My 5 Favorite Dumpling Spots In NYC's Chinatown

If you eat in NYC's Chinatown as often as I do, you lose the sense that you have to fork over an entire paycheck to get a delicious meal. Of all the items crowding menus in these densely packed blocks of Lower Manhattan, few can rival the dumpling in terms of price and convenience. I won't pretend you'll be getting a sleek ambience or top-notch service with your dumplings. More often than not, these savory, doughy morsels are served in a to-go container into which I squeeze some vinegar and sriracha on my way out the door, only to enjoy them on a park bench or a neighborhood stoop.

But therein lies the beauty of the dumpling: It is a food free from pomp. I've eaten dozens upon dozens of dumplings in Chinatown in the 15 years I've lived in New York, and with each one, my palate has become more keen to what a dumpling should be. A modest mound of well-seasoned meat tucked into a pocket of thinly stretched dough should exude a savory flavor uplifted by the brightness of chives or the earthiness of cabbage. Dumplings should be served hot, so a good dumpling place should be turning them out quickly. When you see a line at a dumpling restaurant, it's usually a good sign that portends a hot, fresh snack. If you find yourself in the neighborhood with a taste for dumplings, you're in luck. Here are my five favorite dumpling spots in NYC's Chinatown.

If you come to Shu Jiao Fu Zhou around lunchtime on a weekday, you'll likely witness the popularity of this Grand Street dumpling powerhouse first-hand. Tables are full, and a line can form with the suddenness of a summer storm, only to vanish moments later, as the cashiers and cooks at this Chinatown eatery serve dumplings at a jaw dropping pace. Given how fast you get them, the fact that a line can even form at all is a testament to the restaurant's quality and price.

The menu at Shu Jiao Fu Zhou is beautifully simple, with pictures and numbers that streamline the ordering process. The restaurant only accepts cash, and you should arrive at the register with it in your hand, so as to not slow down this Swiss watch of dumpling delivery. I live and die by the pork and chive dumplings; they're meaty, salty, and so fresh you can sometimes see the steam rising up off them when you open your to-go container. The dough enrobes each chunk of ground pork with a chewy consistency that's stretched to a thickness that doesn't distract from the filling. The boiled dumplings are the classic and up until recently, the only choice. The restaurant recently added a pan-fried option to the menu, and I'll admit my loyalties now lie with this crispier dumpling; I find the salty, fatty crunch irresistible. Shu Jiao Fu Zhou also happens to have some of the best noodles in Chinatown, so if you want something other than dumplings, you're in luck.

If you're familiar with restaurants in Chinatown (and you don't suffer from some complex that makes you equate quality dining with white table cloths and a sommelier), you'll find North Dumpling perfectly charming. This bite-sized dumpling house on Essex Street only has a handful of seats, and part of the dining area is used for storage. Stacks of cardboard boxes loom over you while you dress your dumplings with a plastic bottle full of vinegar. One of many cash-only restaurants in the neighborhood, North Dumpling is amazingly affordable. As of February 2026, you'll fork over just $4 for a plate of 10 pork and chive dumplings (my favorite variety), making it one of the best spots for casual cheap eats in NYC.

The dumplings are well-seasoned, with a notable hint of ginger that's more pronounced than at some other Chinatown dumpling haunts. The pork is savory and has the perfect balance of fat and salt, a power duo that makes these dumplings hit all the spots on your taste buds. I will note that they vary in quality depending on freshness. Sometimes, fate smiles upon the hungry dumpling lover, and the dough is stretchy and crisp. And other times, you happen upon an older batch. While the filling is still praise-worthy, the dough gets a little stiff and starchy, but with the price of these dumplings, it's well worth the gamble.

As the name suggests, you should show up to this Hester Street dumpling house expecting nothing short of the crown jewels of NYC Chinatown's dumpling scene. Like the other eateries on this list, King Dumpling's modest interior won't win any awards for interior design, but what it lacks in chic ambience, it more than makes up for with the high quality of its dumplings. Once again, the pork and chive dumplings are the variety that has a vice grip on my heart — and they're better pan-fried than steamed.

The dumpling dough is thicker than average at King Dumpling, which I've heard gripes about, but I don't mind it because it has a stretchy texture and it envelops a mound of pork filling that's nicely seasoned and positively bursting with the allium taste of bright green chives. You'll want to hit the ATM before you go on a dumpling tour of Chinatown. This is yet another cash-only establishment. But don't worry about draining your bank account. You can get a whopping 10 dumplings for just $4. It's not listed on the menu, but if you're just looking for a snack, you can ask the person at the counter for a half order, and you'll get five dumplings for $2. Dumplings always taste better at a restaurant, and in this case, they're probably cheaper, too. So there's no reason not to indulge at King Dumpling.

This dumpling dive near the bottom of Mulberry Street is controversial among my dumpling loving friends. Some decry the dough as being too thick, and while I don't totally disagree, this little restaurant punches above its weight in a few other categories that make it easy to forgive a little extra dough. Tasty Dumpling offers more variety than your average dumpling shop, for instance. The menu boasts shrimp and chive dumplings, a vegetable option, and (my personal favorite) a soup with wontons stuffed with shrimp, pork, and watercress, which happens to be the most nutrient dense vegetable out there.

Tasty Dumpling is also marginally more expensive than some of the other options on this list, but it also has a bit of seating inside, and hey, real estate is not cheap in New York City. However, "more expensive" is still just $2 for a plate of four pork and chive dumplings, and note that you'll have to pay with cash. In addition to its wider variety of offerings, this Chinatown standby offers a kick of extra heat in the form of bottles of chili oil that you can find around the restaurant. Squeeze a dash atop a hot pile of dumplings (the pan-fried are better than steamed here). The chili oil isn't super spicy, but it complements the salty, fatty, umami character of the pork and chive filling flawlessly. And it's a welcome departure from the watered down sriracha, the only spicy condiment offered at most of the restaurants on this list.

Dumpling shops are a masterclass in culinary humility. Jin Mei, for instance, announces itself only with a weathered red awning adorned with Chinese characters and the word "dumpling." It would be easy to miss this palace of savory pork pockets, if not for the long line that forms on the sidewalk outside. Jin Mei is also known as "the dumpling lady" for the woman in charge of this Chinatown institution. And whatever she's doing, I hope she keeps doing it for a long time.

Once again, pork and chive reign supreme. The dumplings are bursting with expertly seasoned pork flecked with bright green chives and wrapped in thinly stretched dough that's nutty and chewy. The fried variety is crisp on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside, with enough fat that it dribbles down the edge when you bite it in half. Fifteen dumplings will set you back only $5, but, as you may have expected, it's to be paid in cold hard cash. The interior is devoid of seating and mostly used for storage, so many patrons eat on a neighboring stoop, doing a bit of loitering just to be able to sit and enjoy these porky pockets of pure pleasure while they're still hot and fresh.