Best dumplings in Orange County - is there such a thing?

[EclecticEater]

Living in the OC, I'd like to find both a restaurant and a market to buy dumplings in, both for the eating pleasure and re-heating at home. Pile on your suggestions, please, and we'll go after all of them.

[PeterL]

What kind of dumplings?

[Professor Salt]

I'm assuming you mean Chinese steamed dumplings, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I haven't found yet a restaurant in OC that serves a dumpling on the order of Din Tai Fung, or Dumpling 10053, so I'm eager to hear the responses.

For frozen, try the assortment in Diho Bakery's freezer. They're a Taiwanese bakery tucked in the very back of the parking lot by Caspian, Super Irvine, India Cook House. I can't say they're amazing, but they are decent enough.

Diho Bakery
14130 Culver Drive
Irvine, CA 92604
[phone]

[Wonginator]

A couple of restaurants where I found xiao long bao (XLBs, the type of soup dumplings in which Din Tai Fung specializes) are Chef Chen and Tri-Village.

[Professor Salt]

Yes they do. Royal Kitchen in Irvine has XLB every day, and China Garden does them as a special during their weekend dim sum service. None of them are as good as the restaurants in the San Gabriel Valley IMO.

[Das Ubergeek]

You didn't say what kind of dumplings, so I'm going to send you to Anna's Mondu, on Garden Grove Blvd. between Brookhurst and Magnolia. While you can eat there—there are tables—nobody really does this except me. But they are sweet people and will take care of you if you choose to eat in, and they have good manduguk (dumpling soup).

You can buy their mandu (Korean dumplings) frozen to do with as you will at home.

[ipsedixit]

Does Diamond Bar count as "behind the Orange curtain"? If so, there's an A&J on Diamond Bar Blvd.

Also in Chino Hills there's Happy Kitchen, which has a good (albeit mediocre) selection of dumplings.

[JAB]

There's an A&J in Irvine.