8 Frozen Dumplings From Costco, Ranked Worst To Best

On a particularly fraught day in 2020, I decided to channel my anxieties into dumpling making. I had made them before — wontons, pierogies, and one of my all-time favorite Georgian dishes, khinkali — but I'd never really taken the time to perfect them. With nothing but time on my hands, it seemed like the perfect project, and if it went well, I'd have a freezer full of dumplings to sustain me for the foreseeable future. I made about a dozen different styles, and by the end, my dumpling wrapping and shaping had vastly improved. Now that life is back to being its normal hectic self, though, I rarely have enough time to practice those skills. Thankfully, Costco has my cravings covered with a wide variety of frozen dumpling options.

Frozen dumplings can be a lifesaver when you're hungry and short on time. All of the offerings at Costco can be prepared in less than 15 minutes, and most under 10. Instead of spending too much money on takeout or delivery, or waiting until your next dim sum date, you can enjoy piping hot dumplings almost instantly from your own kitchen. Costco's bulk packages do take up a lot of room in the freezer, though, so I've ranked the store's eight dumpling varieties to let you know which ones are worth the space. Here they are, from worst to best.

Hacao, also known as har gow or crystal shrimp dumplings, are a dim sum classic. I can easily take down an entire cart of these at a restaurant. Unfortunately, the Royal Asia Prawn Hacao came nowhere close to matching the flavors and textures I expect from this type of dumpling, and they were the least enjoyable of all the dumplings I tried from Costco.

The hacao wrapper, made from a combination of three starches (wheat, potato, and tapioca), is meant to be delicate and nearly transparent. Here, the dough was a bit too thick, and after following the steaming instructions to the letter, the texture became gummy. The shrimp filling was woefully under-seasoned, though the large chunks of shrimp did have a nice springy, tender texture. They just tasted flat. On the other side of the coin, the soy ginger sauce included in the package was so overpoweringly sweet and intense that it was off-putting, and totally dominated the bland dumplings in a blast of sugar and baking spices. Nothing about these hacao worked for me.

Soup dumplings are an intricate delicacy to make, so I was skeptical that a frozen microwaved tray of them would turn out well. My suspicions turned out to be well-founded. These beef pho flavor soup dumplings from Bibigo were among the most disappointing options on this list, falling short in just about every way. The only thing saving them from last place was the savory beef filling, which had a good meaty, oniony flavor. Other than that, these were kind of a mess.

I followed the recommended microwave cooking method, leaving the dumplings in their enclosed tray, which is supposed to allow them to steam in the package. They were hot and cooked through, but two pairs of dumplings were fused together, and when I tried to separate them, the wrappers broke and all of the liquid in the filling leaked out. All of the dumplings' wrappers were tough and chewy on top, but very thin and fragile on the bottom, which made them primed to fall apart and difficult to properly eat. When I did finally manage to properly get a whole dumpling, it was a letdown. While I expect beef pho to have some sweetness, I found both the broth and the dipping sauce here to be excessively sweet, and both together overpowered the savory solid filling. These soup dumplings are meant to be quick and convenient, but they turned out to be far more trouble than they were worth.

Another offering from Bibigo, steamed chicken and vegetable dumplings, fared just slightly better than their beef pho counterparts. However, that's not saying much, and these were still very underwhelming. Once again I followed the recommended microwave instructions, leaving the dumplings in their steaming tray, and once again this method did not do the dumpling wrappers any favors. Parts of the dough stubbornly remained tough, while others — mainly the bottoms of the dumplings — were so soft and wet that a chopstick went right through them. 

It's a shame, because the filling for these dumplings is actually quite tasty. The texture of the chicken is just right, not too pasty or too chewy. Cabbage, shiitake mushroom, and onion bring earthiness and strong vegetal flavors, and there's a good kick of ginger and black pepper to liven things up. The dipping sauce here is the same as the one that came with the soup dumplings, and once again I thought it was a little bit too sweet for my palate. Visually, these looked the worst of all the Costco dumplings — like flat hockey pucks, not at all resembling the plump, rounded dumplings on the box.

Now we get to the middle of the pack with Ling Ling chicken and vegetable potstickers. These are perfectly serviceable, easy-to-prepare pan-fried dumplings (yes, potstickers are dumplings, not a separate type of food). There's nothing glaringly awful about them. There's just nothing particularly exciting about them, either. I'd eat these without complaint in a pinch, but I certainly won't go even an inch out of my way to get more.

The filling here is similar to the Bibigo chicken dumplings, with the omission of mushrooms, so it doesn't have quite as much depth. It's also not as well-textured — rather than discernible pieces of each ingredient, everything is processed into a homogenous mass. It's a uniform and tender filling, though, and has a peppery flavor that's pleasant enough. The wrapper dough is on the thick and chewy side, but at least it's firm enough to keep the dumplings from falling apart, and the crispiness from the pan-fry method is a welcome textural contrast. The soy dipping sauce, like most else about these potstickers, is fine. It adds a nice dimension to some otherwise fairly one-note dumplings.

Finally, with the chicken and cilantro mini wontons, Bibigo has crafted a dumpling that I actually enjoy. The small size of these makes them fun, easy to pop into your mouth, and since they're pan-fried (though the package does list other options), the dough was by leaps and bounds better than the brand's other offerings. Bibigo manages to get the dough quite thin here, but it's also sturdy — I had no issues with these having tough spots or falling apart. The ratio of filling to dough is excellent, making for satisfyingly meaty bites.

The filling is unapologetically cilantro-driven, so if you're a person who's genetically predisposed to hate cilantro, you'll want to steer clear — although, if you do hate cilantro, you probably wouldn't reach for these anyway. I'm not one of those unlucky folks, so the intensity of the cilantro flavor here was right up my alley. These dumplings have a fresh grassy flavor that gives them an appealing light quality. The one main issue with these mini wontons is the seasoning level, as the filling could have used quite a bit more salt. They don't come with a dipping sauce, but I found that the addition of just a little soy sauce definitely helped make the flavors pop. I also found that the estimated 5 minutes of cooking time was far too long, as I pulled these off the heat after just about 3 minutes once I smelled a bit of burning.

Here's where we get to the medal podium, starting with bronze: Wanchai Ferry pork and cabbage dumplings. I pan-fried these potsticker-style, and I found them to be far more flavorful and cohesive than the similar ones from Ling Ling. The dough is much thinner here, and though the ribbon seam remained a bit tough where the ends came together, the body of the wrapper cooked well, maintaining both softness and structure. 

The pork and cabbage filling, which also includes scallions, wood ear mushrooms, and onions, had a wonderfully savory, umami-packed flavor, accented with garlic and ginger and a subtle hint of chile heat. Once again I found myself wanting some more salt. That problem was easily fixed with a dip of soy sauce, but there was no sauce included in this package, so I had to account for that on my own. Even with those few textural and seasoning issues, Wanchai Ferry's dumplings were solidly good.

The silver medal goes to Laoban's ginger chicken soup dumplings, and with this and the first-place winner, there's a noticeable leap in quality. You could almost mistake these for handmade restaurant dumplings, with their textures and flavors that feel far from frozen. I opted to steam these, and they turned out beautifully, with soft, tender dough (though it was a bit sticky) and a perfectly cooked, juicy, meaty filling.

Ginger is front and center here, along with a tang of vinegar and a hint of sweet depth from honey. The chicken, which is listed as free-range and roasted, is very flavorful; it's much tastier than the other chicken dumplings lower on this list. How Laoban packs so much flavor and texture into these little pockets, which are about the same size as Bibigo's mini wontons, is quite a feat. They're perfectly seasoned and so brothy that they don't need a sauce, but I did enjoy them both ways. This is a smaller package than the other Costco dumpling options, which makes them pricier, but in my opinion, worth the extra dough (pun intended).

The gold medal goes to Ajinomoto's Japanese-style pork and chicken gyoza. These beauties blew everything else out of the water in just about every way. The wrapper was by far the most successful, thin and silky, pliable yet sturdy. Pan-frying crisped up the bottoms to a gorgeous golden brown with lacy edges to add even more delicate crunch. I could hardly believe that frozen dumplings had the capacity to turn out this well. There was not a single spot on any of the wrappers that wasn't properly cooked to tenderness.

After marveling at the dough, I got to the filling, and it didn't disappoint. The combination of both pork and chicken provided meaty, savory richness and a satisfyingly chewy yet soft texture. The meats were the star here, with a few other ingredients like cabbage, chives, garlic, and sake that served to enhance and intensify the base flavors. Everything was in balance, and with each bite, the supple dough and filling melted together in my mouth. The included dipping sauce is simple, adding just a few touches of acidity, umami, and salt without overpowering the dumpling itself in any way. This massive box includes 60 dumplings, and at my local Costco, it was the second least expensive package, making it far and away the best deal of the bunch. These gyoza are always going to be in my freezer from now on.

I shopped my local Costco's frozen department to find these eight dumpling varieties. I prepared each according to the recommended method on the package. If there was more than one method, I opted for the first one listed.

Once the dumplings were prepared, I tasted each of them individually. First I ate one entire dumpling, plain, and took down my initial impression. Then I tried each element on its own: Wrapper, filling, and sauce if there was one included. I judged each element individually as well as the dumpling as a whole. I then tried each dumpling with its included dipping sauce. For those that didn't include a sauce, I tried them with both a simple soy sauce and a more complex garlic, sesame, and chili dipping sauce.

For each dumpling, I judged how well they cooked, the wrapper texture and stability, the filling flavor and texture, and how well they worked with any included sauce. The higher the dumpling ranked, the more likely I am to purchase them again.