Offbeat Angles_

New Mexico calls itself the land of chile, and they’ve got the formula down regarding their own brand of regional American cuisine. Let’s say you wanted to venture beyond the red, green, or Christmas – iykyk – and try something equally good but not so regional? The answer lies at Dumpling Tea. 

I stumbled across Dumpling Tea while looking for things to do on a rainy Thursday afternoon around the Santa Fe Plaza. Always one to go for dumplings and dim sum – still got that China bug – I bit the bait and the rest is history. 

Three days later, I found myself climbing to the second floor of an indoor mall south of the Plaza, ready to nosh on dumplings. 

Walking in is like stepping into any neighborhood restaurant in Hong Kong or mainland China. The old florescent lights struggle to keep illuminated two dining areas with faux wood tables and those chairs you find in most small-time restaurants. It’s nothing fancy but I dig it for its homey feel. 

Going into any restaurant like this, it’s not about the ambiance or decor; those take away from the real thing that matters: how does the food taste? To find out, I ordered pork shumai, soup dumplings – here they’re called soup buns for some reason – and a bowl of curry chicken noodles.  

The noodles come out first, covered in thinly sliced cucumber and filled with chicken, carrots, and big potatoes.  

Everything here gets along well. The noodles, the curry broth, the chicken and potatoes. All the ingredients play their part but also combine to make the best bowl of curry noodles I’ve had ever. Granted I never ate a lot of curry noodles while in Beijing but still. These are good. 

The real star of the show is the dim sum, and both are massive.  

Usually shumai and soup dumplings are small enough to be picked up by just chopsticks alone, but both come with big tongs that are necessary to get a dumpling from the serving container to the plate. 

The skin on both is also a bit thicker than most places I’ve had dumplings at. It’s almost like a cross between dumpling wrapper and baozi bun in thickness. The wrapper keeps everything intact, and it takes more than one bite to scarf down.  

These are like dumplings for the American market, and I’m here for it. 

All in all Dumpling Tea is well worth dropping by if you’re in the Santa Fe Plaza and hankering for Chinese. Plus, when you order here, you’re supporting multiple businesses, as the boba tea and iced tea come from two different shops directly across from the restaurant. So you get damn good dumplings and support three small businesses in one go, which isn’t a bad thing.  

Dumpling Tea 
2/F, 66 E San Francisco St. #10 
Santa Fe, NM 87501 
Hours: Daily, 11am-8.30pm 
Contact: 646 945 5000