Dumpling Inn & Shanghai Saloon

Unlike the single-concept specialists up and down Convoy — Woomiok's bone broth focus, EE NAMI's tonkatsu commitment — Dumpling Inn sprawls across the Shanghai canon, which means you can bring your XLB purists and your sweet-and-sour enthusiasts to the same table without anyone feeling shortchanged. The **xiaolongbao** arrive competent and steaming, though regulars know the real sleeper is the **chicken with scallions noodle soup**, where the broth runs clean and deeply flavored, the kind of thing that tastes like it's been simmering since morning.

The dining room occupies a compact Convoy strip slot that fills fast on weekends, drawn by a lunch crowd that skews business-casual and a dinner mix of families and late-shift workers chasing **wontons in chili oil** and **honey-glazed shrimp**. Service moves efficiently if not warmly — this is a place built for turnover, not lingering — and tables sometimes show the residue of earlier seatings. The first two hours of lot parking are free; after that you're gambling on the paid structure out back.

The menu reads broader than the name suggests, leaning into Shanghai classics that don't always make it onto Americanized Chinese menus: **pork chop rice cakes**, **beef roll pancakes**, **drunken chicken**. The **pork dumplings** hold their own against Convoy's deeper bench, crispy-bottomed and satisfying without pretending to reinvent the form. For groups, the **chow mein** and **fried rice** anchor the table while more adventurous eaters explore the cold appetizer section.

It's the kind of spot where you can order conservatively or dig into the less-translated corners of the menu and come out equally fed. Just don't expect pristine tablecloths or revelatory service — Dumpling Inn's charm lies in doing a lot of things well enough that locals keep coming back, often with friends who've never navigated Convoy's density before.