JA Jiaozi Authentic Dumplings

Multi-colored Chinese dumplings are now signature items at a number of restaurants, notably including Irvine’s Shanghai-style dumpling house Little Pan, Costa Mesa’s Singaporean xiao long bao specialist Paradise Dynasty, and Tustin’s upcoming Palette Dim Sum. But JA Jiaozi was locally earlier to the trend than any of these rivals: Located at The Market Place, almost directly across the street from Palette, this single-location restaurant has been serving steamed jiaozi in varied colors and flavors since June 2018.

Jiaozi are the Chinese equivalent to Japanese gyoza – minced meat, seafood, and/or vegetables in noodle-like wrappers – and offered here either steamed or pan-fried. JA serves steamers or plates of five identical dumplings in six flavors, namely pork/celery, chicken/mushroom, beef/onion, scallops/shrimp, tofu/lettuce/mushroom, or truffle sauce/zucchini/egg. Guests can also order a Steamed Jiaozi Combo with five different dumplings: chicken in a carrot noodle skin (yellow), shrimp and scallops (white), beef in a cuttlefish skin (black), vegetables in a spinach skin (green), and pork in a beet skin (red). While none of JA’s flavors is as distinctive as Paradise Dynasty’s umami-rich soup dumplings, each tastes as expected given its ingredients, and the colorful presentation is nice.

Aesthetics aside, we actually preferred literally everything else we tried at JA. Our meal started on a very high note with the delivery of tofu skin shrimp rolls, two large prawns wrapped in salty, lightly crispy tubes of tofu that tasted like chicharrones even before they got a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Although they were a bit too expensive at $7 per skewer, we were also pleased by the varied textures and flavors of two cumin-spiced beef skewers, which included button mushrooms and pineapple chunks. Five kurobuta pork xiao long bao were delicious enough to enjoy without any accompanying sauce, but not as delicate as Paradise Dynasty’s soup dumplings.