My first thought when Mini Potstickers debuted in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset three years ago: “What a dumb name.”
Located on the glorious food mecca of Irving Street between 19th and 25th avenues, Mini Potstickers was seemingly one more in the growing body of northern Chinese dumpling restaurants — not a bad thing, but I was unexcited.
Then, one by one, friends, food influencers and strangers alike began telling me to go. Not just for the explosively juicy “mini potstickers” (to do them justice — they are small versions of sheng jian bao) but for the majority of the menu. The anise-forward, tender beef noodle soup. The shatteringly crisp jianbing. The melt-in-your-mouth tofu fa (tofu pudding).
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Pedestrians walk past Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Since it opened in 2023, locals have kept this place close to the chest. That cover was recently blown. In early March, “Top Chef” alum and SF resident Melissa King’s Instagram reel of her enjoying Mini Potstickers got more than 50,000 views in just a couple of days. While King has been gassing up Mini Potstickers in various articles for at least a year, it’s her video that resonated with people.
“Why is nobody here? This is, like, the best dumpling place,” she says at the start. “This is one of my little secret spots,” King continues, drizzling the house-made chili crisp oil all over the mini dumplings while also grubbing on the chili pork wontons and jianbing, aka “Chinese burrito.”
She racks up nostalgia points by sharing that on past visits, the little dumplings reminded her Shanghainese father of his childhood. Owners Lili Liu and Hong Yao said they got pretty busy after that video hit, with customers having to wait up to 20 minutes for one of about 10 small tables inside the compact restaurant that feels around 300 square feet.
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A Chinese burrito from Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Mini Potstickers owners Lili Liu, left, and Hong Yao are pictured in the restaurant’s dining room on Thursday, April 16, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
So on a sunny Thursday morning, my buddy Lanlian Szeto returned to be my Mandarin translator. We could tell right away that Liu and Yao are boss aunties, with low-key bling style — Louis Vuitton baseball caps, shiny designer bomber jackets and subtle Cartier bracelets. Sitting down and sipping tea with us from clear plastic tumblers, they shared that they have 40 years of restaurant experience between them, from back in China (Liu is from Beijing, Yao is from Shanghai) and also here.
The duo owns both Dumpling Union locations (on the Marina-Pacific Heights border and in the Haight) and Dumpling Kitchen & Bar in Burlingame. Liu and Yao opened a second Mini Potstickers on Polk Street, but Yelp has it marked as closed. When asked about it, the two did not want to elaborate at the time.
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Inspiration for their teeny dumplings — less than half the size of a typical round, pouch-shaped dumpling — came during a 2021 trip to see their families back home in China. They go every year. In Shanghai, the two spotted a long line outside a dumpling shop, which turned out to specialize in mini sheng jian bao. “These would do well in San Francisco,” thought Yao, knowing that no other restaurant here serves the mini versions of these fried dumplings filled with gelatinized ground pork that oozes savory meat juice.
An order of mini potstickers, or “thumb-sized sheng jian bao,” is served at Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
On the menu, the Chinese characters for the famed “mini potstickers” actually translate to “thumb-sized sheng jian bao.” The English misnomer of “potstickers” in the restaurant name is because Liu and Yao thought customers would be more familiar with the term than “sheng jian bao.”
Calling the mini SJB “potstickers” is an injustice, though. Not surprisingly, they’re harder to make than their full-sized counterparts. In the middle of our interview, manager Rio Cheung jumped into the conversation, gesturing wildly while describing how the construction of the mini SJBs is “very, very hard.”
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If the bottom is too thin, the SJB will leak, she explained. If the folds at the top are too thick, they affect the mouthfeel. The frying process also has to be precise in order to achieve that crispy, golden bottom. There’s no stiff knob of dough atop these minis (or any of the restaurant’s dumplings), which even some of the most lauded dumpling purveyors have. If the chefs overcook a batch, they will refuse to serve it, apologize to the customers and say they’ll need to remake the batch.
Rio Cheung prepares an order of mini potstickers in the kitchen of Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Beef noodle soup is served at Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Here, the mini SJBs are fried on the non-pleated side, which is the opposite of full-sized SJBs I’ve encountered, usually fried on the pleated side. Pleat-down might risk the tiny folds splitting open. Sprinkled with black sesame seeds and chopped scallions, it’s easy to inhale an order of 12. I’d advise ordering more than you think you need.
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While Liu’s and Yao’s instincts were right about the success of the mini SJB, “We’re really surprised at how popular the sheng jian bao are. It’s not just Chinese people, but [non-Chinese] Americans, too,” they said. The restaurateurs don’t advertise, either. Over a weekend, Mini Potstickers will bang out 3,000 mini SJBs and 2,000 spicy wontons, along with hundreds of orders of beef noodle soup and jianbing.
Mini Potstickers specializes in many wheat-based foods. So yes, dumplings like SJB, plus XLB, wontons and boiled dumplings, as well as noodles. Everything is handmade. Liu and Yao believe the taste and texture are not comparable between machine-made and handmade dumplings. In their experience, machine-wrapped dumplings have less filling and thicker wrappers, for example. Recently, they brought back frozen dumplings on 4/20 — apropos for a certain holiday where dumplings would be much welcome.
Handmade shrimp dumplings are seen in the kitchen of Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
It’s not just wheat products that the two care about. All the restaurant’s meats are purchased in whole cuts and then ground in-house. The restaurant makes its own tofu and soy milk. Of course, it also makes its own chili crisp oil, though in an off-site kitchen, in huge vats; it takes four hours to make. Liu and Yao reveal only that there are more than 20 ingredients in it and that precise temperature control is key to extracting maximum flavor and aroma from the chilis.
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Specials on the wall, written in Chinese, also say which region of China they hail from. While Liu and Yao are from northern China, their food also represents Cantonese (with an excellent tofu fa, almost a pudding, also available in Beijing and Shanghainese versions), Taiwanese (that beef noodle soup), Sichuan (Sichuan dan dan noodles), and American Chinese (kung pao chicken) cuisines. There’s truly something for everyone.
And it’s all done well. Chili oil pork wontons were studded with large chunks of crunchy water chestnuts. Super fresh dill-and-pork dumplings (which became a favorite of mine at King of Noodles) immediately reminded us of the Ukrainian dumplings we had with chef and cookbook author Anna Voloshyna a few years ago. Next time, I’d be curious to try the tomato-and-cheese dumplings.
Restaurant manager Rio Cheung prepares a Chinese burrito inside the kitchen of Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
Spicy chili wontons are served at Mini Potstickers on Irving Street in San Francisco, on Tuesday, May 12, 2026.
Charles Russo/SFGATE
As for that Chinese burrito, watching Cheung spinning the eggy batter to a paper-thin shell on a giant round pan reminds me of the first time I saw this being made on the cold winter streets of Beijing in the early 2000s. Cheung then piled the crepe-like base with strips of scrambled egg, deep-fried wonton skins, shredded lettuce, pork floss, chicken (or other meat choices) and squirts of Sriracha, before deftly rolling it up and slicing it in half with an ASMR-friendly crackling sound. The dish, a rarity in SF, is so popular that the maximum limit is two orders per table.
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Despite the owners’ and staff’s upbeat natures, things haven’t always been easy for Mini Potstickers. The restaurant, along with other businesses and residents in the neighborhood, was left without power for more than two days due to a PG&E substation fire back in December — when Mini Potstickers had purchased extra inventory for the busy holiday season.
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For a restaurant already operating on small margins, two days without the anticipated holiday rush in business was devastating. Mini Potstickers lost all of its perishable inventory, and to this day, Liu and Yao say they have not yet resolved claim issues with PG&E. King’s social media boost arrived at an important time.
I still think the name of the restaurant doesn’t do the star dish justice, but I’ll willingly eat my initial thoughts just to go back. The secret about Mini Potstickers is out, and that’s a great service to the restaurant and to taste buds across the Bay Area.
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Mini Potstickers, 2045 Irving St., San Francisco. Open Monday, 10:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-8:30 p.m.