Well, this is disappointing news.

After almost two years of Mei Mei Dumplings in the neighborhood, the restaurant plans to close its full-time dining inside the factory space.

According to Boston Eater, closing the daytime cafe will allow them to spend more time on cooking classes, events in the space, and R&D for new products.  Occasionally, Mei Mei will open for dine-in service and pop-ups,  including a special bottomless dumpling buffet on September 26 to celebrate National Dumpling Day!

Mei Mei posted the following message on its blog:

We are so grateful to our community for all your support as we have pivoted over these last few years! As our business continues to grow and shift, we’ve made the decision to not reopen our cafe kitchen for full-time dining and takeout.

But don’t worry! We’ll still have so many ways for you to join us and chow down on all the dumplings and Double Awesomes. On National Dumpling Day, we’ll host another Bottomless Dumplings all-you-can-eat buffet, and in late October when the farmer’ market season winds down, we’ll start a Saturday pop-up series featuring Double Awesomes, dumplings, and other special guests!

The Mei Mei Dumplings Factory Store and Classroom will continue to sell all kinds of treats in our retail section Wednesday through Sunday, including our own frozen and heat-and-eat dumplings, Double Awesome kits, adorable dumpling-themed products from independent makers all over the country, and some of our favorite local foodstuffs by companies we admire, plus tons of sauces and Kewpie mayo, of course!

This change allows us to continue to focus on growing our cooking class operations, R&Ding new products (like gluten-friendly dumplings 😮), and using our space for events. Restaurant operations don’t serve our larger goals the way they used to, and we’re working hard to find the best, most sustainable and scalable ways to provide community space, make dumpling magic, and care well for the people who matter most to us. And if you want to get married at the dumpling factory, we will make it happen.

We know that many of you will miss the old days, when Double Awesomes were just a short walk away, whether that means 2022 or 2012. We miss those days as well, but we’re proud of this next chapter and hope to make you proud, too.

If you haven’t taken a dumpling making class at Mei Mei, put it on your bucket list! It’s lots of delicious fun!

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