Amy L.
Yelp
I first learned of this establishment at the World of Dumplings event in SF earlier in 2024. They were serving tapioca dumplings and by the time I was able to order from them, they only had vegan ones left. The vegan tapioca dumplings were so good, I felt like I tag to try the pork version. However, the restaurant is all the way up Sacramento area, so I bookmarked this place with intention to there if I happen to be in the area.
Which brings me to this review...
We happened to be in the area and stopped by. The restaurant is spacious and clean. It has an interesting set up. The restaurant feels like a blend of a game room (with gacha and boardgames), dessert cafe, tea salon (with various cutely packaged Ukrainian teas), laotian restaurant, and "paint nite" art studio. It's definitely quite interesting. The staff were very friendly.
We ordered the papaya salad in Lao style, the pork, tapioca dumplings, the nam khao (crispy rice salad), and coco cassava. Papaya salad was good, definitely stronger in fish sauce flavor than the Thai variation. The pork tapioca dumplings were delicious! They were sweet savory and tasted incredibly similar to the vegan version I had at the dumpling festival. The owner said the seasoning was the same, just the protein was different. Tofu vs pork. The nam khao was interesting. It's a stir fried scorched rice dish containing (nurungi aka guo ba) pieces of pork sausage, peanuts, scallions, fish sauce and other ingredients. You eat it like a taco, with the provided lettuce. The coco cassava was chilled and rolled in shredded coconut. It wasn't too sweet and was tasty. Actually everything we tried was delicious.
We were then curious about the various teas on display. We got to try some tea samples and purchased a container of the soursop tea (which was surprisingly light and fruity). The owner brought out 2 pieces of mochi layers (pandan and ube flavored) for us to try to go with our tea. The mochi layers were really pretty. Each layer is steamed one at a time to make this dessert. It was really flavorful and not too sweet as well.
Overall, glad we stopped by and finally tried the pork tapioca dumplings. We had a great time and would be back when we are in the area.