Mila Soup Dumplings Review

When I lived in New York City, I worked as a food tour guide, and one of my favorite dishes to share with visitors on my Chinatown food tour was xiao long bao, also known as soup dumplings.

These days, you can luckily find soup dumplings in most cities across the U.S., and you can even find the Mila soup dumplings in the freezer section at Costco!

Since the Northeast is experiencing what meteorologists are calling an “arctic blast”, I picked up a package of these Mila beef pho soup dumplings in hopes of at least keeping my belly warm.

Cook Time: 12 Minutes

Ease: Moderately Easy

Cost: $14.79 for 50 Mila Soup Dumplings

Mila Soup Dumplings Review Score - 9/10

Flavor - 9/10

Preparation - 10/10 

Cost - 8/10

Flavor Rating

These dumplings are very flavorful – especially for frozen soup dumplings. I think the pho broth really deepens the flavor, and the beef was very hearty.

Preparation Rating

It only takes 12 minutes to make these soup dumplings, which is less time than it takes to make a box of instant mac and cheese. The dumplings didn’t stick to the pan, and cleanup was a breeze.

Cost Rating

Most restaurants charge around $12 to $13 for 8 soup dumplings, bringing the cost per dumpling to about $0.67 per dumpling. At Costco, I paid $14.79 for 50 Mila soup dumplings, bringing the cost down to about $0.30 per dumpling. 

Of course, you expect to pay less for a frozen food item you’d prepare for yourself at home, but I still found these soup dumplings pretty cost-effective. 

How to Make Mila Soup Dumplings

There are two ways to make the Mila Soup Dumplings, according to the package instructions: you can steam them in a steamer basket or pan-fry them in a skillet. 

(Mila recommends steaming them, and they even include one steam-basket liner in every package of soup dumplings, which I thought was kind of a waste since most people who own a steamer also have a stock of liners on hand, but who’s to complain about a freebie in this economy, ammirite?)

Since I don’t own a steamer basket, I opted for the pan-fried method, which turned out great.

Mila states that the serving size is three dumplings, which I thought was kind of ridiculous, seeing as most restaurant soup dumpling serving sizes are around five to eight dumplings, and I’ve never been able to stop before I finished an entire serving at a restaurant before.

I coated my nonstick skillet with a couple of sprays of Chosen Foods avocado oil and a tablespoon of sesame oil. Then, I added five dumplings to the pan, making sure the bottoms were coated in the oil, so they didn’t stick to the pan (I’ve had this issue before with Mila soup dumplings, so I recommend not skipping this step).

I let them cook on medium-low heat for five minutes, per the instructions, then added about a half cup of water to the pan, covered the skillet, cranked the heat up to medium, and let them cook for an additional seven to eight minutes. 

When the dumplings were fully cooked, they released easily from the skillet, which is clutch when it comes to soup dumplings; break that delicate skin and you’ll lose all the savory broth inside.

I topped my dumplings with black vinegar, chili oil, and fresh scallions. You could also add sesame seeds or furikake, but I didn’t have any of that sh*t on hand, so I had to suffer without.

While my dumplings were cooking, I made a quick spicy cucumber salad, which took about five minutes.

Mila Beef Pho Soup Dumplings Ingredients

INGREDIENTS: FILLING: WATER, BEEF, SOYBEAN OIL, SEASONINGS (SUGAR, BEEF STOCK, SALT, ONION, GARLIC POWDER, SPICES, YEAST EXTRACT, SILICON DIOXIDE), CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF GELATIN, CILANTRO, SALT, GREEN ONION, GARLIC POWDER, ONION POWDER, SESAME OIL, SUGAR, SOY SAUCE (WATER, DEFATTED SOYBEAN AND SOYBEAN WHEY, SALT, SUGAR, ALCOHOL), BLACK PEPER, YEAST EXTRACT, CARAMELIZED ONION FLAVOR (NATURAL FLAVOR), ONION FLAVOR (NATURAL EXTRACTIVES OF ONION), CILANTRO FLAVOR (SUNFLOWER OIL, NATURAL EXTRACTIVES OF CORIANDER LEAVES), WRAPPER: ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NACIN REDUCED IRON, THIAMINE MONONTRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF SALT, SOYBEAN OIL, YEAST, GLYCERIN.