The perennially changing Swan’s Market in Old Oakland has a new restaurant slinging hot dumplings and cold cukes: Huang Cheng Potsticker.
The Chinese eatery celebrated its grand opening in late September in the space formerly occupied by Japanese black-curry specialist, Dela Curo Curry, which moved to Berkeley Bowl West this summer. The potsticker-centric eatery is the sister restaurant of Huangcheng Noodle House, also located in Swan’s Market, which serves knife-shaved noodles and Sichuan/Shanxi-style dishes.
Huang Cheng Potsticker is a corner stall with bar seating that offers a view of the cooking action. The small menu’s main attractions are the namesake potstickers and dumplings, available in pork-and-Napa cabbage or shrimp-and-cabbage varieties. There is exactly one side dish, cold cucumbers in chili oil. And — perhaps in a nod to the former tenant — they also serve chicken curry with rich gravy and rice. For drinks, there is Tsingtao and Sapporo and a couple of canned sodas.
A recent taste-test found the cucumbers generously garlicky, crunchy and refreshing and slicked with warming chili oil. The potstickers are plentiful, with perhaps 18 in a bowl, which is good given the $17 price is a bit higher than what you’d find in neighboring Chinatown.
They’re almost bite-sized, with crispy, caramelized bottoms that adhere well to the sauces of toasty chili-flake oil and fruity black vinegar. The filling of the pork-and-cabbage potstickers is very smooth, almost like paté. Given dumpling fans are quite particular, that may cause a love-or-shun reaction in different people.
Huang Cheng Potsticker is the latest restaurant to move into Swan’s Market in the past year. The Haitian eatery T’chaka opened last fall, followed by Attraros Thai Eatery in the winter.
Details: Open 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday (closed Sunday) at 907H Washington St., Oakland; huangchengpotsticker.com.
