Sichuan Fry by Dumpling Shack.

Sichuan Fry by Dumpling Shack

The recipe came out of a single lockdown pop-up in 2020 that drew two-hour queues, developed by the Dumpling Shack Group's R&D chef Haydon Wong, who had cooked at Xu and BAO (venue, Hot Dinners).

Why go, and why you cannot

John and Yee Li built Dumpling Shack from a Broadway Market street-food stall in 2014 into a group with sites at Old Spitalfields Market and Canary Wharf and Fen Noodles in Spitalfields (Restaurant). This was the group's first bricks-and-mortar restaurant, opened on 5 January 2023 at 2 Westgate Street with fried chicken buns on the ground floor and the Dumpling Shack kitchen in the basement, sending shengjianbao out for delivery with about ten seats upstairs for anyone eating in. The chicken was treated as a Sichuan dish rather than an American one: doubanjiang in the sauce, Sichuan peppercorn and chilli, mapo on the hot version, and fries tossed at the counter with seaweed powder or salted egg and chilli.

Status

Closed. The Infatuation's review page for the restaurant carries the line This spot is Permanently Closed.1. The Food Standards Agency holds no registration for Sichuan Fry anywhere in England, and 2 Westgate Street E8 3RN is registered to Dirty Donny's after a Hackney inspection on 12 October 2025 (record). The Islington and Hackney Gazette reported on 25 September 2025 that the Westgate Street site had traded as Dirty Donny's over the summer and reopened as Donny's Deli6. Both sichuanfry.com and the Dumpling Shack group site still advertise the Hackney address on hours they published in 2022, with no closure notice, which is why the register settles this and the venue's own pages do not. No closing date is established.

Order this / avoid

• Order, if the brand returns: the Sichuan Classic bun, chicken fried crisp under a doubanjiang sauce with peppercorn heat and pickles. The Hot and Mala Mapo. The 24-hour brined wings. Fries with the salted egg and chilli seasoning.
• Avoid: the journey. Go to Dumpling Shack at Old Spitalfields Market instead, which still trades and still sells the pork pan-fried soup dumplings the group is known for.

What locals & experts say

• Restaurant, trade press (20 September 2022), James McAllister, quoting John Li on the bet he was making: It's a saturated space, but I want to give it a go. I've done a lot of research into comparable concepts, and I think we have something that's unique and has growth potential. I'm not turning my back on the Dumpling Shack brand, but I want to add more strings to my bow.3
• Li on himself, in the same piece: You know, I don't feel like I'm a proper businessman... You ask someone in this industry where they are going to be in five years' time and they know exactly, I don't have that. What I do have is ambition.3
• Hot Dinners (updated 3 January 2023), Gavin Hanly, on the format: On the ground floor will be Sichuan Fry, which they're saying is the main event... Here, it's all about fried crispy chicken buns, coated with numbing and spicy sauces and oils.2
• The Infatuation (22 March 2023), Daisy Meager, 7.4, on the order: the hot Sichuan sandwich. Everything works in exquisite harmony: the soft potato bun; the crunchy, juicy, hot chicken thigh; sweet and spicy mala-spiked honey sauce; and tangy pickles and slaw. On the room: Bright lighting, screen-ordering, a handful of hard stools, and high-tempo music all set the scene for a transient meal if you do stay. Her page now carries the line This spot is Permanently Closed.1

Good to know

• Where it was: 2 Westgate Street E8 3RN, by London Fields overground. The unit now trades as Donny's Deli.
• What still trades: Dumpling Shack at Old Spitalfields Market, open daily, and the group's other Spitalfields and Canary Wharf operations.
• Sites: the Dumpling Shack Group ran several brands at once. Dumpling Shack (Old Spitalfields Market, curated here separately; Canary Wharf), Fen Noodles (Spitalfields), and this Hackney double site. A review of the Spitalfields dumpling counter is not evidence about this address, and the reverse holds too.

Verdict

listed — Closed, and worth knowing why. Sichuan Fry began as a one-off lockdown pop-up in 2020 that pulled two-hour queues for fried chicken sandwiches, built on a recipe by the Dumpling Shack Group's development chef Haydon Wong, who had come through Xu and BAO. John and Yee Li turned it into their first permanent restaurant on 5 January 2023, fried chicken buns on the ground floor of 2 Westgate Street and the Dumpling Shack kitchen in the basement, which is a genuinely good idea: doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorn on crisp chicken, shake-shake fries seasoned with salted egg and chilli, and shengjianbao downstairs. The unit is now someone else's. The FSA registers Dirty Donny's there after an October 2025 inspection and the local paper has reported two successive businesses in it, while both the group's websites still list Hackney on 2022 hours. Dumpling Shack itself still trades at Old Spitalfields Market, which is where to go for the soup dumplings.