The Indian samosa. The Japanese gyoza. The Spanish empanada. The Polish pierogi. Although it is mainly known for its Chinese variant, many other cultures have their own dumplings.
“There’s no romantic notion that I wanted, but it evolved into something like that,” Hello Dumpling founder and owner June Chow says. “The business idea was [to make dumplings], but I drew from a passion, from a food that came from my childhood… I’ve said this numerous times that there’s dumplings in every single culture. It may not look like the Chinese dumpling, but it’s anything that’s encased in some sort of dough or something. People refer to children that are little dumplings or something that’s cute and warm and fuzzy. I think, in essence, it just makes people feel really comfortable and not intimidated. It’s not a foreign food because there are so many iterations of it globally.”
Chow was familiar with the restaurant business and the dumpling; her mother owned a Chinese restaurant when she was growing up. When discussing with her husband how they were going to put her two kids through college, she used her familiarity with running restaurants and her heritage to bring together Hello Dumpling.
Hello Dumpling founder and owner June Chow. Photography by Austin Marc Graf
Chow saw the need for good, authentic Chinese dumplings in East Dallas, she says. She opened her first location in 2017. Seven years later, her business is only growing.
Hello Dumpling’s menu is similar to a traditional Chinese dumpling house menu, where the options are few, but perfected. Chow makes her menu different by adding noodles, but the menu stays simple, with the dumplings and noodles being the menu’s backbone.
“If you look at my menu, it’s a very tight menu,” Chow says. “What differentiates my dumpling place from other places around here is that they do dumplings, but they do a variety of things. They’ve got all sorts of stir fried stuff, all sorts of other things, which I don’t. My idea is to show people that when you go and have dumplings, it’s not an appetizer, it is not something that you start with. You go and you actually have dumplings, that’s how I ate it.”
Chow always wanted to have multiple locations for her restaurant. In 2022, Chow brought Hello Dumpling to Lake Highlands, opening the Walnut Hill location. But she says her expansion is about more than just expanding her business: it’s about expanding the dish itself.
“It’s a very basic type of food and it could be consumed everywhere,” Chow says. “I would like to show people how broad the appeal is, how everybody just eats dumplings. I guess the goal is to really normalize it and make dumplings just another food. That’s what happened to pizza. Pizza was weird in the beginning and now nobody thinks of it like, ‘Oh my God, that is so strange and foreign.’ You go and eat a taco, I think it doesn’t matter who you are, you know what a taco is. Having those kinds of foods become a part of someone’s everyday preference. It just becomes like a routine that I’m gonna go with dumplings. It’s not something weird and foreign.”
Tofu Chaun’r Skewers ($7) are a spicy, gluten-free option on the ‘Hot Bites’ portion of the menu. Photography by Austin Marc Graf
When Chow was employing her original location, she wanted to reach out to the community. Through a friend, she learned of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and their employment placement program. Chow worked with the IRC and supported people from Myanmar, Guatemala, Mexico, Afghanistan and Indonesia.
“Being an immigrant, I see no specific difference between hiring someone who was born here or born there,” Chow says. “I just want to give an opportunity to someone who actually wants to work. Not everybody’s an asylum seeker or refugee, but many of [the employees] were. Everyone comes with an incredible drive to be productive in this country, but they don’t take it for granted.”
Chow aims to make Hello Dumpling not only a restaurant, but a safe space.
“I think the most rewarding part is to see joy on the faces of people,” Chow says. “It’s hard work. But, there are so many experiences that are so incredibly heartwarming. I’ve had so many experiences with people who have come in and they eat something and they go home feeling like they were fortified. We’re just not talking about nourishment [through the food], it’s really talking about something that they felt was given to them just in the space, the kind of food, something comforting and made them feel really good about eating. Whether it’s chatting with somebody at the restaurant or meeting other people. It brings me great joy when people say, ‘Oh my God, I feel so much better now’. That is intensely rewarding to me. It’s a safe zone.”
Hello Dumpling, 8041 Walnut Hill Lane, 214.812.9011, hello-dumpling.com
