Dumpling Hours

I love having a good dumpling place near me. The XLB was full of soup and flavorful. We also got the green beans, dan dan mien, chili wontons, and chicken wings. Everything was so good!

My only wish is that they take reservations so I can book some work lunches here!

- Ginger & Scallion Noodles 4/5
- Pork Xiao Long Bao 5/5
- Hot & Spicy Pork Xiao Long Bao 3.5/5

I've been really excited to try Dumpling Hours for a while now, and finally had some extra time to stop in for lunch today. This restaurant is very cute and comfortable, and there was a lot of seating open around 11:30 am. By noon, it had almost filled up completely.

You order through a QR code on the table, and food came out really quickly. The servers were still attentive despite the QR code system and it being peak lunch hour.

I ordered the XLB Pork dumpling and the green beans with garlic. Both were great, but not the best I've ever had. There are a few places in SF that I feel have better XLB, but for Palo Alto this is definitely the best I've found. There are a few others things I really want to try that I wasn't able to get today, so I'm excited to come back and try more soon!

Amazing food, good service, expected high price. Tried the string beans, juicy pork buns (favorite), a variety of boiled dumplings and Xiao Lang bao (soup dumplings....excellent). I would go back just for the juicy pork and Xiao lang bao (any of them). Tonight they were serving samples on the sidewalk, so it could be a good chance to try before you buy!

Best xiang long bao I've had in a long time!! I was in a large party so I got to try a lot of things, and the people I went with agreed the food is authentic and better than Din Tai Fung's.

We ordered three types of xiao long bao: pork, spicy pork, and pork & crab. They were cooked perfectly and uniform in size and shape. The skin was thin but stretchy so the xiao long bao wouldn't fall apart, and each bite was an explosion of flavor. The little spoon/cup to hold the xiao long bao was handy for minimizing mess. Our table liked the spicy pork the most, but you can't go wrong with the other fillings.

I highly recommend the other dishes we got too. The wood ear mushroom salad and soybean curd noodles were light and refreshing. The dan dan noodles were thick and coated in sauce, which I liked but others may find too oily. The green onion pancakes, a classic, were crispy and warm. The beef shank was surprisingly good; I wasn't expecting much flavor-wise, but it had an interesting blend of heat and sweetness that I was a huge fan of.

Some things I would like to try next time are the pan fried pork buns and the wontons with sesame sauce chili oil. Also if you go here and don't order xiao long bao, you're really missing out.

Service was good. The food came out relatively spaced out and fresh off the steamer. We sat outside and it was quite pleasant in the shade. Definitely try this place out, and with a bigger group if you can manage so you can order more of the menu. I hope it's still here when I'm back in town!

XLB Bliss **5 Stars**

The Bay Area wait for Xiao Long Bao (XLB soup dumplings) is finally over

Since 2023, I had heard about the best soup dumplings being in SF from a restaurant called Dumpling Home

Not living in SF, I haven't made it out to the Michelin Bib Goumand spot but having tried almost all other top Bay Area XLB spots (Din Ding, Bing's, XLB Kitchen), I tempered the hype

Luckily, the owners of Dumpling Home continued to expand with a 2nd SF location and with the offshoot Dumpling Hours (for locations outside SF: Oakland, Brentwood, Walnut Creek)

Palo Alto is their first Peninsula location and the quality is amazing

EVERYTHING you've wanted in a XLB is there: super thin skin , LOTS of soup , flavorful and tasty ingredients

It's a combination of DTF dumpling thinness with NYC Joe's Shanghai (at their best) soup and size

Atmosphere and pricing is much more casual than DTF and the star are the XLB, specifically pork. Noodles and Sheng Jian Bao are solid

Pork Xiao Long Bao (4) $9.95 / Crab & Pork Xiao Long Bao (4) $14.95 / Juicy Pan Fried Sheng Jian Bao $14.95 / Dan Dan Sesame Paste Dry Noodles $16.95

Dumpling Hours (Palo Alto, CA)

Dining is mainly small tabletops (2 or 4 tops) and mainly indoor with limited outdoor dining. Reservations are not required with most walk-in. Order via QR code or menu and all credit cards are accepted including AmEx.

Wow this place has Xiao Long Baos better than Din Tai Fung's! I was hesitant to try the Xiao Long Baos because they are more pricey per dumpling than Din Tai Fung's but they are definitely worth the price (8 for $16.95 vs 10 for $17.50). They are bigger than Din Tai Fung's so even if you're getting 2 less dumplings than Din Tai Fung's (10), you may be getting even more in total volume.

We also ordered Pork Wontons with Sesame Sauce and Chili Oil and Boiled Pork Dumplings. The Pork Wontons were good, although I think I prefer the Din Tai Fung's Spicy Wontons just because I prefer just chili oil and not sesame sauce with the wontons. I thought the Boiled Pork Dumplings were also good, but nothing special. So I would definitely recommend getting the Xiao Long Baos from this place.

We came around 6 PM on a Friday evening and there wasn't too many people inside when we came. The service was fast. The wontons came out pretty much after we ordered, and the Xiao Long Baos followed shortly after. I appreciate the fast service at this place because at Din Tai Fung you sometimes have to wait because it is so busy.

The inside of the restaurant has a nice modern, but warm finish with Chinese decorations. We also sat at a bright red table so that felt festive.

Some logistics:
They give you physical menus, but you order online. I prefer that way because with the physical menus you aren't squinting at your phone screen and by ordering online you don't need to flag down a waiter and can just order when you are ready.

But even though you do order online, you don't pay online. They just give you a receipt and you pay with card (and add tip after) like at other restaurants. So I thought that was inserting.

Soy sauce comes with the table. They serve a light white vinegar with the Xiao Long Baos, but not the Chinese black vinegar. But when we received the boiled dumplings they serviced that with the Chinese black vinegar.

This place is Chinese-friendly (which is evident by the Chinese customers we saw there). There are Chinese dumpling makers and wait staff so if you prefer to speak Mandarin you will be able to communicate in Chinese with the waitstaff there.

New casual dumpling spot in downtown Palo Alto. This spot fills up quick so come early. No reservations. Many walk ins. I came with a large group so this may have varied responses.

Ordered cucumber salad, zha jiang noodles, ginger and scallion noodles, fried chicken wings, wonton noodles, potato salad, XLB and vegetarian dumplings.

Wonton - Table favorite. Who doesn't love peanut butter and chili wontons? Delicious.

XLB - Hot, thin skin and full of soup. The soup is on the sweeter side. You'll need to ask for extra ginger.

Vegetarian dumplings - Green and cute. They were delicious and filling. Love the amount of mushrooms in there.

Fried chicken wings - Fair warning, this is EXTREMELY sticky. The amount of honey is insane. Chicken is good, but I think I may have spent more time taking the honey off my teeth than anything. Do not get this if you have braces.

Cucumber salad - This was not bad. Nothing spectacular.

Potato salad - Mixed reviews. Some people really loved this salad. It's cold, light and refreshing. It has minimal flavor to balance out some extremely flavorful things on the menu.

Zha jiang noodles - They were ok. I think I like it at other places better.

Ginger and scallion noodles - Definitely order. Everyone loved it.

Nappa cabbage dumplings - These were good. Definitely get some hot sauce to drizzle on this.

Came by for lunch on a weekend around opening time.
Parked in the public parking building and walked over.
Was greeted right away and sat down.

There were customers already sitting inside.
We ordered through QR code.
We can see the staff making the dumplings.

Ordered
2 pork xiao long bao
Dried fried chicken
Green beans
Ginger and scallion noodles

First came the green beans and dried fried chicken.
The green beans were good, they were also cut up into smaller pieces.
The dried fried chicken was just alright it was pretty sticky they put a lot of honey on it but I didn't like the thick batter much.

Next came the ginger scallion noodles, they tasted like basic chewy noodles.
The staff checked up on us and I saw them refilling other customers waters.
Finally came the 2 pork xiao long bao.
They had enough soup in them, flavor was good and meat was soft.

We ate all the xiao long baos.
There were two bathrooms and they were clean.
We got takeout boxes to bring back the leftovers.
I'll come back for the xiao long bao and the green beans.

I tried the chicken dumplings, beef noodle soup, pan-fried pork buns, and pork wontons with sesame sauce chili oil. Out of those, the pan-fried pork buns were definitely my favorite since they were super flavorful. The pork wontons were also pretty tasty, but I thought the sesame sauce overpowered the meat.

The beef noodle soup had a very light flavor which I didn't prefer. To me, it tasted like some beef broth that had been diluted with water. The noodles and beef were good though. Unfortunately, I found a piece of plastic in the soup. The server offered to give us a new order and removed that dish from our bill. While it's obviously not ideal for such a thing to happen, I think the server handled it as best they could so I wouldn't hold this incident against the restaurant assuming it doesn't happen again.

The interior is a bit small, but there is a combination of big and small tables available.