6 Store-Bought Frozen Soup Dumplings, Ranked

There have been a lot of frozen dumplings on the market these days, from frozen potstickers to shumais. Luckily for those of us who have fallen in love with xiao long bao or soup dumplings at Asian restaurant chains like Din Tai Fung, there are now multiple brands of frozen soup dumplings you can buy at grocery stores. 

A soup dumpling is a specific type of dumpling. It's originally called xiao long bao in Chinese, but it gets its English name from the fact that the dumpling isn't filled with just meat, but also a flavorful broth. 

You can find soup dumplings in the freezer aisles of Target, Walmart, and Trader Joe's. But which ones are actually worth buying? To answer this question, I purchased and tasted six different frozen soup dumplings. Read below to see how these soup dumplings rank against one another and don't forget to learn how to eat a soup dumpling properly. 

Good & Gather is Target's private-label wellness brand, and it offers frozen pork soup dumplings that are available exclusively at Target. These dumplings are sold for $5.99 for a box of six, putting them in the middle of the pack, price range-wise. 

These Target dumplings have a pretty good wrapper. While the skin is on the thicker side, it's not too thick and has a good texture. The broth inside the dumpling also tastes pretty fresh and flavorful. Unfortunately, the meat filling itself left a lot to be desired. The meat is too mushy and spongy.

While I'm not sure how they are made, the meat in these dumplings seems to be more processed and emulsified than some of the others. The more I ate of the dumplings, the more unpleasant the texture became. Despite the nice flavor and texture of the skin and broth, I couldn't get past the meat filling.

This particular soup dumpling is a little different. Because Feel Good Foods is a gluten-free food brand, the skin is not made with the traditional wheat-based dumpling skin. In this case, the wrapper is made out of rice flour and tapioca starch, and it's filled with minced pork mixed with ginger and scallions. I picked up a box of six dumplings for about $7.79.

The dumpling skin was similar to mochi: chewy and sticky. Since it was a little sticky, the skin broke more easily as it stuck to my chopsticks as I was taking it out of the basket. The pork filling was good and there was a decent amount of soup inside each dumpling, but I think the flavor unfortunately gets overwhelmed by the thicker and chewier skin. 

While I'm ranking this on the lower end because the mochi-like skin makes it very different from a traditional soup dumpling, and not as flavorful, there's certainly a market for this product. If you're gluten-free and looking to enjoy a soup dumpling, I think this is a solid option.

Wow Bao started as a restaurant opened by Chicago's Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, which owns numerous restaurants including one of America's most expensive steakhouses, RPM Steak. Not to worry, though — these aren't expensive dumplings. I picked up Wow Bao's chicken soup dumplings for $4.96 for a box of six at the Walmart in Monroe, Washington.

Even though Wow Bao does sell pork soup dumplings, I was unfortunately only able to find the chicken version at the store I went to. Wow Bao's dumpling skin feels thicker compared to Trader Joe's soup dumplings. The meat filling is also not as flavorful as the others on this list. I could only taste a bit of ginger.

I like this better than Good & Gather's soup dumplings because of the texture of the filling, but Wow Bao's dumplings don't contain as much broth and the filling is on the bland side compared to some of the others I tried. 

Soup dumplings are only one of a few options for frozen dumplings from Trader Joe's. These Trader Joe's soup dumplings are the most affordable of all the options on this list, retailing at $3.49 for a box of six. Even though it has the lowest price point, it fortunately isn't the lowest in quality. For the price, these dumplings are an amazing value.

The Trader Joe's soup dumplings have a thicker skin and not as much broth inside as MìLà, but they're still quite good. The skin isn't overly thick and has a soft, chewy texture. The pork filling has a strong ginger flavor. Traditionally, soup dumplings are eaten with slices of ginger, but in this case, you don't need to, since the ginger is already part of the filling. With a good dumpling skin texture, a nice amount of broth and flavorful filling, Trader Joe's soup dumplings certainly hit the spot. The low price point doesn't hurt either. 

Laoban started as a dumpling shop in Washington, D.C. back in 2017 and pivoted to selling frozen foods in 2021 after the pandemic hit. In addition to all kinds of dumplings, Laoban also sells frozen popcorn chicken, noodles, and more. Laoban's soup dumplings retail for $6.99 for a box of six at the Target in Lake Stevens, Washington.

While Laoban does produce pork soup dumplings, I was unfortunately only able to find the chicken soup dumplings at the Target I visited. These dumplings come with a packet of soy yuzu sauce. This brand is the only one providing a dipping sauce with the dumplings, and it's a great move. They come in a microwavable package, but I steamed them anyway to consistently compare them to the other ones. 

I was pleasantly surprised by these. The dumplings actually contain a lot of broth inside, certainly more than the dumplings higher up on this list. The filling also has a bit of crunchy texture from the water cabbage that's chopped and mixed in with the meat. I also enjoyed the soy yuzu sauce. I would definitely buy these again.

MìLà is a frozen dumpling brand that started during the pandemic. It was founded by a couple who initially opened a Chinese street food restaurant in Bellevue, Washington, called Xiao Chi Jie. When the pandemic shuttered restaurants around the country, the couple pivoted to selling frozen dumplings. The company has a few different types and flavors of soup dumplings, as well as noodles and dipping sauces, but I stuck to the classic pork soup dumplings for this review.

These are sold for $6.99 for a bag of 10 at Target in Lake Stevens, Washington. These dumplings are the only ones that came in a bag rather than a box with a plastic tray, and they really held their shape, which impressed me. The skin was perfectly tender and just thick enough to hold the generous amount of broth without breaking too easily. The pork filling was flavorful and I could taste the scallions that were mixed in. As far as classic soup dumplings go, MìLà's dumplings check off all the things on the list, making them the best overall. 

For this ranking, I personally purchased and tasted the frozen soup dumplings available at grocery stores near me. With the exception of Trader Joe's, the other dumplings were available either at Target or Walmart. 

To be consistent, all the frozen soup dumplings were prepared by steaming in a steaming basket. I also tried to taste the pork soup dumplings, as those are the traditional versions, but some brands only offer a chicken version. I ranked each brand from worst to best primarily based on overall flavor and perceived quality — including the texture of the dumplings' wrapper — but I also factored in value, albeit to a lesser extent.