Hu Chiang Dumpling House

Everything was a tad bit too salty here.
There were rave reviews about the Shanghai dumplings a.k.a. Xiaolong Bao (XLB). I thought the skin was a bit thicker than it should have been, and the soup was definitely saltier than it should be. We also ordered the Sheng Jian Bao (pan-​fried dumpling), which I felt was better than the shanghai dumplings. These were flour buns with ground pork and soup inside. The outside was moist with a crispy bottom with hot soup and meat on the inside, topped with black sesame seeds. They were really well made! I would probably come back here for this.
We also ordered the spare ribs (# C12), but they were a bit on the sour side with a LOT of vinegar added. If you inhaled too much when you ate, you would start coughing (I speak from experience). This dish was also on the salty side. The last dish we ordered was the fish with cucumber melon. This was pretty well done, although the fish had more of a fish ball texture rather than fish meat. It still tasted good though.

YUM! I personally love the crab+pork and the green vegetable one! I could eat it for days while drenched in Red Vinegar!
They also have this crunchy sweet roll with a milky dipping sauce! mmmmmmmm… I can taste it now!
Go here for your fix of Xiao Long Bao. I’m sure people compare it to Ding Tai Fung in LA.

On a Sunday night, every restaurant in Cupertino Village was packed… every one except Hu Chiang Dumpling. I actually found that a bit odd because I don’t think Hu Chiang is worse than any of its counterparts. Perhaps it’s because Hu Chiang’s price point is a bit higher and you know how Asians can be when it comes to money…
We ordered Hu Chiang Tang Bao — pretty good but it definitely came with the DTF pricetag without the DTF quality. My favorite was the eggplant and basil dish. We also ordered black pepper beef and it was pretty standard.
Service was extremely bad. It took forever to get someone’s attention to even place an order and it took even longer to try to pay. But I guess no one goes to Chinese restaurants expecting good service.

Dear HC:
I came in here for lunch the other day and I ordered four different dumplings. What happened to your big sized dumplings? I went to couple places in China last year for xiao long baos and I wanted to reminisce eating those tasty morsels again! They are still tasty, but not as soupy as before. To my disappointment, the dumplings are smaller and had less soup, which equals less taste! Please make them bigger again!
Sincerely,
Dumpling Eater and Lover

Ever since they changed ownership, HC has downsized their dumplings! The filling itself is about the same size, but the «pouch» is noticeably smaller, and therefore less soupy goodness! See how it spills over the spoon in Jennifer Z’s photo, linked below? Now it fits neatly inside the spoon!
I’m sad. :(In the case of HC’s Dumplings, size does matter. Bigger explosions, please!

I’ve been here before, but I never had the chance to review it. I LOVE dumplings, and I’ve been looking for a great homemade dumpling restaurant ever since the beloved Dumplings and Noodles restaurant closed down. I was a little scared that this restaurant would have too much MSG, but my craving for dumplings convinced me to try this place again.
I was right… the dumplings had a lot of MSG. We ordered the scallops, crab, and shrimp/​loofah (what is that?). I’d forgotten how small these dumplings were. I only ordered the small plates. I can’t believe they were around $ 5−6/plate. So each dumpling came out to more than $ 1.25! It stung a little as I devoured my 2 pieces from each plate.
We ordered small plates, because we had other dishes coming. We also ordered the pumpkin seafood soup. It was missing the key ingredient — pumpkin. I didn’t taste it at all although I did love the seafood inside. This soup surprisingly had less MSG than the dumplings.
We also ordered the asparagus beef. I ate 1 piece of beef, and that was the end of beef for the night. I don’t get it! How do people consume beef when it’s so tough? I think I needed to borrow teeth from a tiger in order to consume the tough beef in this dish! And of course, MSG.
*sigh* I guess I shouldn’t come back for the sake of avoiding my MSG tension headache and dehydration. I felt the aftermath. If the food is good, you DON’T NEED MSG!
This dinner made me miss Din Tai Fung in Taipei and even L.A. I wish Din Tai Fung would open up a restaurant up here!

My first time eating here was years ago, and I was in love with their dumplings. Since then, my impression of HC dumpling has declined slightly, but I still come.
The dumplings are good, and I like that they provide a generous amount of ginger in their sauce. The spinach and won tons are really good, but leave a strange vinegar-​y coating on my teeth. I wouldn’t recommend the crab dumplings…
The last time I came, they lagged with our fried rice order… I really think they forgot and brought it out last minute (I was ready to cancel it and leave).

This used to be my local Shanghainese/​XLB stop in the South Bay. Last year, I had a horrendous experience where the XLBs weren’t fresh and the eggplant clay pot dish was so oily that I couldn’t even eat it! The owner gave us a coupon for a FREE order of XLBs for our next visit that I didn’t even use before the expiration date!
Fast forward to my most recent visit and it is even worse!
Wine Chicken Appetizer
— Chicken was putrid and smelled like it too… yuck.
— The chicken was all mushy… eww
XLBs w/​Crab Meat
— I still can’t «see» or «taste» the crab meat…
— The XLBs were juicy but the meat inside was crumbly and just nasty…
Green Onion Pancake
— Tasted frozen when it came out zesty hot.
— After the pancake sat out for a few minutes, it was dry, hard, and basically inedible… yuck
Shanghai Stir Fried Noodle
— Our request for less oil was honored but the dish had this weird pepper smell that didn’t seem consistent w/​other Shanghai Stir Fried Noodle dishes I’ve had in the past…
Service was poor as usual and the owner who took our order had no facial expression whatsoever… A waiter did confirm that 5% off is still offered for CASH purchases…
…we did notice the owner toss out the receipt after we paid CASH…

My BF and I came in around 2 pm for a late lunch. My first impression? the strong smell of cigarette smoke inside! There weren’t people outside so it wasn’t coming from the outside. There was no one in the dinning room. So the only place I could point to was the kitchen. We should have just walked out without eating, but I was hungry.
They have a fairly large menu, but we choose from the lunch menu, and got the HC Dumpling Combo and the Crab Dumpling Combo with Kung Pao Chicken and Pork Ma Po Tofu. Be careful, when they say spicy, they mean spicy. The food was good.
But I remember taking a deep breath in the middle of the meal to relax from my burning lips and inhaling more cigarette smoke.
Overall, the food might have been ok, but it’s far over shadowed by the cigarette smoke. I WILL NOT go back again because of the cigarette smoke. What’s the number to the health department? I strongly suspect some one was smoking in the kitchen.

I’ve had THE BEST Xiao Long Bao EVER. And it wasn’t from Hu Chiang. =(
I’ve searched far and wide within Hu Chiang’s Unilocal reviews, hoping to find one that would agree with mine. I was getting a bit discouraged, even the negative reviews raved about the Xiao Long Bao. Then I read Wayne K.‘s and Linda X.‘s reviews and they reassured me that I wasn’t crazy!
I don’t know how they were back in the day but I just recently had the chance to try the XLB at Hu Chiang and wasn’t just disappointed, I was mortified!!! I hate to be so antagonistic but I had to try really hard not to gag. The broth, although plentiful, was flavorless. The meat was really dry inside and soggy on the outside. Because of this, it seems as if the residue from the meat mixed with the soup to give it an awful texture. Add that to the oiliness of the soup and it was just horror in every bite for me. I really, really wanted to like it. I gave it not one, not two, not three, but FOUR tries but it didn’t get better.
The tea they served was mediocre. I couldn’t figure out what kind of tea it was so I looked inside the teapot and found a teabag. I’m not hating on the teabag, but this is the first Chinese restaurant I’ve been to that served tea from teabags.
On a more positive note, my cousin ordered the Kung Pao Chicken and it was edible. It wasn’t spicy like it said it was but it was good nonetheless.
Two orders of XLB and one entrée (Kung Pao Chicken) set me back $ 30 =/​They charge a hefty amount for tea and bowls of steamed rice.

I’m not really sure what happened. I used to believe HC Dumpling was the best in the Bay Area. I came here a couple of years ago and had a fantastic experience. Nowadays, not so much.
On a cold rainy day, craving struck, and off we went to comfort our tummies with hot soup dumplings. Ordered the original HC Dumplings with pork, and one with some kind of squash/​veggie type thing. (it wasn’t all that, not worth it). The skins were so weak that 50% of our dumplings didn’t make it safely to the spoon without accidents (ie, spillage of soup). Some of them had a ring of soup around them before even being picked up. Blasphemy! Also, the non-​original, veggie dumplings weren’t very hot, which was peculiar. I’d definitely stick with the original.
We also got a beautiful 4 selection appetizer. I think for $ 10 you can choose any of the appetizers listed. We got 1. jellyfish 2. drunken chicken 3. garlic cucumber 4. spicy oil beef tendons. All were pretty good but my faves were definitely 3 and 4 (on my list, so garlic cucumbers and beef tendon). The jellyfish was kind of odd and tasteless compared to the other stuff. The drunken chicken was good but there was so little meat. What do you expect for an appetizer sampler though?
Anyway I think this place has become 1. overrated and 2. not affordable enough to make the journey down to Cupertino, esp if you aren’t from the area.

I am just becoming hip to the Dumpling GAME.
Call it NAIVETE, but for a while I couldn’t tell the difference between a pot sticker and dumpling.
Luckily, Unilocal and my educated peeps have shown me the way. Dumplings tend to be steamy, flavorful, Mc Dreamy, and SOFT.
Pot stickers are fried, crispy, and sometimes salty due to the remnants of oil.
Pork BUN, yeah, not sure where that sibling falls in the dumpling family tree.
After reading the reviews on Unilocal,I was really excited to expand my palette. Tragically, and maybe like eating a bland taco, HC didn’t do it for me. My pal Francesca was visiting the bay, and I recommended this joint for us to try.
I had:
Vegetable & Mushroom dumpling-​nothing memorable and kinda bland. Beautiful on the outside, but boring on the inside. Sounds like a shallow girl, right?
Green pancake-​reminded me of naan. Not flaky like Fran had described.
Sauteed Asparagus & lily Bud– I hoped for something light and healthy. I was hoping for something not oily. I kinda got that.
The place is easy to find from the street. It’s in the Ranch 99 parking lot, so parking is tricky. Service is hit or miss. Even if you bring a flag that reads «I have money, help me» they may or may not come to you within 5 minutes of sitting down. Don’t count on being In & OUT.

I just moved to a small town a few hours away and was craving good Chinese food, so my girl Flor suggested we try out this dumpling house. Walk in and it’s fortunately not too busy (after 1pm on a Sunday), we are seated and brought spoons and bowls of vinegar. After that it’s awhile before they take our order. Flor mentioned she read this in other reviews.
Anyway, Flor can’t eat pork, so we end up getting veggie & mushroom dumplings cuz beef sounds weird to me, asparagus w lily buds, and green onion pancake.
The dumplings were ok – cooked well, skin wasn’t too thick or thin. However the filling was really bland. Had to put vinegar & ginger on every bite – I guess this means theirs are truly vegetarian, no yummy meat flavor at all. :p
The green onion pancake was like a boring dry tortilla. I guess they don’t use oil to fry it up? Weird. The best part of the meal was the asparagus w lily bud. Really savory and delicious, nice light garlic flavor.
Overall the place is so-​so. I don’t think I’d go out of my way just for good stir fry vegetables.

We came here for lunch the other day.
We ordered the pork dumplings, the pork and crab dumplings, the scallop dumplings, the pan fried bread (think thousand layer bread), and the sticky rice cakes.
Once we sat they, they automatically brought over a pot of tea and soy-​vinegar-​ginger sauce mixture for each of us. The tables were covered with linens and the napkins were linen too. One gripe I had about it was that the linens were stained– ew.
Scallop dumplings … tasted really. fishy? No good.
Pork dumplings were ok and the pork and crab dumplings were ok. The dumpling skins were kinda thick and they weren’t flavorful at all. They were somewhat juicy.
The sticky rice cakes were as expected– chewy and tasty.
The clear winner was the pan friend bread bun. It came with condensed milk to dip it in. Yum.
If you want good dumplings, look elsewhere. These are mediocre. The pan friend bread is really good though– get that instead! Oh yeah, be prepared to smell vinegar the entire time you’re in there.

This is definitely THE place for dumplings in the south bay. It turns out this place gets better and better with your skill as a dumpling eater.
I used to think ehhhh… why not try a little of everything? But having tried my rounds of various dishes here, I still like the pork dumplings the best. So the deal is to ONLY get pork dumplings, their brand fried rice, and their fried milk buns for dessert.
Here are the tips to make it taste even better.
1. Ask them to leave the lid so you can uncover one tray at a time so the rest do not get cold.
2. Carefully pick up the dumpling and put it in a spoon. Then bite a little hole in the dumpling and suck out the juices. Then sprinkle a little vinegar over it with ginger to your liking. THEN you eat it.
3. Order the fried milk buns after you eat everything else so that the fried buns come out piping hot. Or else they bring it out with the rest of your food and it gets cold =(

I came here for dinner with a group of friends on a Sunday night around 6:45pm, and there were only a few customers eating in the restaurant. As soon as we walked in, we saw the hostess standing near the door. She led us immediately to a secluded round table in the back of the restaurant. It really felt like we were in a little private room that only fits our table.lol. (See Picture)
After looking at the menu, we were all ready to order. Since its a Chinese restaurant, we had to flag down a server.
We ordered the following dishes, which came out in this order:
1) Sauteed Beef fillet with black pepper sauce ($ 9.95) — This was my favorite dish that we ordered. The beef was tender and very flavorful. There was a good amount of green bell peppers and onions. I liked how this dish had equal amounts of beef and veggies.
2) Green Onion Pancake ($ 2.95) — The pancake was sliced up, and it was super thin! I’ve had better green onion pancakes, so this one was just ok. I didn’t really taste any green onion, but just flour.
3)Juicy dumpling with loofah & shrimp ($ 8.95) — The dumpling was definitely juicy. I didn’t taste any shrimp in the dumpling though. It was basically stuffed with loofah, and it was a bit bland.
4) Mushroom & Gluten Puff in clay pot ($ 8.95) — This was another flavorful dish. There was plenty of button mushrooms and black mushrooms. We couldn’t figure out the ingredients for the ‘gluten puff’, but it was tasty. Some of my friends compared it to tofu. =)
5) Shrimp with lily Bulb ($ 12.95) — This dish had a lot of shrimp, but it was a bit bland.
6) Shanghai Fried fat noodles ($ 6.95) — The noodles was cooked perfectly, so it was still a bit chewy. The noodles was very tasty! I noticed this was a common dish at other tables, too.
7) Hu-​chiang juicy pork dumpling ($ 6.95) — I think all customers should order this dumpling dish. The pork dumpling was very juicy! As soon as I bit into it, the juice was flowing out of the dumpling.
Overall, Hu Chiang Dumpling has tasty Chinese food at a reasonable price. If you come here, i’d highly recommend the Hu-​chiang juicy pork dumplings. The service isn’t that great here, but you just have to flag down the servers if you need something.

I’ve been here several times in the past 2 – 3 years, and I came here for a friend’s bday lunch.
– Sunday lunch time — not too crowded, clean, roomy.
– Hu Chiang dumplings — definite order, awesome, may not be the best but fairly good, thin skinned, and lots of «soup».
– rice cake stir fried w/​mushroom and bamboo shoots – (6.95) avg, probably would not order again next time, will try the shanghai thick noodles instead.
– cold appetizer — we got the sampler for $ 10.95, and it was great, you get to pick 2 meat + 2 veggie dishes (smaller portions).
— tofu skin wraps — AWESOME!
— drunken chicken — a little blend, but still pretty good
— spongy tofu cubes + shiitake mushroom — good
— smoked fish — tasteless and dry, will not order again.
overall, will drop by again next time, though at $ 30+ for 3 dishes, this place is not the cheap eats you’d usually expect in Cupertino Village.

This was my last meal in NorCa and I wanted it to be memorable. I succeeded! I’ve been craving xiao long baos for over a month and I heard this place would satisfy.
With my order of pork xlb (8 pieces $ 7) and crab xlb (8 pieces $ 8), I was able to grind on these delicate soup filled dumplings. Plus, I didn’t burn my mouth! When the server brought the bamboo steamers to the table, I waited about 2 minutes and then proceed to carefully pick one up to my plate and take a small bite from the top. At that point, the soup is not blazing hot and I downed the tasty broth. They also include a sauce (soy sauce & ginger based) which went perfectly with each bite. I was impressed with the crab filling because the meat resonated well with the broth.
The service was decent and it was crowded with many patrons ordering the same thing. They must know what they are doing!
So long NorCa! It was mighty nice eating with you! Let’s do it again!

Wow, the dumplings are so juicy! I’ve only had such juicy dumplings in Shanghai (I think). Delicious… we had some pork dumplings and some beef ones, and both were pretty good. I think I might prefer the pork ones though.
We also got eggplant and broccoli dishes. Eggplant was okay, I’m not a big fan of eggplant but it seems like everyone else is… the broccoli was really good though. It had lots of garlic, just how I like it. =D Don’t forget the gum!
Will have to try the xiao long baos next time…
On a Thursday evening around 7:30 pm… we didn’t have to wait much at all. Sweet.
«We only had to wait about 5 minutes b/​c we had this awesome guy named Joe with us who exerted his manly authority to get us in.»

After my disappointing visit to Shanghai Dumpling King in SF (see review), I had to rethink where my go-​to dumpling place would be. While I’d love to fly to Shanghai for some dumplings in Old Town or drive to LA for places like Ding Tai Fung, I needed something close.
Hu Chiang does classic Shanghai dumplings. They’re juicy, tender, and fill you up. While the other dishes are complementary, few, if anyone comes for the other dishes.
The wait here can be a bit long sometime, but it’s definitely the best dumpling place in Cupertino Village and probably the greater Bay Area.
Note: they don’t take American Express.
=====================================================
Additional review info (for HARD-​CORE xiao long bao connoissuers only) — I truly miss and think the best Shanghai dumplings were at Nanxiang Mantou Dian in Old Town Shanghai…8 dumplings for $ 1 USD. I had it 2 – 3 times a week while I stayed in Shanghai and they are the benchmark for all my xiao long bao reviews.
** soapbox speech — I often hate it when someone mentions their favorite «thing» and the only locale where such can be obtained is incredibly remote/​foreign/​expensive. It’s almost as if the person doesn’t want you hopping in your car, driving 10 minutes, and checking it out for yourself if it’s deserving of its rep as a «favorite.» Such comments can range from «the tacos on top of Mount Everest are the absolute best!» to «French Laundry is an orgasmic experience!»
After hearing such exclamations, I often then need to go to the trouble to travel/​book/​dole out money just to see what the hype is about. If it ends up being a total disappointment, a mental note is made and another name is added to the blacklist.
Anyway, point being, I truly thought the xiao long bao in Shanghai were the best. And while that may sound cliché, I’m not just saying that cause you can’t prove me wrong easily.
It’s also another reason I love Unilocal!You read the great reviews and then you can almost always go there yourself.**