Chinese soup dumplings explode in New York’s Manhattan as YouTube and TikTok fuel a xiaolongbao craze

Xiaolongbao, or Chinese soup dumplings, are having a moment in Manhattan, as Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung, and New York vendors, are expanding into the borough

Stakeholders credit viral social media videos with the surge in popularity, as restaurants experiment with unconventional flavours from truffle to chocolate

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Xiaolongbao Chinese soup dumplings at Taiwanese chain Din Tai Fung. Manhattan in New York isn’t known for Chinese soup dumplings, but more vendors serving the dim sum classic – including Din Tai Fung – are moving in. Photo: Instagram/@dintaifungusa

Published: 4:15am, 18 Apr 2024Updated: 5:11am, 18 Apr 2024

Across Manhattan, in New York, diners are picking up their soup spoons and chopsticks and biting (ever so carefully) into the city’s hottest order.

Xiaolongbao, aka soup dumplings, are a dim sum classic, traditionally made with ground pork and/or crab – or, increasingly, unconventional ingredients such as matzo balls – in a pool of molten broth within a pleated dumpling wrapper.

An enduring staple of food halls in Queens and storefronts in Brooklyn, they are also nothing new to Manhattanites. Joe’s Shanghai has been steaming them in Chinatown since 1995; more recently, places including Pinch Chinese in SoHo have presented exemplary versions.

But this year Manhattan’s soup dumpling tap has been turned on full blast, from the East Village to the Upper West Side.

Crab with pork soup dumplings at Joe’s Shanghai in New York. Photo: Instagram/@joesshanghai

Dumplings at Pinch Chinese in New York. Photo: Instagram/@pinchchinese

In Midtown, Long Island Dumplings opened behind an anonymous storefront on Sixth Avenue in December. Chef and owner Jason Lee, who opened the place as an offshoot of his popular Long Island Pekin in Babylon, New York, specialises in serving plump, wobbly pork and crab options, both fortified with bone broth.