Dumpling Bar San Marino — Restaurant in San Marino

Artisan Cafe style Taiwanese/Chinese food? Not typical dish styles or taste you'll see around 626. Reason I think theur dishes are delicate or artisan style. Quality and cleanliness of food are nice. There aren't many restaurants in San Marino so this place will stand out. They offer beer (no wine or other alcoholic drinks right now). I'd imagine this place to be a good take out/pick up place for San Marino and North Alhambra residence.

No outdoor seating. I believe the outdoor patio tables belong to the cafe next door.

$12.99 Dumplings (8pc). My cousin liked this. I enjoyed the quality.

$17.99 Taiwanese Dan Dan Noodles HAS NO PEANUTS for us Americans!! It'll usually have peanuts but it's catered to the US demographic full of extreme peanut allergies. Comes with pork katsu. Noodles were good texture.

$7.99 Shao Mai (4pc)

$12.99 Chicken Spicy Wontons. Dough seemed different from many wonton places I've tried.

$6.99 Cucumber Salad. Loved this! Out of everything, I think I will remember to order this again.

$9.99 Imperial Xiaolongbao (6pc). Better than expected!! And I'm extremely picky. I'm not a fan of din tai fung and many places. This xiao long bao has a thin wrap, delicate. Inside is fresh. I'll have to come back to retry this.

$18.99 Braised Beef Noodle Soup is brothless. It's different from mainstream broth type. It reminds me more of jiajia mien. Staff mentions it's the traditional style? Our families are from Taiwan, and never knew this? Maybe regional style we're not used to?

Taiwanese Chef was super nice and engaging. If you speak taiwanese, you may get a special treat? Crispy wonton sugar was nice.

We ordered a lot of food to try. I'll come back to retry the dumplings and xiao long bao. And try a new noodle dish, or stick with the Dan...

The Service: The employee of the year definitely goes to SUN!! It's a one man show. She is the host, server, busboy & cashier. Super efficient!! She is moving in & out the kitchen non-stop AND she is attentive to every table. Impressive customer service!

The Food: This is what I called "comfort food". The chefs in the kitchen are working as a great team. Food are served quickly. They are steamy hot too.

Since it is called Dumpling Bar. We definitely have to try their Xiao Long Bao & steamed dumplings. Yes! Very juicy inside Xiao Long Bao! Lots of meat filling of their dumplings. Good price too. If you like spicy & more strong flavor, try the Chicken Wonton. The spicy sauce is so good that I dipped all my dumplings in there.

Scallions pancake is always my must order on the menu. Their pancakes are thicker & very flaky inside with lots of scallions. Extra effort for the chef to knead the dough.

Sun recommended us to try their noodles dishes. So we ordered Taiwanese Dan Dan Noodles with fried pork cutlet and Braised Beef Noodles Soup. OMG! I think their noodles are handmade because great texture & chewy. The seasoning is just perfect. Not overly salty. Love the plating presentation too. They are very generous with the meat portions.

We saw they have dessert buns, chocolate & custard flavors. We were too full but we will definitely come back again & try them.

The Parking: Street parking (2hrs free) & more parking at the back

They have a very small cute courtyard sharing with a sandwich shop &...

I was told my food will be ready in 20 mins. 30 mins have passed and everyone else after me got their food. And they even gave me someone else’s food and realized and took it back. Then 40 mins have passed and I complained and the servers and I guess the owner can’t communicate and didn’t know what was going on. The owner only speaks Chinese and the servers basically only speak English. They didn’t know where the food was going. I didn’t get my food until 50 minutes later! And I waited there the whole time! All they did was apologize to me but didn’t remedy the situation. I got the food and most of it was cold by the time I got home. None of the dumplings came with any sauce. I had to cancel other plans waiting for this food. If I would have known it would take this long, I would have asked for a refund. This whole experience was ridiculous and I would give this a 1 star but the food was decent. They were very unorganized from the ordering to making the food and serving it. I hope they get their stuff right soon before their grand opening because they can’t handle even serving a few tables now...