The Village Voice recently labeled Chinese-inspired dumplings one of the best dining and drinking trends of the decade for New York. And now, Uyen Pham, who was inspired by some of New York’s more famous dumpling houses, including Anita Lo’s Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, will be opening Dumpling Dojo in the old Siam space at 616 Broadway E. She intends to open no later than March 1st – the permit gods allowing. Interestingly, this will only be a temporary location for Dumpling Dojo, as Bank of America will be occupying the space later this year, possibly in as soon as six months.
Dumpling Dojo will be a quick serve, open kitchen place with bar seating, a stand up bar and a few tables in the back. It will be open daily for dinner from 5:30 to 9:30 and closed on Mondays. All of the dumplings will be made in house. Uyen intends to have a half-dozen variety of dumplings that can be served a la carte or with soup and salad. She will have a standard flour wrapper, a spinach one and is currently testing a wheat-free version. She will have one dumpling with a traditional pork filling, one vegan one with mushrooms, shallots and wine, and a shrimp/citrus one. She will focus on using local, seasonal ingredients for the other fillings, salads and fixings. Uyen is developing nonalcoholic drinks for this iteration of Dumpling Dojo, as liquor permits take longer to secure – and is unsure how long she will be occupying the old Siam space.
Update (2/10/10 at 2pm): Uyen responded to a few of the comments below:
Dinner: Sunday-Thursday 5:30 – 10 pm, Friday and Saturday 5:30-11 pmLunch: Saturday and Sunday 11-2:30 pm
I am looking for a permanent space, so if any of your readers have a lead I’d love to hear from them. Dumplings 5 for $1. LOL. They’re actually 4 for $1 now. Yeah, I’ve had those in NYC. Let’s just say you don’t want to know what’s in there. Fat mostly. Not quality ingredients like I’ll be doing. If people are looking for cheap fast food this isn’t the place for them. It’s casual dining.
I’ll have 2 vegan dumplings. I think you might have confused the shrimp one with the sauces I’ll be offering. Guests can count on seeing a shrimp dumpling. My sauces thus far will be citrus-soy and a chimichurri style sauce.
A dessert dumpling is sure to appear on our menu before soup dumplings.
it would be great if she could find permanent residency in the old supercuts location. with all the traffic up and down the hill on that corner (not to mention the proximity to numerous bars) a dumpling place is sure to be a hit.
i’m hoping her pricing will be aligned with nyc dumpling houses – 5/$1.
Are these the soup-bun style of dumplings I wonder? I have been looking for these ever since I left NYC.
At any rate this sounds like a great addition to the area- delicious, cheap eats!
If she puts Xiaolongbao/Nanxiang on the menu, I will love her forever and give her lots of my money, and I’m willing to bet a LOT of others will too.
krdsings, I think this is the same dish you are asking for!
There is a facebook group just for Seattle-ites who have had these dumplings and are desperate to find a local place that makes them. So far, no luck.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=57850519941
Sorry for the broken link, folks. In any case, this is a great idea for a restaurant and I can’t wait to try it.
That sounds delicious and with Chungee’s also opening, means that maybe we’re getting past having nothing but thai/pho for our Asian food options.
wishing her all the best! we need some yummy dumpling places in Houston!
this is great news! good luck! and yes, i, too, would LOVE to be able to get soup dumplings in Seattle!
this place sounds great! so many diff types of dumplings instead of the 3 typical ones that you normally get at chinese restaurants. but soup dumplings would be a definite hit! especially in the winter time. i am definitely going to check this place out when i visit seattle.
Damn, I hope so! Thanks for the link!
nice to see Asian influenced cuisine OTHER than Thai or Pho hit Broadway.
I would single-handedly keep this place in business if they had GOOD Xiao Long Bao. I have to go all the way to Vancouver to find any worth eating.
I really really do hope she can come up with a wheat/gluten free option.
Exciting news and I hope a spot she can really call home opens up someplace else on the hill.
OK, I feel a little bit bad about this thread being hijacked with longings for Xiao Long Bao (which are fatty yes, but certainly not “cheap fast food” as implied in the update). It sounds like Uyen has a great plan for some really fantastic dumplings that are made with quality ingredients and that will be available in a location that will love them. I certainly plan to take my business there. Cheers.
I’m especially excited about the Gluten-Free option! Looking forward to trying these.
My daughter can’t have any gluten at all (wheat is just a subset) — I’d love to be able to take here there if they can come up with a truly gluten-free dumpling (although to really be gluten-free it would need to be cooked with separate equipment, etc). Fingers crossed…
I have some commercial space that I think would be perfect for a dumpling place and would make a heck of a deal to get her in.
Hi Ken – if you send your email to me (seadevi at gmail dot com), I will introduce you to each other by email
Awesome mate!!!
Awesome, my family will be sure to check out Dumpling Dojo asap.
If you are looking for Xiao Long Bao and are willing to drive to Issaquah, check out Mackys in Gilman Village. http://www.yelp.com/biz/mackys-dim-sum-issaquah
Note that Uyen wrote, “Not quality ingredients like I’ll be doing. If people are looking for cheap fast food this isn’t the place for them.” This sounds more upscale than fast food.