Located on a nondescript block of Irving Street across from the Sunset library, Yummy Dumpling keeps it simple.

There are no tables or chairs, the interior is mostly undecorated, and apart from a counter and a large freezer, most of the space is devoted to a kitchen where several women make Chinese dumplings by hand. Each dumpling is made in-house and sold frozen, to restaurants and home cooks alike. 

Yummy Dumpling, which opened two years ago at 1708 Irving St., sells a wide variety of frozen dumplings. Flavors change from time to time, but there are always around two dozen options to choose from, typically featuring pork, chicken and lamb combined with either green chives, Napa cabbage or corn. "The pork and green chive dumpling is one of the best sellers," said Lulu, a cashier. "Kids seem to really like the pork and corn dumpling." Vegetarian options are also available.

A bag of 20 dumplings costs $5-8, depending on ingredients. Each purchase comes with a photocopied page of cooking instructions. No culinary skills are required beyond the ability to boil water and set a 10-minute timer. Several neighborhood restaurants also purchase their dumplings here, though the shop refused to name names.

Yummy Dumpling's hardworking dumpling makers prepare about 3,000 dumplings per day, as well as buns and wontons. When we visited, the staff offered us a new variety that hasn't yet made the menu: pork with fragrant herbal flavors that reminded us of anise and dill.

"We like to get feedback from our customers, so we can find out what they like the most and what they wish we sold," said Lulu. "We are always trying new things."