Auntie Qiu Kitchen – LA

Although LA residents swear up and down that they have a better collection of restaurants than Orange County – and there are certainly more across LA’s older, more populated cities – there’s generally little reason for OC residents to feel jealous, as virtually every cuisine and dish can be found in both places. As true as that is, the Shanghainese restaurant Auntie Qiu Kitchen is impressive enough to evoke jealousy pangs for even a fairly well-traveled visitor from OC. Originally opened in Arcadia around October 2021, followed by an Alhambra location (near Borneo and Uncle Fung Coffee Stall) in 2024, this mini-chain offers a tight yet differentiated menu of dumplings, dim sum, noodles, and soups that begins begging for deeper exploration before you’ve even finished placing your first order – and culinary execution that’s pretty flawless for its price point.

Yes, you can order Din Tai Fung-style handmade pork soup dumplings ($12/8), but why do that when you can instead enjoy crab pork soup dumplings ($15/8) that use crab roe to utterly destroy DTF’s version in both flavor and texture, occasionally leaking bright yellow juice from their delicate wrappers? A similarly generous serving of powerful crab caviar tops the hairy crab roe dry noodles ($22), served with baby bok choy and a dish of ginger vinegar that isn’t necessary – but is additive – to make the dish atypically memorable. And items such as a deliberately cold mixed shepherd’s purse and pork wonton ($13/10) combine atypical dumpling shapes, temperatures, and sesame sauce to make themselves just unfamiliar enough to be extra compelling. Trying to pick up the slippery purses with chopsticks is almost as fun as chewing them.