Bursting, electric supernova of smiles, dumplings recipes, and affably staggered English, Mr. Shi just opened a new Sanlitun location yesterday -- that's right, it's a new "Mr. Shi's Dumplings" in Sanlitun -- and with the area hosting the highest concentration of Western restaurants in the city as it does, it's like Beijing's OG dumplings king is finally... ...coming home. Mr. Shi! In Sanlitun! Just the details: It's right around the corner from misery factory, Heaven Bar. It's a couple doors west of where Two Guys and a Pie was, on that weird little street that connects Xindong Lu and Sanlitarrrr. It's two rooms and a bit of a bar seating area. Capacity is maybe 20 to 30. Same deal with the writing on the walls. Same massive dumplings menu. Same weighty tome of pages and pages of boiled and fried variations, including Mr. Shi's, admittedly, quite rad "dessert" and "cheese" concoctions. But it's just a little bit more expensive. Yes! It's just a little bit more expensive. This is Sanlitun after all. This is Sanlitun. Ever seen those white guys in rumpled suits staggering home from work, a bag of imported beer under one arm and a whole rack of DVDs in the other? You can't cut those dudes any slack. Don't give them an inch. They have to pay more for their artisanal dumplings. It's the way of the world. It just is. SmartBeijing stopped by Mr. Shi's Dumplings yesterday. It was our supreme honor to get the very first pint pulled from the Tsingtsao keg... ...write the very first backpacker-y bullshit-y thing on the wall.. ...and enjoy the very first plate of dumplings. They were goddamn excellent. There's no denying it. They were excellent. These were some pork and random veggie-type deals. Boiled. There's like 90 variations on these. Here's some fried guys. These were some beef and cheese and something-something-something. Really pushing the boundaries on what "dumplings" can be. These are more like mini tacos. Sliders tacos or something. Some different kind of fried guys. Guess they looks the same. But they were different. Finished off with some "dessert" dumplings. These were filled with melted chocolate and banana. They give you some yogurt for dipping, which is a nice touch. Also pretty great but GOOD LORD, did I ever burn the bejeezus out of my mouth on these. GOOD LORD. Biting into these, the chocolate just explodes all over your face like molten lava. Be careful! Prices: Same deal as the other one, which, if you haven't been, is mixing and matching half dozen plates of dumplings in either boiled or fried variations. Depending on what's in them, prices are ranging from "damn, that's expensive for dumplings" right up to "DAMN, that's EXPENSIVE for dumplings". Here's slice of the menu. Multiple these by nine. Could keep going but you get the idea... So that's it! Mr. Shi! In Sanlitun! He's a shark and you're like chum in the water. I think you should try it out. But you probably have already. If you like the other one, you'll like this one. If you don't like the other one -- if you think it's too expensive -- you won't like this one. You will really not like this one. Is it expensive? For me, my attitude towards Mr. Shi's is the same attitude I've got about that bong shaped like Gandalf I bought in Thailand. I probably could have got the bong shaped like Gandalf for way, way, way cheaper than I did. Probably overpaid for the bong shaped like Gandalf. But at the end of the day, it's a bong shaped like Gandalf. And my life is infinitely richer for it, no matter how much I ended up paying for it. I think that applies to Mr. Shi's Dumplings. Kind of. Maybe. Not really. (Bong shaped like Gandalf, come on.) *** Mr. Shi's Dumplings (Sanlitun) is on Sanlitun Xijie (around the corner from Heaven Bar.