A recent review of Jiaozi! in the Seattle Times gave us a hankering for dumplings, so we decided that last weekend was the perfect time for a visit to the International District (aka Chinatown-International District but I never hear anyone use the full name).
On an intermittently sunny and rainy afternoon, we made our way down from Lynnwood and waited in the long line to get into the Uwajimaya Village parking lot. If you’re not familiar with Uwajimaya, they’re a large Japanese grocery store. Next time we go, I’ll be sure to plan to visit after dinner so we’ll buy less snacks but also have the option of taking home perishables. This time around we settled for snacks and noodles, although I was also tempted by some gorgeous matcha bowls and various sheet masks.
Inside Uwajimaya is the Kinokuniya Bookstore, which has a selection of English and Japanese language books (including manga), gifts, and stationery. I was excited to find a really comfortable pen for doing all of my journaling. They also had an impressive selection of mechanical pencils. I’ll definitely be returning for all of my writing utensil needs.
By this point we had a hearty appetite, so it was off to Jiaozi! We ordered two kinds of dumplings (lamb & cumin and pork & fennel) and some cordycep flower chicken soup, as well as a pot of jasmine tea.
Service was quick and friendly and the food was delicious, but too oily for me. We ordered our dumplings fried, and rather than being fried crispy on all sides, they had all been fried together in a pan, creating this yummy crust but leaving the dumplings themselves too soft. I’d never had dumplings that way before, and I liked it, but the dumplings themselves had absorbed a lot of oil and the soup was oily, too. I think I would have enjoyed the meal more if we had ordered a cucumber salad or something else that would have served to break up the feast of dumplings.
The tea appeared to be loose-leaf placed into a tea bag. There was a generous amount in the bag so the flavor was great.
But that wasn’t enough tea for me! Since the sun was out again after dinner, we walked down to Young Tea, which I had heard about from a fellow Instagrammer. I hadn’t had boba tea for a while and I was ready to pretend it was warm enough for iced tea. I was happy to see that they had some real high quality flavors, with oolong, pu’erh, green tea and rooibos options on the menu. I had a rose milk tea with a green tea base and boba pearls, half sweet, and Chris had pu’erh milk tea, full sweet with boba. Both were delicious! I definitely want to return and try more flavors.
We barely scratched the surface of things to do in the International District. I’d like to explore more of the stores and restaurants there, as well as visiting the Wing Luke museum.
A couple of tips: If you go on a Sunday like we did, street parking is free and unlimited. But if you go on a Sounders game like we also did, you will have trouble actually finding any parking and the usually-affordable hourly lots will be charging $15-20 flat rate event parking. Plan accordingly! You can also park at the Uwajimaya lot and get 2 free parking with a $20 purchase, but it’s $7.50 an hour after that so don’t linger too long.
Do you have any recommendations for our next visit to the International District?
