Located in what seems to be the most random place in Richmond (in the middle of a mostly industrial area, right behind Ironwood) is Mama’s Dumpling and Coffee. As you may have guessed, their specialty is dumplings and coffee. I’m assuming the coffee element came from the fact there are many businesses in the area and they could be the go-to place for coffee.
It seems that Mama’s Dumpling and Coffee is super popular on Instagram, so Diana, Nathalie and I went to check it out.
The space is medium in size and clean, you take a sheet of paper and mark down what you want to order.
Their specialty is Shanghai-style Fried Pork Buns and Nanxiang-style Xiao Long Bao. For the Fried Pork Buns, they are made to order and it takes about 30 minutes.
We ordered the Shanghai-style Fried Pork Buns, Nanxiang-style Xiao Long Bao, Green Onion Pancake, Wontons in Spicy Chili Oil, Shrimp, Egg & Chinese Chives Dumplings and the Shanghai Fried Rice Noodles.
The first to the table is the Shanghai Fried Rice Noodles (with either pork or chicken – $9.99). The dish is a fair amount of noodles and not overly greasy. The noodles are nice and thick and overall it’s a good dish.
The Wontons in Spicy Chili Oil ($7.99) and the Shrimp, Egg & Chinese Chives Dumplings ($10.90) came next. The Wontons in Spicy Chili Oil have 8 wontons that are freshly made, the spicy chili oil is not too spicy but still enjoyable.
The Shrimp, Egg & Chinese Chives Dumplings are an interesting flavour – I’ve never had dumplings with scrambled eggs on the inside.
Still quite hearty and an interesting texture throughout the dumpling. The flavour is pretty fresh.
The Nanxiang-style Xiao Long Bao ($6.99) and Green Onion Pancake ($4.99) arrived next. Nanxiang, as Google has helped me discover is the birth place of Shanghai’s Xiao Long Bao. These dumplings (6 of them) are a good size, texture and tastes freshly wrapped. The aspic on the inside is nice – there’s a nice amount of it and it’s a good balance of hearty and slightly sweet.
The Green Onion Pancake is a staple and has a nice crunch to it without being too greasy.
Finally, the show stopper and most popular item on their menu – the Fried Pork Buns ($6.99). Think Xiao Long Bao but fried and a bit more doughy.
The inside is still tender and has a lot of aspic in it (so be careful when it arrives, it can be very hot!).
It certainly takes some talent trying to steam the dumpling to cook the inside and then deep fry it while keeping everything in tact on the inside and maintaining a crispy bottom. It’s an interesting take on XLB and I’ll say I am here for it.
We went during lunch and it does get fairly busy, so you’d definitely want to come early to beat the rush. There’s ample parking outside of the restaurant.
Food: 3.5
Service: 4
Value: 3.5
Ambiance: 3.5
OVERALL: 3.5
For more information on Mama’s Dumpling and Coffee, check out their website here: https://www.mamasdumpling.com/
