao long bao when I come back again. They held up well and were filled with a lot of soup, which is very comparable to the ones I've tried in Shanghai. This is definitely a quality item and the star of the meal.

We also ordered pan fried dumplings and crispy dumplings, but I prefer the crispy dumplings over the pan fried. I love the sound of a crispy, crunchy dumpling. I also ordered the short rib dan mein which had a balanced amount of short rib. The noodles were savory, slightly sweet, and full of flavor, but the texture of the noodles had more chew than I was used to. The portion doesn't look big, but it did fill me up. With the quality of the meat, I think $20 is fair for this dish.

Overall, I would come back for the xiao long bao and the crispy dumplings. I'm resistant on giving this a 5/5 because the portions are kind of small and you'd probably see me running back to Mama Lu's to...

Holy crab this place is delicious!! Move out of the way Din Tai Fung because Dan is truly a competitor. The wait is definitely much shorter than what you'd expect at DTF and the food is so much better. It's located right next to Philz Coffee in The Commons so it's a small little shop that packs a punch. Why I say this place is better than DTF is because their XLB (xiao long bao) is juicier and bigger than DTD. Let's face it, DTF calls it juicy pork dumplings but it's not juicy at all. The ones here have soup inside the dumplings!

My friend and I ordered both the pork XLB and the pork and blue crab XLB. The pork one is what you'd expect but it's the pork and blue crab that got me hooked. The crab flavor is definitely powerful so you'll be able to taste it on first bite. It's definitely not subtle like other places that serve pork and crab XLB. We also ordered their crispy dumplings (pork & pork and crab). Compared to the XLB, their crispy dumplings aren't as juicy but still flavorful, at least the pork and crab. If I came back the next time, I would skip the pork crispy dumpling.

We also ordered the oxtail noodle soup, which was a major disappointment. It was the first to come out and it looked delicious but taste wise was mediocre. The dish itself wasn't hot; lukewarm at best. The broth tasted like chicken broth (I think) so maybe that's what contributed to the lack of taste. The last item we ordered was their seaweed salad and that was refreshing as it can be. Although when it came out, it didn't seem like there was any seaweed at all since I observed more Bea sprouts than seaweed. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the seaweed salad and it made a great balance between the dumplings we had. Overall, we were pleased to have visited this restaurant and would definitely come back to try more items...