Vanessa’s Dumpling House

As diminutive as its namesake nibbles, this pot-sticker pit stop with just a few seats serves five chive-and-pork dumplings, fried or steamed, for a buck. If you want them vegetarian, you’ll have to splurge and spend $2, but then you get eight of the tasty morsels. Fifty cents buys a sesame pancake the size of a pizza wedge. Even on rainy nights, a motley throng of Lower East Siders and Chinatown moms overflows onto the street, congregating below the cupola-shaped awning to order from the street-side window.