Stop 4: Sun’s Kitchen

Like Mano Bella, Sun’s Kitchen established a reputation for its doughy goodness long before it opened a brick-and-mortar location. For years, owner Brian Sun worked in a ghost kitchen, creating the multi-hued dumplings that became his calling card. As a result, the fledgling restaurant already had a fervent following when it debuted last year in Charlotte’s Lower South End—a mixed-use neighborhood that’s become a hot spot for new restaurants.

Sun’s iconic dumplings are a must; the different hues, courtesy of vegetable juices, signal their respective fillings (e.g., orange is beef and carrots, purple is shrimp and chicken and green is veggie). The dumpling selection also includes on-trend xiao long bao (filled with soup, pork and chives), and guests can choose from a half-dozen sauce options, ranging from cilantro-garlic and spicy black bean to the tongue-numbing Sichuan mala sauce.

Sun’s Kitchen serves all-day dim sum plates, noodles, street food skewers (such as eggplant and squid), Sichuan dishes and Northern entrées, like Ground Pork Rougamo, which the restaurant bills as “one of the world’s oldest type of hamburgers.” In addition to every dumpling variety on the menu, we also sampled the Braised Beef Noodle Soup, which is stir-fried with ginger, scallion and sugar for a tender finish and flavor-packed broth.

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