Dumpling Express

Place is pretty cheap yet the food is pretty good. It’s awesome for the price you pay. Definitely value for your money. Everytime I crave for something, Berkeley is the place to be. I love their soup dumplings — both the pork and crab & pork. Just be careful eating it and make sure it isn’t too hot or else you’ll burn your tongue.

This place is decent, but it’s always super slow! The pork buns are pretty good, as are the dumplings. On a rainy day I really like the wonton soup, though I have to add more flavor with sauce. Though I had the chicken chow mein once and didn’t love it. Overall, not bad food for a really good price, but be prepared to wait a while (especially during lunch hour).

Came here for lunch with my husband this weekend and ordered three items: beef chow fun, sweet & sour pork over rice and crab/​pork soup dumplings. It wasn’t crowded, but this was probably because it was new year. The food took less than 10 minutes to come out and everything was good. I really like their beef chow fun, or maybe it’s because that was the first item to come out and I was very hungry. Their soup dumplings were good and you can really taste the soup inside. The sweet & sour pork was ok. It wasn’t my favorite of the 3 but not too shabby for the price. Will come back for casual lunch or dinner if not too crowded. I suspect it being busy when school is in session…

Great handmade dumplings. Love the mom and pop feel of the place. Great service and good food. Soup was pretty good and chicken dumplings were yummy.

Good flour, genuine dumplings and stuff.
The Downside: too too too slow. 5 min per dumpling it is like. And they don’t seem to have a way to make dumplings beforehand and quickly cook them.
I think some science can be done here to quicken the process

If you have 15 – 20 minutes to waste, go ahead and eat here. Unfortunately it is the only dumpling place around but seriously consider you will be late for whatever you have planned.
They need to hire one more person to take care of «grab and go fast and ready» orders. They are not fast. They may be ready, but no one is hired or available on their staff team to make it readily available after ordering. Fast and ready grab and go does not mean wait 15 minutes!
Some customers like myself are not students. People like me have appointments and a life outside of college.
I’m always supportive of Chinese businesses, as I am Chinese myself, but Chinese businesses are reputable for fast and efficient cooking and service. Though may not be the most polite, but they get the job done. This place gets the job done but will steal 20 minutes of your valuable time when you are a busy person with a life!
Don’t waste your time if you can help it. Never going here again, just go to Sheng ke for a chicken pie if you want something fast and ready!

Ordered the «special» of the day: 6 pork Shanghai soup dumplings with a steamed bun for $ 5.02 ($ 5.50 after tax). The dumplings and bun were premade and sitting in a steamer, keeping them warm. I ordered them to-​go, but there is a little bit of seating room if you choose to eat-​in. There is Sriracha and soy sauce available on the side.
Overall, the food was average. The dumplings tasted good, but the skin was a bit tough at the pinch point. The steamed bun was light and fluffy and the BBQ pork filling was sweet and a bit dry. I’d come here again to try some of their other dishes, but there are other options in the area that may be more appealing.

Never again. First time will be my last.
I specially asked for dry chicken dumplings. Guy didn’t understand me and said the ones I asked for are fried. Got the dumplings. Super excited. Opened the box, and my gosh. It is not dry. Tried it, omg. I can’t even. It was 90% dough. 10% chicken, was it even chicken? We just left. Didn’t even finish. It was the worst experience ever. We’re out.

Yay this place is so good! Got the soup dumplings and they taste just like the ones in Taiwan

This place is just ok– it gets the job done but there is definitely room for improvement.
Shrimp and chive dumplings: the skin is not firm enough so it falls apart when the dumplings are boiled. The filling is also not terribly exciting. They need to add more things to it so that there is more texture. Basically, it is wet chives with some pieces of shrimp so the filling doesn’t stick together very well. I felt like the entire thing was just falling apart before I even put it in my mouth.
Chicken wonton: above average. I like the broth a lot, it’s not too heavy and it doesn’t taste like a bunch of msg. The wontons themselves weren’t anything to write home about but they were satisfying enough. The noodles are also nice. I would order this again for the noodles and the broth!
Cooking time could improve, but the way I think about it is that I would take like at least two hours to prepare the same thing so I’m not complaining!

I’ve been here a few times, and overall am a fan! The food is great, cheap, fresh /​made to order, and have generous serving sizes. Besides their dumplings, I recommend their congees and fried rice dishes.
I would **highly** recommend placing your order by phone and coming in to pick it up, unless you have time to burn. Every time I’ve came by to order, there’s a long wait for your food of at least 15 – 20 minutes (which is pretty long for to-​go standards). I don’t think they offer online ordering yet, which is a shame.
Also, you get a discount for paying by cash, so bring cash!

If you want to eat during this century, be sure to order a week in advance. We consistently order «grab & go» specials that take a minimum of 30 minutes to get. There is one guy who is trying to move people quickly but the cooks look like they could give two $@!$.
Once you actually receive your food, it’s semi decent but sure as hell not worth the wait.

Ok. I seriously love that they make their dumplings fresh. I mean… you can sit there and watch the person start the dumplings, steam, and end up in front of your face. So what’s the problem here?
Seasoning…no seasoning whatsoever. Bland to the max… even with soy sauce and vinegar. It left me baffled. Pork and cabbage dumplings… I so wanted more flavor from you.
The wonton noodle soup was absolutely terrible. Everything is served in to go containers… what did this mean? The veggies were shoved to the bottom, topped with noodles, with all of the dumplings on top. It was like eating a wonton soup tower. Yeah, no bueno. The wontons were also flavorless. I actually preferred the bland dumplings over the wontons. Super cheap though… cheaper if you pay with cash.
Barely any seating… be prepared to eat in your car or taken your order home. 2 stars.

Dumplings are okay. I prefer to get their entrée (Chicken fried rice) since their portions are huge! The Kongee (porridge) is simple but very tasty.
The only negative is that the wait time to receive your food is long.
Remember to bring cash because it is more expensive to pay with credit/​debit.

Tried their mushroom sticky rice wrapped up in what looked like vine leaves = SO GOOD. Must try, it was so cheap and very tasteful. Drooling. I have to try their other rice dishes.
Will be back for sure.

There really aren’t that many inexpensive and delicious Asian places to eat in Berkeley. Amongst the chengdu, happy valley, or the great China’s, your definitely going to pay over your college budget.
That’s where dumpling express comes in. I’m so glad they moved in a few years ago. With cheap prices and good food, there’s a reason why they make good bank.
My favorite dish to order is the spicy bean sauce noodles. It’s hot hot hot and flavorful! I really love this place most of all because of the HUGE PORTION SIZE. For $ 7, you’ll have plenty for two meals. Check this place out and enjoy delicious food :)
Eat well and prosper,

Came next door to try Artichoke Basille’s. After having a slice and was underwhelmed, I was more interested in coming here especially seeing their signs about homemade dumplings.
When you walk in, it feels like you walked into a food shop in HK or some hole-​in-​the-​wall place in Shanghai. It’s a small place with an exposed kitchen that you can see the lady making all the dumplings and cooking the noodles. They have the typical Asian drinks like cold chrysanthemum tea and soy milk.
Funny that they have cash and credit card prices for everything on their menu. It’s a $ 0.50 difference. If I was hungry, I would have wanted to try their wonton noodle soup or beef chow fun. Good place for take out!
I just ordered 6 pcs of the XLB to-​go. I re-​steamed them back at home and they still tasted good. Skin was not too thick and had decent amount of pork and juice in it.

This was a convenient place for us to have a mid-​afternoon snack. I love dumplings –being from China and thought I could get a quick fix since I was visiting. I really applaud the owners for making XLB in-​house (pork filling AND dumpling wrappers made in house).
We ordered the standard steamed soup dumplings and a dozen fried dumplings just to try something different. The xiao long bao definitely delivered! The skins weren’t too thick and the delicious broth from steaming them was wonderful. Dipped in vinegar and hot sauce — perfection. I’ve had better, but these definitely aren’t the worse thing on the menu!
The fried dumplings weren’t anything special and they were actually burnt, and instead of pan frying them, they dropped them in a fat-​fryer — I wouldn’t suggest ordering this.
For a quick fix and because it was convenient, I would say try it! It’s close to the Durant and they do take out — but if you’re looking for «REAL» xiao long bao, I would recommend Unilocaling for another place.

Dumpling Express is located adjacent to Artichoke’s Pizza.
They have a wide variety of dumplings, noodles, soups, and rice dishes. Going to a dumpling restaurant, you MUST to try the dumplings.
I ordered the chicken and corn dumplings and was very impressed! It was ready within 10 minutes and was delicious. I was a little hesitant on this filling but it worked really well together. My friend ordered the mushroom dumplings and she enjoyed hers as well.
I haven’t been to a dumpling restaurant besides this one but the food was really good. If you’re craving dumplings and don’t want to drive all the way to Oakland, this is the place to go!

I was hoping for the experience to be better.
$ 12 (cash) for Shanghai Pork dumplings and shrimp & onion dumplings.
Shanghai pork– they were smaller than expected. Also. There was juice inside the dumpling. I didn’t like it. The meat and dumpling were both tasty. I would order these eventually.
Shrimp and Onion– so oniony. There was something crunchy inside too. There wasn’t much shrimp and the flavor was blah. The noodle was too dense and thick.
I’ll go back someday to try other options.