There’s a Chinese restaurant serving steamed dumplings and hand-pulled noodles in McKinney: Called Chef Sun’s Noodle and Dumpling, it’s in the former Fork and Fire space at 7540 SH 121, #150 at Hub 121, where it opened in February.

Chef Sun’s is from Richard Sun, who previously operated restaurants in Houston and China before moving to Dallas. He opened the first location of Chef Sun's Noodle and Dumpling in Plano in 2024.

He's joined by executive chef Jianmin Xiao, another native of China who also has extensive restaurant experience. Sun is from northeastern China, and Xiao is from Sichuan. They met in Houston six years ago and reconnected when Sun had plans to move to Dallas and open the Plano Chef Sun's location. Sun's daughter Cassie Sun is also part of the team, serving as general manager.

"After my dad finished culinary school in China, he'd travel around to different cities there and learn how to make different cultural foods, such as Sichuan and dim sum (Cantonese dumplings)," Cassie says. "All of our chefs also have 20-30 years of experience."

The menu at both locations is the same, featuring popular soup dumplings, rainbow dumplings, and house biang biang, a chewy and wide hand-pulled noodle dish.

The Sichuan region of China uses a lot of Sichuan pepper and chili peppers in dishes, while northeastern fare is milder. Xiao has his own stir-frying process: for the three-flavor pepper chicken, he stir fries the pepper first, then adds dried chili peppers to layer the spiciness of the dish, then adds the chicken.

Chef Sun's does baked or fried piggy buns.Chef Sun's

While they take their dumpling making seriously and turn out an impeccably authentic version, they also do cute specialty dishes, like the baked or fried piggy buns filled with red bean paste and designed with pig faces on the outside. Dumplings are typically $13 and noodles are $12-S18.

While Plano is more casual, the new McKinney spinoff has an elevated atmosphere with counter seating and hanging chandelier lights ideal for date nights and family gatherings, plus a patio.

They don't serve alcohol but one thing that enhances the dining experience at Chef Sun's is the open kitchen where customers can watch through a small window as dumplings are prepared.