Most bagged supermarket dumplings are gummy wrappers around a pea-sized knot of filling, pumped out on a line and frozen weeks ago. The good ones are pleated by hand in small kitchens, flash-frozen the day they're made, and shipped to you on dry ice. Cook them straight from the freezer — steamed, pan-fried, or boiled — and they taste like a restaurant made them, because one did.
Published July 2026 · Updated 7 Jul 2026
Founders Caleb Wang, Jen Liao, and Danny Lee built MìLà around soup dumplings (xiao long bao) — thin pleated skins holding seasoned pork and a set gelatin that melts back into broth when you steam them. Made in their own kitchens in Monterey Park, CA and Auburn, WA and shipped frozen with dry ice and an insulated liner. The soup-dumpling benchmark for ordering at home.
Why it isn't on AmazonA real xiao long bao has liquid broth sealed inside a hand-pleated skin — it's a made-fresh, ship-cold product, not something a shelf-stable freezer bag can pull off.
See it at MìLà →Nadia Liu Spellman left a finance career to build Dumpling Daughter on her family's Shanghainese restaurant recipes. Pork-and-chive and chicken dumplings, soup dumplings, and scallion pancakes, shipped 24 to a box in a cooler packed with dry ice. Traceable straight back to one family's kitchen.
Why it isn't on AmazonThese are restaurant recipes made in small runs and frozen fresh, then shipped cold — the opposite of a commodity bag mixed for a national brand.
See it at Dumpling Daughter →A mom-owned, chef-run kitchen making frozen crab-and-pork and classic pork xiao long bao plus a range of handmade dumplings, shipped two-day on dry ice. Started to hand down family dumpling traditions, and it shows in the fold.
Why it isn't on AmazonHandmade soup dumplings and pleated dumplings frozen in small batches have to ship cold and fast — a warehouse bag can't carry a real broth-filled XLB.
See it at United Dumplings →An Austin kitchen that rolls its wrappers and mixes its fillings from scratch every morning with fresh local ingredients, then flash-freezes and ships with 10–15 pounds of dry ice. Small-scale, hand-rolled, and honest about it.
Why it isn't on AmazonWrappers rolled and filled the same morning, then frozen, are a single-kitchen product — nothing about a mass freezer aisle works that way.
See it at Steamies Dumplings →Small-batch organic pelmeni (meat) and vareniki (potato, cherry, and more) in the Ukrainian and Russian tradition, packed in insulated boxes with dry ice to arrive frozen solid. A different corner of the dumpling world than the usual potsticker.
Why it isn't on AmazonOrganic Eastern European dumplings made in small batches are a specialty you won't find in a grocery freezer — they ship direct because that's the only way to get them fresh.
See it at Luda's Dumplings →This seat's open on purpose — we won't pad the list to hit a number. If you ship real frozen dumplings & potstickers direct, it's earned, not sold.
Add your brand →No — cook them straight from frozen. Thawing makes the wrappers stick together and go soggy, and soup dumplings will leak their broth. Drop them frozen into steam, boiling water, or a hot oiled pan and add a couple minutes to the cook time.
Potstickers (guotie) are pan-fried dumplings, crisp on the bottom and steamed on top. Soup dumplings (xiao long bao) hold seasoned broth inside a delicate skin and are steamed. Pelmeni are small Eastern European meat dumplings, usually boiled. Same idea — dough around filling — with different skins, fillings, and cooking methods.
For potstickers: heat oil in a pan, add frozen dumplings, then pour in a splash of water and cover so they steam, uncovering at the end to crisp the bottoms. For steamed dumplings and soup dumplings, use a lined steamer basket so they don't stick — parchment or a cabbage leaf works. Never crowd them.
Handmade dumplings are flash-frozen and need to stay frozen the whole trip, and dry ice holds a much lower temperature than gel packs. It usually arrives still smoking and the dumplings rock-hard. Move them to your freezer right away; if any are soft, cook them within a day.
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