Dumpling Express

Good but no longer in business.

This place is no longer there.

This place closed :(but the food was good!

** CLOSED **
How sad.
When I was younger and had a more entrepreneur spirit, I always thought about opening a Dim Sum To Go place in Cerritos. I always felt that there would be a demand for Dim Sum in Americanized (yet still cultured) cities like Cerritos.
I figured that having a tasty dim sum «a la carte» would cater to the masses who don’t have the time or don’t really do Dim Sum.
Much to my surprise and envious happiness, this Dumpling Express opened last year in the Palms Food Court of the Cerritos Mall. Yay! My idea was vindicated and I thought that «If I only I acted on my intuition» and opened this place myself.
Now I realize that maybe my idea wasn’t so feasible after all. Maybe there is no demand for Dim Sum To Go. Oh well, at least I didn’t lose any money with the closure of this business. But I am saddened that this concept didn’t flourish.

I like the concept and how it still maintains a clean kitchen environment consistently. Usually most Asian food places get worn out and abused pretty quick… it could be because of all the grease and oil.
Thankfully dumplings don’t require that much grease or oil. In fact, I think it’s just steamed for the most part.
This particular location in the food court has been a bad luck space. There have been several things in this food court location prior… the most recent was Great Wraps and I think an Indian restaurant before that.
But with the arrival of this dim sum place, I think the direction of the chi has changed and feng shui order has been restored.
There’s a pretty constant flow of people who come here, and I personally have only gone here once when they just opened. The electronic menus are reminiscent of the kinds you see in Indian casinos out in the desert. I like how they employ that new form of technology into the store though. It makes it more attractive and can communicate a lot more information.
The dumplings are made in-​house fresh every single day. I know this because there is a person standing off to the side behind bulletproof glass who labors all day to make your dumplings. There’s always a tall stack of the filling meats and the guy just starts laying them out in the dumpling wrapper and creates trays of them in no time. Think of him as the equivalent of the guy working at a Wetzel’s Pretzels rolling the dough and making the pretzels.
The quality here is pretty good. Though I feel it’s pricey for what you get (one or two item combo over rice is hardly enough to fill a hungry man like myself). Thankfully, the time I went there, the lady saw how disappointed I was at the portions and how much they were charging me, so she offered to throw in an additional shiopao bun to sweeten the deal.
That made me feel better and earns this place an extra star.

Tried this place after reading reviews on here, figured I would try something new. Fast food dim sum? Totally wanted to try out. Finding parking at the Cerritos Mall on a weekend during holiday season? I would have rather shaved off my eyebrows, but I braved the crowds anyway. It actually turned out pretty good. I shared the 4 item combo with a friend. We got the shrimp dumpling, egg rolls, pork dumpling, and sesame balls. Everything was pretty good, but the biggest hit with me was the sesame balls. A perfect sesame ball is soft and chewy inside with warm filling but crispy on the outside, and the ones I got from here were just that. Fresh taste and texture. I would probably come back here just for the sesame balls.

I love this place, for a food court walk up style restaurant, this place has pretty good Dim Sum! I’ve had everything, the pork buns are my favorite and the prices are good too! You’ll get full on $ 7 bucks including a drink!!!
Mmmmmmmm Dim Sum in a mall, too bad they don’t deliver!

The only thing that I hate about this place, is the fact that there is only one! and so far away from me!!! :(
This beats any food court restaurant there is!
Bye bye Panda Express!!!
Dumplings forever!!!
Awesome spot!
their pork dumplings are great and their rice noodles… yum! of course… with their amazing dumpling sauce!
Love it, love it, love it!!!

The prices are reasonable enough. It’s in the range of what one would pay at a dim sum place. I guess the main selling point here is for you to be able to get dim sum food without going to a restaurant. Meh, don’t waste your money. Happy House close by is far superior, just phone in your order instead and don’t bother stopping by here.
The egg tart, while deceptively delicious (sidenote: I hate Jessica Seinfield) looking, had a piddly amount of filling. The dumplings looked decent enough, but were falling apart, and the wrappings for said dumplings were just weak and mushy. The BBQ pork buns are decent, but other than that, save your money and go elsewhere.

So either I’m getting lazy or it’s easier to get Dim Sum fast. I am surprised that no one has thought of this idea. I mean Dim Sum at the mall???
Well, I was a bit hesitant because I had never seen this, but to my surprise, everything was great!!! I am so all about coming back for more dumplings and other Dim Sum goodies. Also, the dumpling sauce was… mmmmmmmm!

This food stand is one of the newest eateries that had opened up in the food court of the Cerritos Mall.
The concept of this place was simple where they offered several items you can find on a traditional dim sum staple and put it out with a rice or noodle packaged as a combo meal. Think of it as a glorified Panda Express going dim sum.
The price of it was not that bad at $ 9 for three items with a side of rice or noodle plus a soda drink. I guess when you are thinking of shrimp dumplings (hai gaw) or pork dumplings (shoumai), you can get it out of your mind it’s now a food court items. They also have plenty of steamed buns (BBQ Pork or chicken) and other simple array of dishes in dumpling size for your choices.
The advantage of going to a dim sum places are still there. The price of item is still cheaper. The freshness of cooking these dishes still goes to the restaurant (where it’s a bit over done here) and the amount of choices are still going to be at any restaurant outside of Empress Pavilion.
I still like this new idea of pick and choose of which simple dim sum item you want. I found one in Monterrey Park that is part of the restaurant that served that. I guess it’s something that you don’t need to wait at a long line at lunch in a restaurant for.
The simplest thing in the world without those stamp cards and old ladies pushing the cart. How great is that?

Ok I was a little skeptical of this place at first. Fast food dumplings? Anyway I love almost anything dumpling so I decided to give it a try. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The food was absolutely delicious. They had combos where you could add rice and a drink and make a decently complete meal. I think the reason I didn’t give it a 5 star rating was because for the normal person the menu could be a bit intimidating. There isn’t any description of what the items are. I knew what to expect from some things, but others I was just shooting in the dark.
This place is definitely a plus to anyone who loves dumplings and I plan to frequent it more in the future! BTW my opinion may be a bit skewed because of my affinity for dumplings…