Dumplings are the reason to come. They arrive in a savory broth with dried shrimp, zha cai, sesame and chili oil ($19), in pork and dill, pork and chive, beef and green onion or mushroom and chive. The dan dan noodle ($19) comes with chopped pork, spinach, peanuts and brown peppercorn, the beef noodle soup ($22) is built on a broth spiced with white pepper and sand ginger, and the made-to-order Xi'an bing — a lamb-and-cumin stuffed bread for $12 — is the side that converts first-timers. Cold dishes like sliced beef shank and a mung-bean liang fen noodle round it out, plus a short list of wine and beer.
Practicalities matter here because the room is, in the owners' words, real small: no reservations, a text-message waitlist instead, and online pickup ordering that switches off when the kitchen gets slammed. A 4% service charge on every order goes toward health insurance for the staff. Nothing is gluten-free (it's all wheat flour and soy), and frozen dumplings are sold for home cooking. It's open Thursday through Sunday, 11am to 10pm, and closed Monday through Wednesday.
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