I have been waiting years for soup dumplings to come to Omaha. 

Twelve years, to be exact.  

I’ve been waiting since we returned home from a memorable trip to China, where we ate hand pulled noodles, stinky tofu, egg and tomato, Sichuan peppercorns and, most memorably, xiaolongbao, also known as soup dumplings.

We ordered them from a tiny restaurant called Yang’s that now has several locations in Shanghai. Staff there rolled wrappers by hand, stuffed each one with a pork filling, then seared them in a ripping hot, giant cast iron skillet, browning each dumpling base then sliding them onto your plate. They’re hot,  filled with soup the temperature of lava and transformative.

Dumpling Empire is the closest I have come to the magic of that dumpling moment in Omaha.  They don’t serve the Yang’s version of a soup dumpling. But they do serve many dumplings you should definitely want to eat. 

The tri-color soup buns are a great place to begin. 

Served in a steam basket with green, white and orange wrappers, each one comes filled with that pork meatball and a small amount of steaming hot broth. I’ll warn you now: Do not bite straight into a soup dumpling. You will regret it, and so will the inside of your mouth.

Here’s how to eat it instead: Pick up the dumpling carefully with your chopsticks, and place it into a soup spoon. Bite a small hole in the side to let some of the steam escape, and then, with patience, slurp the broth out of the dumpling, catching any excess in your spoon. 

The broth is rich with umami and flavors of pork, ginger, garlic and soy. Once you’ve sucked out the broth, eat the rest of the dumpling, with its tender, steamed wrapper and flavorful pork meatball. Be happy. 

After my two visits, I talked to Dumpling Empire’s manager, Keen Pei, who told me that the soup buns are the most popular menu item. Many diners are trying them for the first time, he said, which I find just fantastic.

We also tried two buns on our first visit: a steamed beef bun and a pan fried pork bun, the latter  better than the former. The beef bun simply had a meatball inside, and without any filling, or a designated dipping sauce, it was pretty dry. The pan fried pork bun, by comparison, had a more saucy, chunky filling. It also starred the signature fried, lacy bottom that comes from a sear after steaming, usually achieved with a flour and water slurry that crisps up at the bottom of the pan. The crust has a lovely, lacy texture and is a nice contrast to the pillowy lightness of the buns. 

Another day, we came back armed with friends and a goal in mind: To knock out as much of the menu as we could. We gave it the old college try, ordering a total of nine dishes to share. 

Among the best: The hand-pulled chili oil noodles includes tender handmade noodles twirled among some crisp-tender bok choi and chili peppers. Soft steamed wontons in chili oil broth are stuffed with pork, ginger, scallion and garlic, and together with the broth are warm and filling.

Both are flavorful but not too spicy — I could have handled a bit more spice, honestly. Eat either one, or both, even if you’re spice averse. They’re great, though intimidatingly red.  

I’d never had takoyaki before, a Japanese street food snack made of grilled octopus inside a battered ball seasoned with pickled ginger, green onion and tempura, topped with Kewpie mayo and bonito flakes. It has a lot going on but it’s fun to eat, with a savory, flavorful center and a creamy finish.

The cold sesame noodles come with thick, rounded noodles in a peanut-forward, uber creamy sauce. Dumpling Empire also does its take on egg and tomato, a Chinese stir fry that is just sweet, mixed in with thinner, spaghetti-style noodles. It’s one I would order again. 

Pei told me later that all the dumplings, as well as the noodles, are made from scratch at the locally owned restaurant.

We wished the slabs of beef inside the interesting scallion pancake beef roll were hot instead of cold, because the idea is a good one on paper: a flaky scallion pancake wrapped burrito style around meat and topped with sweet sauce. But the cold meat didn’t taste great, and we all could have done without the leaves of iceberg lettuce tucked in there, too. 

We ordered two of the braised pork belly buns, one of the sleeper hits on the menu. Diners get just one per order, but it’s a single, giant bun, big enough to share, filled with delicious, saucy barbecued pork inside a warm, pillowy exterior.

It’s fun to eat at Dumpling Empire, and there are many more dishes, in addition to soup dumplings, that I still want to try, like sesame balls, steamed shrimp dumplings, beef noodle soup and Sichuan soy paste noodles.

I love it when a restaurant does the heavy lifting to introduce something new to the Omaha food scene. That’s exactly what Dumpling Empire is doing.