A Dallas restaurant is about to make its national television debut: Hello Dumpling, the darling Asian dumpling shop in East Dallas, will appear on Food Network in February in an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives, the series starring irrepressible host Guy Fieri.
The series returns to the air beginning on February 7 — but it won't be until Friday, February 21 that Hello Dumpling makes its appearance, in an episode called “Dallas Dumplings, Florida Fried and Chi-Tacos”.
The episode is described as follows:
"This trip, Guy Fieri's diggin' into dumplings, deep fried, and lights-out Latin. There's amazing Asian in Dallas, dishing out delicious dumplings and traditional beef noodle soup. A funky spot in Naples is embracing Florida fare, like gator sausage, frog legs and fried chicken. And in Chicago, a DDDblast-from-the-past has gone from chef in one kitchen to owner at his own joint, serving up flavors like mojo pork & plantains and amped-up chicken tacos."
Food Network does not divulge the identities of the restaurants that appear on most of its shows in advance; and restaurants that are featured on their shows are not permitted to reveal their participation without getting an OK from Food Network.
However, Hello Dumpling was one of seven Dallas-area restaurants that Fieri and his DD&D crew visited in early December, when they taped segments for future episodes such as this. Hello was the only Asian restaurant among the seven, and thus the only one that serves dumplings and "traditional beef noodle soup."
UPDATE 2-22-2025: The Hello Dumpling appearance on the show can be viewed here.
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Hello Dumpling does 14 varieties of dumplings: pork with Napa cabbage, chicken with mushrooms, fish with green onion, beef with carrots and onions, shrimp with zucchini, and vegetarian. Plus four rice dumplings: pork rice, beef rice, chicken rice, and vegetarian rice. And lastly, four dessert dumplings filled with banana, apple, peach, or mango.
Their noodle soup, which they call "braised beef soup noodle," (doesn't it seem like "noodle" should go before "soup"?), features slow-braised beef shank with noodles in a rich, spicy bone broth. It's one of three noodle soups, the other two being chicken and vegetarian.
Founder June Chow at Hello DumplingHello Dumpling
The show will also feature their chicken rice dumplings, which are little steamed rice balls with a spicy chicken meatball in the center.
The episode is also likely to spotlight founder June Chow, a warm and beloved host who came from a restaurant family and grew up eating dumplings; her mother is from northern China. She wanted to bring an interesting Asian restaurant to East Dallas, and also to elevate the status of dumplings as something to be taken more seriously than a mere appetizer.
She opened the first location in 2017 in the former Good 2 Go Taco space at 1146 Peavy Rd., then followed up with a second location that opened in The Hill at US-75 and Walnut Hill Lane in 2019.
A Guy Fieri restaurant concept is opening in Dallas on February 6: Called Chicken Guy!, it specializes in chicken tenders, served solo, or in sandwiches and salads, and coincidentally will open at The Hill, the same center as Hello Dumpling, where it's being brought by a local franchisee.
“Triple-D” has been airing on The Food Network since 2006 and has spotlighted at least 1,000 kitchens in all 50 states. Once a restaurant gets featured on the show, it generally gets swamped for a spell. If you want to beat the crowd, now's the time to hie on over to Hello and get some dumplings.
“Dallas Dumplings, Florida Fried and Chi-Tacos” premieres Friday, February 21 at 8 pm.
