Paradise Dynasty

On your first visit to Paradise Dynasty, and probably also the second, the famous multi-colored xiao long bao soup dumpling sampler is a must: Beyond blowing your mind with an array of color-coded dumpling flavors, each of which arrives as a delicate noodle pouch, then bursts in your mouth with a mix of meaty and soupy flavors, it will teach you to know which to reorder (like original pork, garlic, black truffle, szechuan, crab meat and roe, BBQ pulled pork) or skip (cheese) on subsequent visits. The collection has substituted new flavors for classics twice since the restaurant’s 2021 opening in Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza – the Singaporean chain’s first U.S. location – but six have remained unchanged here for years.

Dive deeper into the Singapore-curated menu of Chinese dishes, and you’re likely to come across and either like or love items such as lightly spiced chili pork and shrimp wontons, delicate and beautiful radish pastries, cold Shimeji mushrooms, chilled cucumber, large bowls of hot and sour soup with noodles, pea shoots with minced garlic, and desserts including peanut-dusted red bean rice rolls, peanut sesame mochi, and red bean steamed buns. You may or may not find entrees such as sweet and sour cod, Shanghai-style shrimp, scrambled egg with fish and dried scallop, or Singaporean black pepper lobster on the menu; some main menu dishes we loved were unceremoniously replaced (RIP charcoal egg yolk buns), and other items now appear for only a month or so as specials. Paradise Dynasty is a well-established chain, but it’s still tweaking its U.S. formula; one major but questionable change replaced many pork bone noodle soups with chicken broth, supposedly to cater to local tastes.

(Note that Paradise Dynasty’s sister restaurant, Le Shrimp Ramen, is located downstairs and literally premised on a novelty – shrimp broth noodle soups – without concern for adapting to local tastes.)