The very best dumplings in NYC

This Flushing stalwart is tucked neatly into the basement of Golden Shopping Mall, a bustling Main Street food court. Coming at such a high volume, dumplings are almost all made-to-order, with varieties ranging from the conventional pork-and-chive to more oddball offerings like lamb-and-squash and beef-and-turnip.

Unlike neighboring establishments, Wilson Tang's tea parlor and dim sum haunt (the oldest in New York City) eschews pushcart brunch service for an all-day, cooked-to-order operation. Still, traditional recipes remain, such as the refreshingly light, crowd-favored shrimp and snow pea leaf dumplings encased loosely in a slightly translucent rice wrapper.

The infamous No. 6 is reason enough to make the trek to Flushing, Queens. For a reasonable price, this hallowed dumpling haven serves up 12 wispy-skinned pork and cabbage wontons swimming in a surprisingly temperate sea of chili oil, roasted chilies and pickled greens.

Although its East Broadway location shuttered without notice, dumpling fiends can rest easy knowing the new locale is back open for business on 40 Bowery. Celebrate the new digs with a plate of Lam Zhou’s famous boiled dumplings, which come piping hot with a thin layer of liquid, requiring a soup-like slurp.

No dumpling crawl would be complete without a visit to this Lower East Side linchpin. Insiders flock to the bare-bones, in-and-out eatery for dirt cheap plates of handmade pork and chive dumplings. A plate of six will run you under $3, but at prices this low you might as well throw down an extra dollar for 10.

Specializing in traditional Shanghai street food, this Fulton Mall offshoot is a much-welcomed addition to a neighborhood food scene that struggles to offer anything beyond Shake Shack. The sizeable blue crab and pork soup dumplings come four to an order, filled with a steaming hot, sweet and savory crab-pork bath sealed tight by supple dough and a distinguishing orange-hue tip.

In a neighborhood teeming with hanging ducks and spareribs, this vegetarian-focused dim sum house is certainly a sight for sore eyes. The oversized spinach dumplings arrive three to an order and the verdant, leaflike wrapping is a good indicator of what’s to come—hearty bites of minced spinach enlivened by generous douses of malty Chinese vinegar.

This Flushing-born Chinese chainlet hawks the traditional cuisine of Xi'an, an ancient city in north-central China that was once a vital part of the Silk Road trade routes. Lamb is a focus on the menu, as seen in a classic Chinese recipe for dumplings stuffed with ground lamb meat, served in a spicy-sour sauce and topped with fragrant fresh cilantro.

At his mahogany-rimmed Park Slope joint, Top Chef alum Dale Talde oversees a comparatively playful, genre-busting menu with signatures including these cheeky “pretzel” dumplings. Classic pork and chive pot stickers are burnished the same shade as the street-cart snack with egg wash and butter then dredged in coarse salt for a crunchy and rich cultural composite.

This hyped Chinese restaurant in Williamsburg now has a Manhattan locale. Order longtime favorites (mock eel and wok-seared long dumplings) and brand-new dishes, such as salt-steamed veal ribs with red lantern chilies or chicken wontons with cinnamon red oil or sesame sauce.