Paper Lantern Dumpling House opened at the Diamond Jamboree center in Irvine. (Tomoya Shimura, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Paper Lantern Dumpling House, which opened at the Diamond Jamboree center in Irvine, offers authentic Asian dumplings with a modern service approach. (Tomoya Shimura, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Paper Lantern Dumpling House, which opened at the Diamond Jamboree center in Irvine, offers authentic Asian dumplings with a modern service approach. (Tomoya Shimura, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Paper Lantern Dumpling House, which opened at the Diamond Jamboree center in Irvine, offers authentic Asian dumplings with a modern service approach. (Tomoya Shimura, Orange County Register/SCNG)



One of my favorite one-day getaways is visiting the San Gabriel Valley for a dim sum brunch.

Having grown up in Japan, I often crave authentic Asian dumplings, and there’s no better place for that than what has become the “real” Chinatown of Southern California.

But unless you’ve grown up eating dim sum regularly, it’s not easy to pick out what you want from a dim sum cart, especially when servers speak little English. They usually aren’t patient enough to explain to you what they are serving and sometimes just put the unidentifiable dish on your table.

(If you aren’t familiar, dim sum is Chinese cuisine where bite-sized foods, like various dumplings and chicken feet, are served in a steamer basket or on plates.)

Paper Lantern Dumpling House, which recently opened at Irvine’s Diamond Jamboree center, removes such adventures out of the experience while still offering the authentic flavors.

The fast-casual restaurant serves a variety of handmade dumplings, such as the Shanghai-style xiao long bao, or juicy soup dumplings, and pan-fried pot-stickers.

It’s the latest venture from 28-year-old Allan Tea, whose family runs Capital Seafood restaurants. He also co-owns the Hello Kitty Cafe Pop-Up Container at the Irvine Spectrum Center and the Hello Kitty Mini Cafe in Arcadia.

Tea hired Ken Cao, who worked as a chef at Din Tai Fung, globally known for its xiao long baos.

I’ve eaten at Din Tai Fung in Taiwan, Tokyo and Arcadia and also at South Coast Plaza, but lines were long at all these locations. Paper Lantern is a good alternative if you prefer a more casual atmosphere and shorter wait times.

Cao showcased his dumpling-making skills at a recent media tasting event at Paper Lantern.

With the precision of a surgeon, he placed marinated pork on tiny thin dough and creased the edge to wrap a dumpling in about 10 seconds.

He said he’s made about 3,000 of those per day for the last eight years.

They let us media folks try wrapping our own dumplings at the event, which just gave us a whole new appreciation for Cao’s talent. I will not post any photos of my dumplings, which ended up looking like half-opened sea shells.

Tea said he and his childhood friend Kenny Lim, whose family runs Mama Lu’s Dumpling House in San Gabriel Valley, came up with the idea of opening a modern dumpling restaurant about a year ago.

They waited for space to open up at Diamond Jamboree, which Tea calls “a mecca of Asian food in Orange County.”

“Competition is serious in Irvine,” he said. “Everybody wants to be here.”

They took recipes from Mama Lu’s to keep the flavors at Paper Lantern authentic, Tea said, while adding twists like offering agua fresca.

The restaurant mainly targets Asians, but is getting interest from others as well, he said.

Young Asian entrepreneurs like Tea are leading Southern California’s food trend, turning their traditional cuisine into something modern and hip.

“Asians are doing food that’s not even Asian” such as frozen yogurt, Tea said. “I think it’s the entrepreneurship that runs in our blood.”

His goal is to grow Paper Lantern into a chain.

Paper Lantern is next to Shinhan Bank and across from Ajisen Ramen at 2730 Alton Pkwy, C- 101, in Irvine.