Now, Chow owns Hello Dumpling, a Chinese restaurant specializing in dumplings, noodles and boba tea. She opened the first location of her restaurant in East Dallas in 2017, and in 2022, she added another location in Lake Highlands at 8041 Walnut Hill Lane, Ste. E815.
Chow said she helped run her mother’s restaurant while in high school and saw early on how difficult it can be to own a small business. When Chow’s father died, her mother Binche Chow bought an American restaurant to provide for Chow and her siblings, who were in college. Eventually, Binche, who is from northern China, began adding traditional Chinese dishes to her American menu.
Chow’s menu at Hello Dumpling was influenced by her mother’s dishes and cultural heritage. She said she modeled the restaurant after the traditional dumpling houses found in Beijing. Foregoing rice and stir fries, she chose to spotlight dumplings and noodles to share with people in the community who may not be familiar with the cuisine.
“I try to not only feed people, but introduce them to something that should not be as foreign as it is,” Chow said of her dumplings. “Food has no borders.”
At Hello Dumpling, the dumplings and noodles are made from scratch daily. Chow said she also strives to use the freshest ingredients. Nothing sits around in her kitchen for more than 72 hours.
Although she has been recognized locally as having some of the best dumplings in Dallas, Chow said she does not tout her own menu as better than anyone else’s. Her philosophy is, “I make a good dumpling for me,” and if other people love them, too, she appreciates their support.
With her restaurants, Chow wants to create spaces where people can feel welcome. Dumplings are a “community food” meant to be shared, she said, and she wants her customers to enjoy a small taste of the food that billions of people in China eat every day.
“I really feel like there are people who stumble in here after nine hours of work in this area, and they come in needing a reboot,” Chow said of her Lake Highlands location. “For me to be able to provide that and sort of give them a little hug from the inside, that’s ... the success of my mission."
Business information:
Hello Dumpling, 8041 Walnut Hill Lane, Ste. E815, Dallas.
214-812-9011. https://hello-dumpling.com.
Hours: Tue.-Sat. 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Mon.
