The new year brought a new kind of Chinese restaurant to the Town of Vienna.
Panda Dumpling quietly opened last Wednesday, Jan. 1 at 155B Maple Avenue West, taking over the former Bubble Mochi space in between the Cruz N Shine Car Wash and Marjan Carryout and Catering.
Currently in soft-opening mode, the eatery specializes in handmade dumplings, particularly pot stickers that can be ordered steamed or fried with options for beef, pork and chives or pork and napa cabbage. Pan-fried pork gyoza and pork soup dumplings (xiao long bao) are also available.
The full menu is still being finalized, owner Bing Sui said when FFXnow visited yesterday (Monday).
Outside of dumplings, it currently focuses on a mix of Chinese and Japanese fried food, such as General Tso’s chicken, scallion pancakes and crispy octopus balls known as takoyaki. Rice and noodle dishes include a beef noodle soup, gyudon (thinly sliced beef and onion over rice) and unadon (grilled eel on rice).
For drinks, Panda Dumpling offers a variety of milk and fruit teas as well as yogurt smoothies.
This is Sui’s first restaurant venture, she told FFXnow, with her son on hand to help translate. All of the food is made by hand and comes from her original recipes
“We want to have more people eat and try out hand-crafted Chinese food,” Sui said, noting that the ingredients used are “high quality.”
Though Panda Dumpling doesn’t have a significant online presence yet, it has already gotten some glowing reviews on Google and Yelp that bestow five-star ratings across the board.
“The food was great overall and was not overly greasy even though we got many fried items. The dumplings and buns were juicy and flavorful, and my kids gobbled them up,” one Google review says. “They also liked the panda-themed decorations and saucers.”
Panda Dumpling joins an increasingly diverse dining scene for Asian food in Vienna, which welcomed the Taiwanese cafe Vivi Bubble Tea and the all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant Sushi Oishii last year.
However, the town proved unable to sustain two mochi donut bakeries. Opened in early 2022, Bubble Mochi closed last September, per commenters in the Vienna VA Foodies Facebook group — just a couple of weeks after nearby rival Donutchew shuttered on Aug. 22.
