9 Trader Joe's Frozen Dim Sum Items, Ranked From Worst To Best

Dim sum is more than just a meal — it's an experience. Typically served at brunch time, this Cantonese tradition is a leisurely meal of shared plates of small bites and copious amounts of tea. From dumplings to rolls to pastries, and from spicy to sweet to sour, dim sum diners can enjoy a vast and varied assortment of dishes ordered and eaten at a casual tempo. It's tough to beat the lively atmosphere of a dim sum dining hall on a weekend morning, with carts of food rolling from table to table and filling the air with mouth-watering aromas. If you can't make it out to one of these dining destinations, and you find yourself in a dim sum mood, look no further than the frozen section at your local Trader Joe's.

Dumplings are quite possibly my favorite category of food, and as I was shopping at Trader Joe's recently, I noted all of the different frozen varieties the store offers. It seemed to be an endless amount: soup dumplings, wontons, shu mai, you name it. Then I saw spring rolls and a few types of bao, and thought to myself, "This is an entire dim sum feast waiting to happen." Having only tried a few of these items in the past, I decided that someone needed to taste them all — and that person was me. Here are nine of Trader Joe's frozen dim sum items, ranked from worst to best.

One of my pandemic lockdown obsessions was learning how to make all kinds of dumplings from scratch. I utilized many different cooking techniques, but my favorite by far was the pan-frying-steaming combination. Basically, you fry the dumplings in oil first for a few minutes, then add water to the pan, cover it, and let them finish cooking in a steam bath. What results from this technique are dumplings with a combination of crispy and soft exteriors, and beautifully moist filling. When I saw that method on the back of the package of Trader Joe's Chicken Cilantro Mini Wontons, I got excited.

Despite my experience cooking dumplings this way, these didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. The crispy sides got a little too charred too quickly, and after the recommended time steaming, some of the dumplings still had uncooked edges where the frilled edges of the wrapper come together. I'm more than willing to chalk it up to my own error — perhaps the pan was too hot, or something else went wrong that I didn't notice. Whatever the reason, these wontons ended up being my least favorite, and that's mainly to do with the textures of the wrappers just missing the mark. The filling was pretty good, particularly if you love cilantro, which I do (genetically predisposed cilantro haters will want to steer clear, as the herb's flavor is front and center). Still, the flavor didn't make up for the unpleasant combination of textures.

I thought I would love Trader Joe's Pork Shu Mai much more than I did, as this is one of my favorite styles of dumpling, but these are a far cry from anything I've had at a dim sum restaurant. There were a few things I appreciated about them. The thin wrapper cooked evenly and held the filling together perfectly, and the filling-to-wrapping ratio was spot-on. The pork filling itself had the familiar soft, almost pâté-like texture with a melt-in-your-mouth consistency. Sadly, though, the flavors of the filling didn't come together for me.

There's an overly sweet character to the pork filling that I couldn't seem to balance, no matter which or how many condiments I utilized. Even with the additions of both hot mustard and chili crisp, I could still taste that sweetness over everything else. These fared best with a soy sauce-based dip, but balance still remained elusive. After a while, I got tired of trying to find the perfect sauce combo and just gave up.

If you ask me, soup dumplings are one of the culinary world's most astounding creations. Known as xiao long bao in Chinese, and sometimes XLB for short, these pockets of dough are filled with broth in addition to solid ingredients. Trader Joe's offers a variety of soup dumplings in packages of six that can be steamed or microwaved. For authenticity's sake, I opted to steam them, starting off with the chicken soup dumplings.

Soup dumplings require a particular technique to eat, lest you burn your mouth with scalding hot liquid or spill the contents all over yourself — I like to take a little bite from one edge, place the dumpling in a small bowl and let the broth run out, then slurp the whole thing up like an oyster. The first of Trader Joe's Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings that I tried was somewhat broth-deficient, a major disappointment. The next few I tried were much soupier, thankfully, but that initial failure haunted the rest of my experience. The broth had a bright, ginger-forward flavor, though I found the chicken portion of the filling slightly bland. Adding a bit of chili oil or soy sauce to the dumpling added more dimension, but also overshadowed the filling's mild flavor. 

To keep things simple, I cooked both varieties of spring rolls (vegetable and chicken) in the oven, and it turned out to be a very successful method. Trader Joe's fries its spring rolls prior to freezing, and reheating them seems to bring them right back to that optimal crispy, golden-brown state. The vegetable variety is filled with a slew of ingredients, all vegan: kale, cabbage, onion, edamame, mushrooms, carrots, and tofu, and that's not including the seasonings. There's a good combination of textures, which makes each bite interesting, but the flavor is where these rolls fell short.

There are so many ingredients involved that they basically cancel each other out. I got a few bites that were promisingly vegetal and vibrant, but then I'd take another bite that was much less flavorful, even verging on bland. Dipping sauces added flavor, but completely took over unless I used an extremely light hand. Still, these are a good-sized vegan snack to have around at a good price, at less than a dollar a roll. 

These little Mini Shrimp Bao from Trader Joe's are so cute, you may have a tough time eating them. They almost look like adorable little toy hamburgers. A classic bao is an airy, pillowy wonder, made with yeasted dough, that works as a base for many different dim sum dishes. For these mini shrimp bao, the bread is folded in half around a shrimp patty to create something like a taco or sandwich. Unlike the other items featured in this ranking, this comes with its own dipping sauce, a sweet-sour concoction made with lemongrass and a hint of chili.

Each element of this mini bao is well-crafted. The buns are light and soft as clouds, the patties are nicely seasoned and have a bouncy texture, and the dipping sauce is packed with flavor and just the right amount of heat. While I enjoyed each element quite a bit individually, when I put all three together, they didn't seem to mesh. The shrimp patties and the sauce share several ingredients, and their similar flavor profiles seemed to flatten them both, leaving the bao itself a bit of an afterthought. The patties on their own had an appealing, fresh, oceanic shrimp flavor, but that got somewhat lost in the literal sauce.

Just like Trader Joe's Vegetable Spring Rolls, the chicken variety crisped up beautifully in the oven. I found the filling in these to be more streamlined, cohesive, and flavorful. The chicken offered a tender and meaty mouthfeel combined with cabbage and carrots, all enhanced by a warm and herbaceous seasoning blend of basil, ginger, garlic, and chili paste. The flavor combination gives these spring rolls a bright intensity, so much so that they didn't even need a dipping sauce. That said, they were a delightful vessel for the three sauces that I tried, particularly hot mustard, which complemented them with a nice kick of heat.

My only gripe about these spring rolls was the lack of consistency. While most of them were packed to the gills with filling, a few had significant pockets of air, leading to some fairly flavorless bites. While I love the shatteringly crisp wrapper, it was tough to enjoy largely on its own — negative space has no place in stuffed foods, if you ask me. Still, they're worth a buy: Trader Joe's Chicken Spring Rolls took the number one spot in our ranking of frozen egg rolls.

No meal is complete without a starchy side of some sort of bread to sop up sauces and stray morsels. For dim sum, that role is filled by the scallion pancake, also known as cong you bing. Layers of dough spotted throughout with chopped green onions, these flatbreads are pan-seared or griddled until golden-brown on the outside and soft and flaky on the inside. Trader Joe's Taiwanese Green Onion Pancakes cook from frozen to perfection in just a few minutes.

I enjoy making flatbreads like tortillas and naan from scratch, because they're usually miles better than anything store-bought. That's why I was incredibly impressed with these pancakes — they tasted homemade. The chopped scallions were fairly well distributed throughout the dough, giving each bite a fresh, oniony flavor. I loved the contrast of textures between the exterior and interior, and each piece was pliable enough to be easily folded or rolled without splitting or tearing. The salt level was just a touch on the low side, which certainly isn't a dealbreaker, especially as these are most likely to be used along with other ingredients and not necessarily eaten on their own. Still, I wish they were just a bit more seasoned.

Cha siu bao, pork-stuffed steamed buns, are definitely a dim sum heavy-hitter. These dumplings take full advantage of the bao's tender, pillowy texture, twisting a thick layer of dough around a center of sweet-and-savory barbecue pork. I had hesitantly high hopes for Trader Joe's version, as this is one of my favorite dim sum dishes, and it definitely delivered.

The buns steamed nicely, retaining both delicacy and strength. I cooked them a minute longer than the package directed, on the recommendation of a Trader Joe's team member, who mentioned that the thick tops can sometimes have issues cooking all the way through. The texture was soft and springy in every bite. The buns' flavorful filling acted like an umami bomb, in perfect contrast to the bread's mellow sweetness, and its meaty, toothsome texture was very satisfying. It was a photo finish between these buns and the winning product. In the end, I really had to split a few hairs — these are pricier per dumpling, and while the flavor of these bao is comforting, it lacks a bit of vibrancy.

I've already waxed poetic about my love of soup dumplings, and while Trader Joe's Steamed Chicken Soup Dumplings fell flat for me, the pork and ginger variety was a complete triumph. The broth is brimming with explosive flavor, led by an aromatic punch of ginger that ties everything together. Each dumpling I tried was absolutely bursting with soup, and the ground pork filling was delectably moist and savory.

These dumplings need no accompaniment whatsoever, but I tried them with my dipping sauces just to be thorough. While the chili crisp, hot mustard, and soy-based dumpling sauce all added interesting dimensions, I preferred them on their own. The broth and filling are so intensely flavored and well-seasoned that it felt like blasphemy to mess with that perfect balance. The only variation I might be willing to try is this TikTok-famous hack for making them crispy on the bottom, but it's hard to imagine these dumplings can be improved in any way.

I took a trip to a few of my local Trader Joe's stores and noted down all of the frozen items that could be considered dim sum dishes. I then narrowed it down further, trying to keep the selections as close to traditional as possible while also maintaining a good variety — I wanted to have meat, seafood, and vegetarian options. Once the selection was complete, I prepared for my dim sum taste test.

For any item that had multiple cooking methods, I chose the one that seemed to be the best option with the fewest variables for consistency. For those with just a single option, I prepared them as recommended on the package. Once each item was cooked, I tried it unadorned and noted its flavor, texture, and anything else that stood out. Then I tried each item with three different accompaniments: chili crisp, hot mustard, and a classic soy-vinegar-sesame dipping sauce. In addition to how each item tasted, I also considered ease of preparation and value as I ranked them.