Hello Ricers!
Next week, we’re adding a new dumpling to the menu, and while on the surface it may look like a simple announcement, it actually represents a pretty big milestone for us.
The real point of this post isn’t just the launch of a new dumpling. It’s about the long, sometimes frustrating, always evolving quest to make all of our dumplings completely in-house … and at scale.
Where We Started
Fourteen years ago, when The Rice Box was just a food truck, our first dumplings were pre-made gyoza sourced from a company in Los Angeles. They were good. Reliable. And at the time, they were the right decision.
But they weren’t house-made.
… and if I’m being honest, they always paled in comparison to the dumplings I loved from restaurants that made everything from scratch.
I don’t let reviews get to me too much, but back in 2018, when we only had the food court location (Type_RB:01) and the Heights (Type_RB:02), I read a Yelp comment that hit me like a brick:
Review forums can be a dumpster fire, but they can also be a mirror. When expectations are set and you don’t meet them, you have a choice. Ignore it, or evolve.
Rice Box has always been a product of evolution. We listen. We evaluate. And when changes need to be made, whether it’s hospitality, sauce profiles, or technique…if its for the better we’re going to make them.
That comment stuck with me.
The First Big Swing (and Miss)
In 2019, I said “f*** it.” We were going all in on dumpling production.
We developed an aggressive, fully house-made pork dumpling and vegetable: individual hand-rolled skin, light and savory, very much inspired by the dumplings I ate daily while studying in Beijing. Chef built an incredible model, and flavor-wise, it was outstanding.
But then reality showed up.
The dumplings were amazing dine-in, but it traveled like absolute shit. They fell apart. The texture degraded fast. The longer they sat in a container, the worse it got.
We were barking up the wrong tree.
Then the pandemic hit. Operations got complicated overnight. And we went back (temporarily) to our trusty pre-made gyoza dumplings. Again, nothing wrong with it. But it fell short of where we wanted to be.
The Reboot
Fast forward to last year with the launch of The Rice Box Type_RB:05 in Hedwig Village.
This was our reset.
We re-engineered our house-made pork dumpling from the ground up. Skin, filling, everything made in-house: with two non-negotiables:
…and we developed one that fit the bill. The pork dumpling 3.0 was leaps and bounds ahead of the factory dumplings. Flavor, texture, consistency, all where we wanted them. A perfect, simple house dumpling.
But there was still one gap. We had a house-made pork dumpling… and a factory chicken dumpling…
Time to Close the Loop.
Enter the house made Chicken Dumpling. Wrapped in a spinach-infused skin that serves a few purposes. First, it gives us immediate visual differentiation from our pork dumpling for both guests and our team. Second, the filling itself has a strong vegetable profile alongside the chicken, so the spinach skin just makes sense. It’s not a gimmick. It’s intentional.
With this addition, we can confidently say that all of our dumplings are now made completely in-house.
That may not sound complicated, but it is, ESPECIALLY when you’re doing it at scale, across multiple stores, with real operational constraints. Attempting this type of feat consistently makes you REALLY appreciate the complexity of models like that of Din Tai Fung (fanboy plug there <3)
One Important Clarification
These house dumplings are classic steamed and fried jiǎozi (饺子). We do not, and will not in the foreseeable future, offer（小笼包, xiǎolóngbāo) or in the near future（生煎包, shēngjiānbāo). If you are looking for any of those styles, ask us, we have a slew of recommendations both near and far within Houston.
This isn’t about chasing perfection. It’s about progress.
This new chicken dumpling (and this year’s earlier pork dumpling drop) represent years of iteration, mistakes, resets, and recommitment to craft without losing sight of operational reality.
We’re proud of where these dumplings have landed, and excited to finally offer a fully house-made dumpling lineup.
We hope you enjoy them., and as always, we are open to feedback! (just email us at info@riceboxed.com and avoid the yelp dumpster fire =))
— John
