No frills, cash-only, Chinatown strip mall Taiwanese restaurant dishes up high-quality homemade noodles and dumplings to steady crowds of diners.

9938 Bellaire Blvd, Houston, TX 77036
(713) 988-8802
11am–9pm (Tue–Fri); 10:30am–9pm (Sat–Sun); Closed Monday
Cash only

Visited on October 12, 2018

We’ve learned a few lessons since living in Houston for the past few months. (1) Always bring cash to Chinatown. (2) If a restaurant lies within the 77036 or 77072 zip codes, seems perennially popular, and only accepts payment en effectivo, it is a sure sign we need to try it. Occupying the strip mall complex anchored by H Mart near the intersection of Bellaire Boulevard and Beltway 8, San Dong Noodle House is a no-frills Taiwanese joint with a simple menu of homemade noodles and dumplings. We popped in on a Friday afternoon and dropped $21 on what turned out to be enough food for lunch and a small take-home snack for two confirmed dumpling gluttons.

Beef soup dumplings ($7.00 for 12 dumplings): If, like us, you can’t read a menu in Mandarin, these are not the popular soup-filled xiaolongbao. Instead, you receive a jumbo bowl of hearty, aromatic beef broth full of 5-spice flavor and loaded with large meat-and-vegetable dumplings and topped with pickled vegetables and steamed spinach. You have a choice of cabbage or chives in the dumplings—we went with cabbage, but it is hard to imagine going wrong with either. This is a soulful bowl, and you might find yourself wishing your mom had cooked this for you while you were growing up—if she did, lucky you!

Pan-fried pork and chive dumplings ($7.00 for 12): These cigar-shaped beauties represent everything good a pan-fried dumpling could be. Pinched at the top, the wrappers are soft, fresh, and supple, with a browned, crispy crust on the bottom. The ends are left open, revealing their ample, savory fillings. When these delights arrived at the table piping hot, they came with no dipping sauce. We were confused for a moment before realizing everything we required was already on the table. After retrieving a small dish from a shelf near the water and napkin dispensers, we swirled together chili oil, soy sauce, and vinegar and began dunking until every dumpling was gone. We both agreed these were our favorite items, with one of us enthusiastically declaring them the best pan-fried dumplings she had ever had. If we did number ratings, 10 out of 10.

Bean sauce noodle ($6.00): This is a generous bowl of springy, chewy, house-made noodles topped with fermented bean sauce mixed with a crumbly vegetarian protein and a handful of lightly-seasoned, shredded cucumber. The noodles were indeed fresh and wonderful, but we both thought the bean sauce fell a little flat seasoning-wise and needed some perking up from the chili sauce on the table. The generous helping of cucumber provides a fresh, cooling note to the dish.

The verdict: San Dong Noodle House is a great place to go for fresh, homemade noodles and dumplings at bargain prices. You pay nothing for ambience and get your cash dollar’s worth of quality goodness funneled straight into your greedy belly. Additional notes: A refrigerated case near the counter holds servings of inexpensive cold appetizers, such as pig ears; steamed buns and other items are available to-go. Lots of people were ordering the various chicken, pork, and fish combination plates, so we may try those next time. And San Dong gets bonus save-the-planet points for providing reusable plastic chopsticks instead of the ubiquitous disposable wood variety.