Lucas Lin spent a year researching the fine art of tang-mian, the northern-Chinese technique of making dumpling dough, before opening a sleek East Village shop where he colors his wrappers with fresh vegetable juices and stuffs them with pork, chicken, tofu and vegetables or corn. The rice-vinegar-sesame-soy sauce is preferable to the house Marco Polo tomato-basil affair. But the shaved ice dessert (when in season), laboriously hand-cranked on a vintage machine and drizzled with sweet beans or peanuts and condensed milk, is a perfectly refreshing finale. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld
Recommended Dishes
Seared pork dumplings, $3.95; red bean snow ice, $3.25
. . .and stick to the steamed, which are fresh and passably flavorful. The steamed pork dumplings were tasty and filled with just the right amount of pork and scallion. The "seared" vegetable dumplings I had were really quite awful as all I could taste was burnt dough. The guy working the counter is none too friendly and was yelling with his friend about how drunk they had gotten the night before and how their bodies hated them. While it's nice to see the women forming the dumplings right before you, the utterly dour looks on their faces will likely cause you to look elsewhere.
The Dumpling Man has reinvented the dumpling! The dumpling wrappers are so tender and each of the different fillings are full of incredible flavor. My favorites are the vegetarian (with tofu & shiitake mushroom) and shrimp, but I also love the chicken and pork too. Of the three dipping sauces, I recently chose the new Cool Monster sauce: the coconut/cucumber combination is great! You can choose between having them steamed or seared. While waiting for your order, it is fun to watch the cooks preparing the dumplings from behind the glass partition.
I was shocked to read a review claiming that the person was food poisoned! I have been eating delicious dumplings there every week with my friends from the time they have opened and we have never had any problems. The place is always busy and so the ingredients are always fresh. Perhaps the reviewer put something else in their mouth that was not as pure or pleasant before or after eating at the Dumpling Man?