ShanDong Dumplings

Services were bad. The waitress did not write down my orders and naturally she messed it up. The dumpling stuffing contains a lot of fat and my son threw up after finished one. Overall very bad experience.

This restaurant has the best Chinese hand made dumplings in town. Price is a little expensive though.

Dumplings are handmade just behind the counter, which is lovely to watch. And while I don’t think they’re super special, they do the job.

Extremely disappointed, now i know why this place was empty. Food not good, dumlings fell apart and super small meat portion inside. Too expensive for low quality. Not friendly to english speaking customers. Will never go back there ugh. Plus woman at the counter demanded a tip, unprofessional.

Worst experience ever! Very pricey for a restaurant in San Gabriel. Their beef roll was very bland. Dumplings were small. They even included gratitude on the final bill without telling us, and we only had two people. I almost gave them more tips if I didn’t check the bill. Stay away!

I’d probably give ShanDong Dumplings 3.5 stars, but will round up because I can picture myself coming back again.
THE FOOD:
Their mini fried buns with pork (sheng1 jian1 bao1) did not have any soup/​juice in a single one, which was disappointing to me. I didn’t find them to be anything special, just A-​OK. However, my spouse really enjoyed them.
The items that I did enjoy were the juicy pork steamed dumplings (xian1 rou4 xiao3 long2 tang1 bao1) and the juicy pork & shrimp steamed dumplings (zhu1 xia1 xiao3 long2 tang1 bao1). These were very juicy, and I personally liked that the soup was more of a clear broth that did not taste too oily, too salty nor sweet like some other places.
Other than these 3 dumpling dishes, my spouse and I also ordered the shredded seaweed cold appetizer (leng3 cai4: hai3 dai4 si1), which was a simple side dish with lots of garlic.
THE ODDITIES/​ANNOYANCES:
— The restaurant charges for tea, and does not serve water unless requested.
— The tables are not placed with spoons, nor are you given a spoon unless you specifically ask for one. This seems odd to me for a place that specializes in soup dumplings.
— The soup dumplings do not come with shredded ginger, which may be the first time I’ve encountered this.
— The vinegar and soy sauce containers are not labeled.
— The menu items are priced to the exact cent, with no rounding. Kind of odd… as if you’re paying a «market price» for each item. You can also see how nearly all items have increased in price, and see their historic crossed-​out prices on the menu.
— On a Saturday evening at 6:30PM, a bunch of the menu items were sold-​out or unavailable.
— Credit cards not accepted. Not that unique, I suppose, for a Chinese restaurant in the SGV.
Now, despite the list of oddities/​annoyances, I still felt like the meal was enjoyable and the dumplings were decent. I can see myself potentially coming back here if I’m in the Hilton plaza and too lazy to go to one of the other dumpling places in the immediate vicinity.

Place was really good. You probably can’t tell from how empty it was but if you were to give it a chance you would be blown away by the food. Super authentic, delicious and flavorful.

This is the most ridiculous experience with this restaurant. First the menu is less than 30 items with half of the menu were crossed out. With limited choices, we ordered one xiaolong bao, one order of dumplings, and noodle. The most shocking thing is the noodle was not coming out from the kitchen, but coming in from outside, from another restaurant within the same plaza. It had plastic wrap covered it. I think they heated the noodle with microwave. No water or drink is served. The whole experience is terrible.

Cash Only establishment!
Had a morning event nearby and decided to grab a bite here since they open early (7am). Service was fine. However, it would have been much more helpful if the staff had advised us before ordering as to which items on their menu were available before 11am. That way, we wouldn’t have had to play the game of, «How about this?» «Sorry, that’s not available until after 11am as well.» It was frustrating, especially after having spent a few minutes deciding as to what we were in the mood for and ordered accordingly.
In the end, there would be no noodle soup for us as those weren’t available until after 11am. So, we ordered their scallop & coriander dumplings (steamed), soup dumplings (xiao long baos), and Shandong pancake (a Chinese donut wrapped with a thin layer of fried egg and scallions.
The soup dumplings were made from a batch that was made at their sister location, Muse Restaurant, on the other side of the mall. Good flavor, but some lost their broth as the wrap broke apart when you pick them up to eat. The ground pork filling was generous but dense, making them not as delicate as they should be.
Of the 3 dishes, the scallop & coriander boiled dumplings were tasty. Wrap was a little on the thicker side, and each was stuffed with a good sized piece of scallop.
We may come back to try the dishes we wanted to try but weren’t available during breakfast hours.

I eat here almost every day.
Food always consistent big fan of juicy pork dumplings and scallion pancake
Heard new location opening soon in Pasadena… will def try it out

Was in the area dealing with cellphone stuff and decided to grab a bite to eat. Decided to try something new, so walked in here. We did notice that there was another place a couple of units away. The one we were looked like they were still fixing up, since there were still some boxes laying around. Ordered the spicy beef noodle soup and beef dumplings with my mom and split it. The level of spice does vary for ppl, but we thought this was really good. Looked Sichuan spicy, but wasn’t overpowering. Good heat and flavor blending for us. The noodles looked like they were pulled. Thought the dumplings were good. You have the option of ordering 12 or 30. Went with the former option. Definitely a little shop I would return to try some other dishes

the owners daughter. EXTREMELY ANNOYING. I honestly love eatting here but after just meeting the daughter I’m not sure if I could ever come back… Her obnoxious voice echos though the whole store. Just the way she acts makes you loose your hunger she’s bratty and acts way above what’s she worth. Everything she says is very snappy and last but not least her mother should give her the uniform because no one what’s to see what she’s trying to show off. (that muffin top isn’t very appealing)
I know it might seem like I’m bagging on her but I’m just so disappointed. Normally I come in and it’s just her sweet mother and the foods so great and fresh… Her daughter just ruined my experience I’ve never felt this annoyed at a restaurant

parking: free parking down stairs
environment: they are a dual restaurant with the place near by in the plaza. this store seems empty bc there is less than 20 seats but the ladies are always busy making food. they are very concerned if our food is great. they wrap dumplings, or the bread on the spot so the food can be more fresh. do note it may take looker bc it isnt frozen food.
food: xiao long bo is the bomb here. tbh screw the ding tai fung lines and come here bc everything is so much better and tastier. the san jian bo here is pretty good to. its very good on the skin and meat inside. the way they cook it, is perf.

Came here just for boiled dumplings and chives box, and they don’t disappoint at all. The chives are fresh, tender not over cooked and very juicy, the dough is just right, not too thick. The dumplings are home made and fresh. Both items are not too salty.

Ordered the fried pork, pork soup dumplings. The spicy frog and a chicken sesame noodles. Slow getting food out. The wife and I had tummy issues within an hour.

Not worth going to. Their portions are so tiny. I ordered the wonton soup and I thought it came with noodles, but it didn’t. I mean. 5 to 6 dollars for just small pieces of wonton? They need to stop being so cheap, especially in the San Gabriel area. Not cool.

Move over Shanghai Dumplings, Din Tai Fung, and 101 Noodles, another dumpling house is in the house! And it’s called Shan Dong Dumplings.
They are basically located at the famous Hilton Plaza in San Gabriel. Is this place good? Yes, their Xiao Long Baos are good, but still not great. The meat inside is not as flavorful as their counterparts across the plaza. The dumpling skin is similar… thin, which gives a business an advantage over other the places that serves the same food. These guys at Shan Dong are coming around strong. You complain about that.
We also had their beef noodle soup which again is okay. The flavor was there with the thick noodles. And the soup base was stronger. An authentic northern Chinese style cuisine.
Service here can be an issue if you don’t speak Mandarin. We’re barely able to speak it, so it was better. The waitresses seems to get a little intimidated hearing us speak English. But all was good. You would just have to be patient and flag them down. The lady making our dumplings does not really keep an eye out. She’s busy filling the Xiao Long Bao orders.
Shan Dong Dumplings is still new. So they need to still get the growing pains of running a business together. At least I see them trying. Sooner or later they should be fine.
Good luck! Three stars to start. They can easily improve after time.

Cash only.
Thought this was Shanghai Dumplings, so we went in and sat down. Until the bf noticed the sign. Ops, oh wells, let’s just give it a try. Actually, it wasn’t too bad.
Beef noodle soup: Pretty good, although the soup wasn’t hot enough. Pulled noodles tasted homemade.
Juicy Pork shao long bao: It’s no DTF. the meat is pretty small, but definitely juicer than DTF.
Scallion Bao: I think that’s what it’s called. Mistakenly ordered this. Wanted the pan fried dumplings but settled. I liked it. Reminds me of the juicy buns from Shao Mei.
There wasn’t many diners, but one other guy. I was afraid the food would turn out bad, but surprisingly not.
One thing I noticed: the man walked out and came back with a plate (with another plate covering it). The man then brought the plate over, which was the scallion buns we ordered. We wondered why he left and came back with that dish. Perhaps, the kitchen was located elsewhere? Then when we left, we saw that on the other side of the plaza, was a different restaurant with the same type of menu. Clever, they are working together.

Juicy Pork Dumplings fell apart each time I picked one up. The meat itself was kind of hard rather than succulent and tender as compared to Mama Liu’s for example.
Stir fried veggies were good but small quantity for $ 7 dish. You get 3x more food at noodle world but the ingredients here were better.

Family run restaurant. Hand made dumplings. It’s good. It’s small and clean. We had the celery pork dumplings and cabbage pork dumplings. They come in 12 or 30. I recommend the 30. Like home made dumplings they ate small. 12 will go quickly. Trust me. We also had the beef noodle soup which was pretty good. We changed our order a few times because they told us many of the items were no longer available. Or not available for the day. We ordered cucumber salad they were out of that too but the guy serving us quickly ran out to get some cucumbers. He came back fast and had them ready.
I just hope they streamline their operation and keep the menu up to date. I want them to succeeed.