![Diners enjoy brunch outside Hatched in Town & Country Village on Saturday morning. The restaurant, which opened in January, is Palo Alto’s second Hatched location and focuses on egg-centric breakfast and lunch options in an area that previously lacked breakfast spots. Manager Craighton Poon said the restaurant has been well-received by the community. “People are receiving us [Hatched] really, really good and it’s pretty busy every day,” Poon said.](https://chompmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/IMG_1052-1200x800.jpg)
Dumpling Time, which recently opened a new location at Stanford Shopping Center, greets customers with the twinkling lights of an outdoor veranda and the restaurant’s bubbly pink interior. As couples and families fill the room with their conversations, the faint notes of American and Asian pop music beat in the background.
Dumpling Time is a chain developed in 2017 presenting Asian fusion cuisine with Californian ingredients. The restaurant is the newest addition to the collection of dumpling restaurants scattered across Palo Alto.
In order to set itself apart from these numerous competitors, Assistant Manager Kian Cortada said that Dumpling Time ties together multiple ends of Asian cuisine.
“It is Chinese-owned, Chinese-run, but we also have Vietnamese dishes and kimchi,” Cortada said. “We blend from all different parts of Asia, we even have a curry potato gyoza, so it’s more just a blend of all Asian food and not just like specifically Chinese.”
We went on Saturday evening around 7 p.m., and the restaurant was relatively empty. The restaurant had pale pink lights casting the room in a hazy glow. A waiter brought us to our seats quickly. We opted to order a few appetizers and side dishes, along with an assortment of dumplings. However, upon ordering, the staff informed us that many of the dishes we’d planned to order were unavailable. The noodles, wings and seaweed salad that we wanted to order were not in stock.
Ultimately, we ordered a cucumber salad and four different dumplings: xi’an dumplings, gyoza, xiao long bao and bao. Our selections allowed us to try some of the menu’s alternate dishes as well as embrace Dumpling Time’s variety.
The first item arrived around five minutes after we ordered, and continued to come in stages. The pacing was pleasant – we weren’t rushed to finish our dishes, and so the food was always fresh and warm.
The first dish we enjoyed was in the xiao long bao category, a kimchi soup dumpling ($10, 4 pieces). The dumpling had a delicate skin thick enough to retain the hot soup, but thin enough to break open easily. The xiao long bao was less spicy than expected, given it was a kimchi flavor, but it still had a rich, meaty flavor. We would rate it at 8/10.
Next was BBQ pork bun, a bao ($12, 3 pieces). The bun was fluffy, with a slight chew. The exterior melted on the tongue, leaving a gently sweet aftertaste. It also kept the interior nice and hot. While the bun itself was delicious, the inside was sweeter than it was salty, and contained a disproportionately minimal amount of filling compared to the amount of dough. We would rate it at 7/10, making it our first recommendation.
After that was a lamb xi’an dumpling ($14). The traditional Shaanxi lamb dumpling was decorated beautifully, with a few dumplings covered in an array of cherry tomatoes, sliced radishes, pickled onions and finished with a dash of cilantro. The dumplings themselves had a slightly thick skin packed with well-seasoned lamb that was a little bit drier than we would have liked. The dumplings were bigger than the gyoza and filled with rich flavor. We would rate it at 9/10.
Finally, we were served pork gyoza ($12). The gyoza was also visually appealing, with the dumplings’ crispy skin creating an elaborate lattice on top of the dish. The crispy shards easily melted on the tongue and provided a delicate texture. Similar to the lamb, the gyoza’s pork filling was extremely dense. However, the gyoza was not very flavorful, so we would recommend making full use of the dipping sauces. We would rate it at 8/10.
Overall, the ambiance, portion sizes and variety of dishes created a pleasant experience.
Still, there were also a few hiccups in service. There was a clear lack of advertised dishes available. Also, the salad dish we ordered did not arrive, though we were compensated for it after we asked. To enjoy the full extent of the menu, we suggest readers go before rush hour.
Cortada said that he has felt supported by the community’s reception thus far.
“They definitely love it,” Cortada said. “Pretty much every day, I have people coming up to me saying it’s exciting to have a Dumpling Time here, from people who have tried it to people who are new to it.”
While imperfect, we would recommend Dumpling Time for anyone looking for a dinner that will allow customers to try a variety of Asian fusion food options in a cozy, cheerful environment.
