Head to this hidden Lakewood gem for giant dumplings and crispy Korean fried chicken

Fight me if you’d like, but there’s no dining experience quite as satisfying as strolling through the automatic sliding doors of a supermarket and settling in at a table not far from the checkout lanes for hot tea and steamed dumplings.

Just behind a folding screen, the beep-beep of scanned groceries on the other side, we embraced the rhythm of mandu hitting the stainless steel work bench in the kitchen a few feet away, their yeasted dough rolled by hand and precisely filled with cabbage, scallions, onions, pork and kimchi.

These king-sized, steamed wonders (wangmandu) are one of many must-orders at Myungin Dumplings, nestled inside the H-Mart at 8720 South Tacoma Way in Lakewood. I never say no to kimchi, but the pork-and-vegetable version also glistens with glass noodles and ginger, as does the vegetarian japchae, a labyrinth of the quintessential sweet-potato noodle, scallions and onions.

They arrive freshly steamed, the supple dough recovering like a stress ball from the pressure of our fingers. Enjoy like an apple — don’t ask for a knife, joked co-owner Dong Xiang “Bobo” Jin.

Six days a week, he and his wife Kelly Jin are here, proudly carrying the legacy of his family in Los Angeles.

Bobo Jin’s uncle opened the first Myungin Dumplings in 2007, also tucked inside a market. The business quietly blossomed, and two years later the family added a second, standalone restaurant in L.A.’s iconic Koreatown. In 2014, the best thing that could happen to a restaurant happened: Anthony Bourdain dropped by for his CNN show “Parts Unknown” at the behest of L.A.-born artist David Choe.

“There’s no one ever in here. Every time I’ve ever come in. I don’t understand how they’re open. They’re the best dumplings I’ve ever had. Maybe people just get them to go?” Choe tells Bourdain as they await orders of the same wangmandu and mandu we are so very fortunate to have access to right here in Lakewood — and Federal Way, where Bobo Jin’s cousin opened an outpost last year.

“That was a really lucky thing for the whole family,” Bobo Jin recalled.

Now with four restaurants in the L.A. area, Myungin continues to land on lists of best dumplings in a city bursting with them.

Kelly Jin said they chose to bring the family’s secret recipes to the South Sound partly because the weather is just befitting of dumplings. It might also be that Lakewood and Federal Way have notable Korean populations nearing 200,000 people, or about 5 percent of residents.

“My uncle has a big dream,” said Bobo Jin. “He wants to do frozen dumplings [for] the whole world, not just the United States.”

You can order said frozen dumplings from both locations, but he recommends calling at least a day ahead to ensure availability.

Every dumpling wrapper is batched, rolled, stuffed and crimped by hand.

“It’s really old-school,” said Jin.

Only the spicy steamed roll dumpling (No. 3 on the menu) requires a special-order wrapper due to its unique texture and squiggly shape.

Thanks to founder Yu Jin’s Chinese and Korean heritage, Myungin’s menu provides the best of both culinary worlds, adding shaomai — a Cantonese soup dumpling. Jin instructed us to pour a small spoon of house dumpling sauce (soy with spices) into the tiny opening. It’s a burst of flavor that, for a few seconds, lets you forget why you were ever mad at anything at all.

Unable to resist the unctuous photographs of crunchy, hand-battered and breaded Korean fried chicken, we over-ordered.

We accepted the banchan: crunchy julienned cabbage drizzled with a modestly spiced mayonnaise and jangajji, which translates to pickled vegetables and on this day featured two-day radish with jalapenos and another cubed iteration prepared in the kimchi style.

The sweet-and-spicy half bird hit our table after Dumpling Round 1, each piece artfully layered over a bonus bath of red sauce. Several sticky noshes later, our napkins were useless and we needed a box, which I requested as my mind drifted to tomorrow’s lunch and our inevitable return to this table at H-Mart.

MYUNGIN DUMPLINGS - LAKEWOOD & FEDERAL WAY

▪ 8720 South Tacoma Way (inside H-Mart), 253-302-5429

▪ 33310 Pacific Highway S., Suite. 408, Federal Way, 253-838-1180

▪ Wednesday-Monday 11 a.m.-8 p.m. (closed Tuesdays)

▪ Details: handmade dumplings and Korean fried chicken, dine-in for table service; call ahead for pickup and for frozen dumpling orders

▪ Recommended: #1-2 and 5-6 wangmandu (including sweet red bean) - 4 for $11.99-$12.99, #3 spicy steamed roll - 8 for $14.49, #4 shaomai - 10 for $13.99, #16-18 fried chicken - half or whole birds $16.99-$27.99

This story was originally published October 7, 2022 at 7:05 AM.