Dining Out: Rainbow Dumplings, Pan-Fried Zucchini and Egg Dumplings, Xiao Long Bao, and Stir-Fried Beef Noodles at Shinyi Dumplings

After leaving the BTS cup sleeve event, Iris and I walked down towards Bloor to look for a good place to eat a late lunch and decided upon a restaurant called Shinyi Dumplings. It's a cute spot with sleek, clean, modern decor inside — totally not what you'd expect from a typical dumpling or dim sum place. We decided on four items: a set of their signature rainbow dumplings, the zucchini and egg pan-fried dumplings, the xiao long bao, and the stir-fried beef noodles.

Steamed rainbow dumplings

The star of the show here is definitely the rainbow dumplings, something I'd never seen before. One set comes with seven differently coloured steamed dumplings, each with a different filling:

• Red — Pork, chives, and shrimp
• Pink — Zucchini and egg
• Orange — Beef and carrot
• Yellow — Chicken and mushroom
• Green — Pork and cabbage
• Blue — Mixed veggie
• Purple — Sweet sticky rice

Each one was a delight. Great combinations of flavours and ingredients — my personal favourites were the pork, chives, and shrimp and the chicken and mushroom. Portion size was perfect, and the ratio of filling to wrapper was ideal. A must-order here. And they're pretty, too! (And hey, it's Pride Month. How fitting!)

Pan-fried zucchini and egg dumplings
Stir-fried beef noodles
Xiao long bao
The pan-fried dumplings and the noodles were quite delicious — pretty standard fare, but they're as you'd expect. No complaints and they totally hit the spot. But the xiao long bao was by far the most disappointing order of the bunch, and maybe the worst xiao long bao I've ever had. Perhaps I've been spoiled with the excellent quality ones at Ding Tai Fung, but the xiao long bao here are small with thick, stiff skins, and almost no soup inside. When you eat a xiao long bao, the whole point is that the delicious, oily, meaty soup inside explodes in your mouth. The wrapper is supposed to be as thin as possible, so that they are ultra-delicate and could tear at any moment just buy picking it up with chopsticks. The ones here literally don't have any of the characteristics of a soup dumpling, and frankly shouldn't even be called xiao long bao. It sets up an expectation that has dismal results in reality. (YES, I AM DRAMATIC ABOUT DUMPLINGS.)

Would I come back here? Yes, I absolutely would. But for literally anything except the xiao long bao.

Shinyi Dumplings

641 Yonge St.

Toronto, ON M4Y 1Z9

(647) 349-3888