Frank’s Dumpling & Noodles by Sheung Shui

While the northern part of Orange County has no shortage of authentic and often highly focused Chinese restaurants focusing on regional specialties, those options tend to dry up as one moves further south, where Chinese-American choices cater to locally entrenched preferences. Frank’s Dumpling & Noodles is something of an exception – founded under a different name around 2017 in China, followed by Lake Forest’s noodle and fish soup shop Sheung Shui in 2019, and several related Cantonese restaurants thereafter. In mid-2025, Sheung Shui dropped that name in favor of “Frank’s,” which is now used across this place, Frank’s Bistro Chinese Cuisine almost immediately next door, and Frank’s BBQ locations in Lake Forest and Irvine. Our impression is that they’re collectively attempting to recapture some of the energy lost when Sam Woo restaurants closed in Irvine, though this group’s concepts aren’t exactly 1:1 matches for Sam Woo’s.

Frank’s Dumpling & Noodles offers fast-casual Chinese food that’s a step above takeout and several steps below fine dining. Guests order appetizers, dumplings, rice, noodles, and vegetables using their phones or a two-sided paper menu with the same options. Appetizers range from $6.50 to $13, sets of eight to ten dumplings for $11 to $13.50, and entrees in the $11 to $17 range. Drinks and add-on proteins or noodles are available for $3 to $7 each, and are generally better values than can be found at inflation-adjusted rivals in northern Orange County.

Most of the items we tried at Frank’s were fine, but there were a couple of standouts – steamed black sesame xiaolongbao had purplish-black cores and were loaded with sesame flavor, though purely in paste rather than liquid/soup-style XLB form. On the other side of the complexity scale, cold sliced cucumber was intensely garlicky and lightly salted without modification; chili oil, soy sauce, and vinegar on the table let you adjust the flavor to your preference.