Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings, East Village

Located in East Village, Mimi Cheng Dumplings is a family-owned casual eatery that specializes in dumplings. They serve other Chinese dishes too, like dan dan noodles and vegetable sides. The clean, airy ambiance at Mimi’s is quite a leap from your typical Chinatown dumpling house. If you want traditional by the book dumplings, Mimi’s probably isn’t for you. If you’re down for “modernized” dumplings, head on over to Mimi’s! (Photo credit: Mimi Cheng Dumplings)

I recently stopped by Mimi’s for a late lunch with Ron of OMG It’s Bomb. The truth is I only wanted to visit this place because the March dumpling special is vegan dumplings by Chef Chloe. If it wasn’t for this partnership with Chloe, Mimi’s might have never been on my radar. #justbeinghonest

You can choose between pan-fried or boiled dumplings… why would anyone choose boiled when pan-fried is oh so yummy? Six dumplings for $8, eight dumplings for $10.

There’s also the option to do a half and half order of the chicken and pork dumplings if you can’t decide between those two. They wrap the pork dumplings into a triangle so you can tell them apart. Ron did the half and half plate, and he thought the chicken and pork dumplings were good, but over hyped.

The Guac Burger Dumplings from By Chloe did not disappoint. At $9.50 for six dumplings, they were steeper in price, but I’m always happy to support vegan goodness. They’re just like Chloe’s Guac Burger: black bean, quinoa, sweet potato filling with corn salsa, topped with guacamole, tortilla strips, beet ketchup, and chipotle aioli. Very filling, and I love that these dumplings are fancied up with toppings. My only complaint is that the wrappers were much thicker than the wrappers of the other dumplings.

I also tried Mimi’s Mighty Veggie dumplings, which are just vegetarian, not vegan. They look like your classic veggie dumpling, but instead being cabbage heavy, they’re packed with kale, zucchini, free range egg, shiitake mushrooms, and carrots. You can even see green filling through the wrappers. Such a nice fry on these dumplings, and the wrappers were light, but not flimsy. It’s a shame they have egg in them as it doesn’t really add to it. C’mon Mimi’s… you guys need to make your own vegan dumpling, and I promise I’ll be back.

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