Taiwan’s Bafang Dumpling Opens in San Diego | Eater San Diego

"I'm excited that a famous Taiwanese dumpling chain is slated to debut its first San Diego outpost after Christmas at the Village at Mira Mesa. Founded by Jiayu Lin — a once-struggling mechanic whose wife tutored students and made potstickers as afternoon snacks — the first Bafang Dumpling opened in 1998, expanded to Hong Kong in 2008 and China in 2014, and went public last year. After conquering Asia with nearly 1,300 locations and 1.2 billion dumplings sold annually, Bafang is targeting big U.S. growth: its North American debut was in the San Gabriel Valley in March 2022, followed by Chino Hills, Temple City, and Gardena, and the 3,000-square-foot Mira Mesa restaurant will be bigger than their City of Industry location with more seating. Known for wallet-friendly comfort food in a fast-casual setting, I noted popular items like griddled fried potstickers, spicy Bafang signature noodles, old-fashioned bouncy QQ noodles dressed with soy sauce and shallot oil, breaded pork chops, combo meals (including wonton soup or iced lemon black tea), and a variety of soy-based boba drinks such as Soy Wild Mango and the Soy Awesome with pudding, red beans, grass jelly, and fresh taro. CEO Stephanie Peng emphasized delivering high-quality, convenient food at affordable prices, and the brand is vigorously expanding across Southern California (with plans for Brea Mall, Cerritos, Torrance, Cypress, and Irvine where their central kitchen is located); the first U.S. restaurants are corporate-owned for now, with franchise opportunities to come." - Helen I. Hwang