The Dumpling Drip‘s Double Drip Dumplings, $7.99, 615 Queen St. W.
The dish
More involved and intricate than typical street food, the handmade dumplings at this shipping container stall are worth a stop when passing through the Queen West strip. The veggie Double Drip Dumplings ($7.99 for six, $14.99 for 12) are inspired by the West Indies and feature a Japanese chickpea curry filling topped with sweet and sour tamarind sauce and fried onions. They are creamy with a sweet curry spice, a dash of tartness and a bit of crunch to finish. Seating may not be indoors, but the bubble tent in front of the stall provides some relief from gusts of winter wind and snow. While the dumplings are available on delivery apps, they are best eaten fresh before the wrappers dry out and the onions get soggy.
The chef
Opened last July in the often overlooked shipping container market just east of the Queen and Bathurst intersection, Dumpling Drip is owned and operated by Eric Wang, who previously ran Parkdale’s Then & Now restaurant before it closed in 2024. Scaling back to a takeout and catering concept is his response to changing dining habits, with takeout and delivery more prevalent than ever, and it also eases the daily stresses of running a sit-down restaurant.
“It’s nice not having to worry about a liquor licence,” Wang says. “I just want to prep my food, make it, serve it and go home.” The dumplings serve as a blank canvas for Wang’s multicultural inspirations and have proven to be excellent party food. His dumplings can also be found at the ROM’s After Dark events, and his stall stays open as late as midnight on Fridays and Saturdays to serve clubgoers who want something more refined than fast food.
What else is on the menu
Fans of Then & Now will remember the Marco Polo dumplings, stuffed with ricotta and shrimp and finished with a creamy butter sauce, lemon oil, furikake and chili oil ($10.99 for six, $20.99 for 12). Other global takes on the Chinese dumpling include the Big Jerk ($9.99 for six, $18.99 for 12), jerk-spiced chicken and red kidney bean dumplings with a hint of scotch bonnet and sriracha, puffed rice and fried onions. For pho on the go, the Banh Bao Sup ($10.99 for six, $20.99 for 12) is filled with pork, beef and Vietnamese sausage and dressed with onion, basil, sriracha, hoisin and lemon oil to capture the flavours of the noodle soup.
Explore the area
The Queen West strip is a lot quieter now that all the holiday shopping season is over, so for those who have been avoiding crowds all December, now is the time to return. Especially since January is a traditionally slow time for local restaurants (hence the creation of Winterlicious to drum up business before things pick up again for Valentine’s Day). If you want to start the year off by supporting more local restaurants, check out the biryani at The Dum Spot, which is also at the same market (I wrote about it previously here). Keep walking eastward on Queen West and you’ll hit the downtown location of Allwyn’s at 404 Queen St. W. for great jerk chicken. If you want some shelter from the cold, the Waterworks Food Hall just south of that 50 Brant St. is an ideal place to hang out and sample from a dozen vendors.
