I know what you’re thinking… who orders soup-filled dumplings or xiao long baos for delivery? These babies are made to be eat fresh from a steamer and straight into your mouth. If it’s not scaling your tongue, something’s wrong. And you’re right, it’s not the best way to enjoy these delicious morsels of pork, broth, and pastry, but when you’re craving something and Juicy Dumplings flashes across the Uber app, attitudes can be swayed.

Inevitably, once out of the steamer, the wrapper of the steamed pork mini soup dumplings ($2.99 for 6 pieces) will harden. Nevertheless, even with the delayed delivery (this Eglinton cross-town construction traffic is a bane to freshness) the dumplings held up so that I could still pick them up with chopsticks without any breakage. The filling was nicely seasoned, and the dumpling contained plenty of broth; I could only imagine how much better they’d be fresh.

The same dumpling can be ordered pan-fried ($3.99 for 6 pieces) and that extra crust on the bottom, while not pronounced, makes it a little easier to deliver arriving warmer. However, considering the dish commands a 25% premium for this very lightly done crust, I’m not sure this extra step is worth the additional $1.

I’d go with the pan-fried chicken dumplings ($3.99 for 4 pieces) instead, while it also could use more time on the grill, at least the dish is unique. These dumplings are bigger in size, just two are substantial, and the filling is much denser. Still, these weren’t as nicely seasoned, so you really need a dipping sauce to counteract the bland chicken mixture.

If you are a condiment fiend, you’ll probably find the small standard Wing Wing sauce packages that comes one per dish a little lacking, especially when condiments are typically offered free at the table in Shanghainese restaurants. Still, I can understand the need to conserve expensive packaged sauces: Juicy Dumpling’s low prices like mean margins are razor thin. All in all, while these would have been 100% better at the restaurant, I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised how they didn’t suck being delivered.