Cali dumpling delivers brick and mortar restaurant in Old Towne Orange

When Allan Tea decided to take his frozen dumpling company, Cali Dumpling, from delivery only to into a brick-and-mortar restaurant, the entrepreneur knew he would have some serious competition.

Orange County has many options when it comes to dumplings. There are the rainbow dumpling options at South Coast Plaza, an abundance of both steamed and fried choices in Little Saigon and the recently opened xiao long bao giant at the Downtown Disney District. So Tea and his team imagined a way to set Cali Dumpling a part from the dumpling discord.

“We were trying to find a unique way to do dumplings, so we came up with this concept of only doing crispy potstickers,” said Tea. “Then we pair them with all these multicultural sauces that are California-inspired.”

The 2,000-square foot fast-casual restaurant in Old Towne Orange uses its pan-fried potstickers as a base for diners to create their own dumpling experience. Guests start by choosing from organic pork, organic chicken, organic veggie and shrimp potstickers and then move through the hot line set up, where they can choose from scratch-made sauces to customize their order.

“Get sauced,” Cali Dumpling’s new tag line, encourages diners to experiment with sauces that bring new flavors to dumplings, like tangy tikka made with San Marzano tomatoes, spices and yogurt and finished with pickled onions and cucumbers.

“We happen to think dumplings make for the perfect vehicle for so many flavors and sauces, beyond the traditional way we’ve all eaten dumplings,” Tea said.

Cali Dumpling hosted its grand opening Monday. The menu features eight different sauces and toppings like enchiladas rojas, hot harissa and sweet szechuan. Pan fried dumplings can also be ordered plain.

“I really like the the yuzu butter sauce, it goes really great with the shrimp dumpling,” said Tea.

Tea also instructs guests to “ask for a slice of pizza” to try a Cali Dumpling creation that adds Sicilian marinara sauce, also made from San Marzano tomatoes, to the fried dumplings and then tops them with melty mozzarella, Parmesan and pepperoni.

Allan Tea launched Cali Dumpling in 2020 as a delivery service. Now Cali Dumpling has a fast-casual restaurant in Orange.

(Courtesy of Cali Dumpling)

Tea started Cali Dumpling in 2020 as a side venture, since he was already invested in local businesses like Hello Kitty Grand Cafe in Irvine and Capital Dimsum Seafood. Then the pandemic put his other projects on hold and Cali Dumpling became the focus, delivering frozen handmade dumplings right to customers doors.

Last summer, the company launched a new line of all-organic frozen dumplings sold in Erewhon and select 99 Ranch locations. The dumplings are made at Cali Dumpling’s production facility, a commercial kitchen in South El Monte that also supplies dumpling to places like Mama Lu’s Dumpling House Restaurants and Capital Noodle Bar.

Going from delivery to dine-in has taken some adapting.

“One of the biggest adjustments has been getting back into those long restaurant hours again,” Tea said. “But we love what we do, we are food people so we get the industry, we have all done it before, so it’s not surprising it’s just getting back into it.”

Besides the pan-fried dumplings, the menu at Cali Dumpling in Orange also includes Asian-inspired sides like wok-fried noodles, Indonesian fried rice, orange sesame salad and tofu bites, plus beer and wine.

The Orange location is considered a pilot store, Tea said, and he hopes they will open more such restaurants in the future.

“It is our first store and we are still kind of testing things out, but we are getting a really good response to the menu,” said Tea. “We are off to a good start.”