Hey Dumplings! is the Restaurant Vancouver Needs Right Now

Nothing fancy, just beautifully wholesome little pockets of goodness.

Craig Stanghetta did not design Hey Dumplings! There was no launch party with DJ Eat Chips and free vodka (or if there was, I wasn’t invited). You will not find a sponsored post from them on your Instagram feed. The closest they get to “branding” is evidently borrowing the punctuation from Hey Rosetta!What you will find is amazing containers heaping full of pelmeni dumplings (filled with potatoes or meat—or both if you like) and covered in either vegetarian gravy and cheese curds, sunflower seeds and arugula pesto or ginger scallions and sriracha.For $10. And they are so, so good.Places like this—a sole proprietorship where the owner is working away in front of you and then selling her goods for a very reasonable price—don’t exist in Vancouver. We have artisans aplenty, but not any affordable ones. And we have cheap food, but none of it even gets near artisanal. But owner and dumpling-meister Heather Johnston has pulled off this rare feat and you can visit her in the old Pie Shoppe spot at  721 Gore Ave. (in fact it’s though a residency provided by Andie and Stephanie French of the Pie Shoppe that we have Hey Dumplings!).If there’s any justice in this town we’ll have Hey Dumplings! for a good long while, but for now she’s on a six-month hitch. So saddle-up, dumpling lovers!Open Thursday to Monday (closed Tuesday, Wednesday) 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. or until sold out! There are no tables and they’re cooked to order so expect a 5-plus minute wait, but it’s a small price.

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