Crystal Wise
Patrick Ru, Kevin Cates and Jeffrey Yarbrough are partners in Teddy Wong’s.
After years of being relegated to side dish and appetizer status, Chinese dumplings are finally getting their due.
Here in Fort Worth, they’ve been thought of, until recently, mainly as accouterments, something to get before your meal, or to complement it. Now, they’re at the forefront of several new restaurants and food concepts, including a pair of gourmet markets owned by Hao Tran, who, along with Dixya Bhattarai, helped jump start the dumpling trend locally with a series of pop-up events.
Crystal Wise
Dumplings and more dumplings at Teddy Wong’s.
Newly opened Teddy Wong’s Dumplings & Wine at 812 W Rosedale Street on the Near Southside marks a local turning point for dumplings, in that it’s the first Fort Worth restaurant whose menu revolves around these delicate staples of Chinese cuisine, which are made by hand as you watch.
“I don’t know if many people realize the process involved in making dumplings by hand,” says Teddy Wong’s owner, Jeffrey Yarbrough. “Perfecting the fillings is one thing that takes time and patience, but then you’re filling each and every dumpling with the filling, then sealing them in a very precise, meticulous way.”
The restaurant serves nearly a dozen varieties of Chinese dumplings, in flavors such as chicken and celery, mushroom and pork, shrimp, and veggie, in your choice of preparation, pan-fried or steamed. The must-get: xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, which come in two flavors: pork or a mix of crab and pork. Contrary to their name, they’re not filled with soup but with ingredients that, when heated, melt and form a broth. They’re presented in small baskets to keep them warm; with each order comes a set of soup spoons.
Servers will explain the best way to eat them is by scooping one onto a soup spoon and, using your teeth or chopsticks, puncturing a small hole in the side or top of the dumpling, and slurping out some of the broth. This’ll allow you to test the waters of how hot the dumpling is; last thing you want to do is bite into a dumpling whose soupy innards are still piping hot.
Teddy Wong’s other signature dish is Peking duck, served half or whole, with the option to add caviar.
The menu is rounded out with several Chinese classics, from kung pao chicken to fried rice with your choice of protein, including barbecue pork.
Teddy Wong’s is a spinoff of Bushi Bushi Dim Sum in Addison, opened by chef Patrick Ru in 2020, shortly after he moved to the Dallas area from New York. It was in New York where Ru perfected his techniques for making dumplings, painstakingly trying one recipe after another.
After Bushi Bushi took off, he set his sights on opening a Fort Worth location.
“I noticed in my Addison store that many people were from Fort Worth,” he says. “They all asked me if I would ever open a restaurant there, so I reached out to my friend Richard at Chamberlain’s steakhouse to see who he could connect me with in Fort Worth.”
That connection was Jeffrey Yarbrough, a Fort Worth native, hospitality industry veteran, and commercial real estate broker. Over dinner and drinks at Ellerbe’s, the two formed a partnership (initially, local chef Stefon Rishel was involved, too, but he left the project).
“We toured every area of Fort Worth, looking for a place to open,” Yarbrough says. “I took him to the Stockyards, to the West Seventh area, downtown, and then we wound up back where we started at Ellerbe’s, on the Near Southside. I told him I have this one little building on this up-and-coming street. I showed him the old Le’s Wok building, and he loved it.”
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Crystal Wise
Cucumber salad with a touch of hot chili oil.
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Crystal Wise
Along with dumplings, Teddy Wong’s serves classic Chinese cuisine.
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Ru says he fell in love not only with the building, but with the diverse vibe of the Near Southside.
“The doctors, the nurses, the students, and the diversity of the homeowners, I knew I had to come here,” he says.
The space has been given a handsome makeover. Sparkling wine glasses sit on every table, atop black tablecloths that emphasize the restaurant’s beautifully muted color scheme.
“We didn’t do a top-to-bottom remodel,” Yarbrough says. “It was a top-to-bottom redecoration. The bones of the kitchen were there from when it was a convenience store. Our main focus was on making the dining room nice and then adding the wine bar. Wine goes so well with this type of food. And Patrick is a big wine guy, so we definitely wanted to add a big wine element.”
On the other end of the building is a small market called Bushi Bushi, where you can get dumplings to-go, along with beer and wine. The space also doubles as an area where you can watch, through a glass wall, the dumpling being made, slowly, carefully, methodically.
“I love that you can watch your food being made,” Yarbrough says. “It’ll give you a good idea of the time and thought it takes to make dumplings. There’s a real art to it.”
