For Anna’s birthday, she requested that we organize a Xiao Long Bao crawl of the San Gabriel Valley. Ten hours and eleven stops later, this is a summary of our journey through the San Gabriel Valley.
Fortune Dumpling
Gathered the beginning of the crowd. Got an order of Xiao Long Bao and Pan Fried pork meat pie. Menu looked really tasty, however was not that special. UPDATE: Yelp reports Fortune Dumpling is now closed. The SGV is a cutthroat place to open a sub-par Chinese restaurant.
Wang Xing Ji
Sweet and savory Xiao Long Bao. Famous for large Xiao Long Bao that you drink from a straw. Also smoked plum juice and hot and sour soup. Soup was heavy on the black pepper. Smoke plum juice is really Smokey. Dumpling have good skin, sweet filling. UPDATE: Yelp reports this has been renamed to Long Xing Ji.
J & J / Jin Jiang RestaurantÂ
Mmm. Still my favorite xlb. Crab and pork has a ball of crab surrounded by pork.
Flavor Garden
Highly recommended by a friend of ours. Kinda slow. Eat the beef pie, Xiao Long Bao not the best.
Dim Sum Express
While waiting for Qing Dao Bread Food… bonus stop walk up dim sum.
Qing Dao Bread Food
Take out. 10 minute wait for the fried dumplings.
Din Sin World
Small restaurant, such that our party of 12 took over the entire place. Solid Xiao Long Bao.
Emperor Noodle
Got Shanghai rice cake. Xiao Long Bao. Pan fried pork dumplings were both beautiful and tasty. Jonathan Gold agrees.
Luscious Dumplings
Pan fried are king here, though the Xiao Long Bao is definitely something you should also order. The tofu appetizer was pretty tasty, too.
Hui Tou Xiang
The end is in sight! Kimchi went well with their Xiao Long Bao. The dumplings seemed pretty similar to those from Dean Sin World.
Sin Bala
Boba to top the crawl off. And some sausage with about a head of finely minced garlic on top. We recommend the Kumquat lemon slushie, but honestly all their slushes are top notch.
Map of all the places we went during the crawl:
Interested in more reviews like this? Let us know in the comments!
