Handmade Chinese Dumplings Are Coming to Encinitas

Mini pan-fried buns, or thumb buns, served over a drink tumbler.

A new dumpling restaurant is opening in the Encinitas Village Shopping Center where it will soon join other restaurants like the Cottage Encinitas and Isabelle Brien’s French Pastry Cafe. Dumpling Bar is backed by the team behind Taste of Hong Kong, Kanpai BBQ, and the resurrected China Max, which is slated to reopen later this year.

Customers will able to see the dumplings being handmade in the restaurant’s open kitchen, with varieties that will include soup dumplings or xiao long bao, potstickers, steamed dumplings with Kurobuta pork and shrimp or vegan fillings, and chicken won tons in chili sauce. Another specialty will be mini pan-fried buns, also called thumb buns, piled into containers balanced on top of tumblers of soda, Thai tea, or boba milk tea; the convenient street snack is popular in China and can already be found at trendy spots in Irvine and Los Angeles. Dessert dumplings with sweet fillings of chocolate, red bean, or black sesame will also be available.

Front exterior of the restaurant.

Co-owner Shuai Liu tells Eater that the team is “excited to bring a great dumpling restaurant to North County where the dumplings will be house-made, not frozen.” Other offers from Dumpling Bar’s menu range from appetizers and soups to fried rice and stir-fried noodle dishes.

Dining room area.

Construction of the Encinitas restaurant is complete but the team is still waiting for certain permits to be approved by the city. Dumpling Bar’s opening could be any day now, but while they wait, Liu and co-owner Yingkang Lu are focusing on operating their existing restaurants like Kearny Mesa’s Kanpai BBQ, which recently expanded its extensive hot pot menu to include Chinese barbecue items that are grilled at the table.

Pan-fried buns cooked over a flame.

Sweet and sour pork baby back ribs.

Buns with black sesame seeds.