Pac Heights Scores Second Location of Michelin Guide-Listed Dumpling Spot

Soup dumplings and pan-fried pork bao are coming to Pacific Heights from a San Francisco restaurant the Michelin Guide dubbed a Bib Gourmand, those more affordable restaurants known for great quality food. Lily Wong’s handmade dumplings at Dumpling Home in Hayes Valley have won over fans since the restaurant’s opening in 2020, and now the business is making moves on a second San Francisco location at 2114 Fillmore Street.

Dumpling Home built its reputation on hand-folded and steamed soup dumplings including “numb and spicy” mala-infused pork xiao long bao, chicken and beef versions, as well as a crab and pork option that’s made the casual restaurant a recent favorite. The crispy-bottomed juicy pork bao and green onion pancakes are also prized, along with Shanghai-style scallion oil noodles that won over former San Francisco Chronicle food critic Soleil Ho. “It’s the kind of spot-on, QQ texture that tells you that someone cared to make these noodles well,” Ho wrote.

That welcome review was followed by the restaurant’s swift addition to the Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list in September 2021, just a year after Dumpling Home’s opening. Michelin’s restaurant inspectors wrote the dumpling spot “excels in the delicate art of soup dumplings,” praising Dumpling Home’s XLB for their “supple skins and spoonfuls of delicious broth far clearer and more distilled than most.”

Dumpling Home’s second outpost takes over the former Fresca restaurant space, which has been empty since the owners let go of the property in 2020. The new Dumpling Home in Pac Heights joins sister restaurant Dumpling Hour, which is expanding through the East Bay. Its first location landed in Walnut Creek in August 2021, followed by a second location in Brentwood in June 2022. No opening date for the Fillmore Street location was announced.