Dong Bei Dumpling: Really Affordable Dumplings in Binondo

For some strange reason, I really believed that Binondo (Chinatown) would be empty during Chinese New Year. I was retracing it from my own experiences of Chinese New Year in Singapore, where everything would be closed except for a few shops, and that Chinese families would be out visiting their relatives - you'd barely find cars on the streets. And if you did, everyone inside would generally be wearing red.

I had that concept in mind when I proposed to check out Binondo. Sarah and I had no idea that this is what would be greeting us. Wow.

While traffic was immensely bad due to streets blocked off and that parking was harder than usual, Binondo did have quite a festive, vibrant atmosphere wherever you walked. Thankfully, this also meant that the places we wanted to visit for our food tour were going to be open. One place on that list was Dongbei Dumpling.

From the many food blogs and videos I watched on YouTube, everyone seemed to talk about dumplings from this place. There was a line that stretched outside, but thankfully it was moving relatively fast. From the street, you could actually see members of the staff make the dumplings - which was a bit weird for me, because usually it's done at the back of the restaurant. I suppose they wanted to show everyone that they did it fresh.

The place was small, so they asked us whether we would be okay to go up to the second floor. So after we agreed, they lead us through this narrow passage way, through all the ingredients, and up to the second level. If I were from the health department, I could probably cite several violations off the bat. But of course, I chose to ignore it on my way up.

It was a full house upstairs as well. And it seemed the place was full of college students (or at least they seemed quite young to me) who wanted to check out Dongbei Dumpling, to verify the reviews written on other blogs. It was strange seeing stacks of old newspapers at the opposite end of the restaurant... but I guess they need it to wrap certain things?

Opposite our table was a commercial fridge where they keep their vegetable dumpling pre-mixes. I was amazed at the sheer size of those containers. Downstairs, they used a small metal bowl to hold the dumpling pre-mix to make all those dumplings. So it made me think about how much dumplings they actually make in a day... or maybe for the next few days.

I forgot how much we spent for these dumplings you see above, but from what I recall, it was something like less than Php 100 for these 15 dumplings. That's like Php 6 per dumpling... which isn't bad. And c'mon, for Php 100 for all that, it's a pretty good deal. Do they taste good~ I think I've tasted better outside... but for all this for Php 100, it's not bad at all!

Out of curiosity, we ordered xiao long bao from Dongbei Dumpling. It came in this metal steamer... and all I could say, is that now I truly understand why Din Tai Fung is really well known for their xiao long baos! The wrapper is a bit thick and doughy, and you really could taste more of the wrapper than the soup or the meat inside. Was it cheap, yeah sure. But I honestly wouldn't mind paying more for better xiao long baos. But would I order the first set of dumplings I had, oh yes!

I suppose Dongbei Dumpling is a great hole-in-the-wall kinda place if you want inexpensive dumplings. If you don't mind seeing ingredients scattered all over the place, or perhaps seeing a dirty floor, this is a good place to go.