Mount Pleasant Is Getting Charleston's Best Dumplings

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Chef Loong Dim Sum & Soup Dumplings has been quietly running one of the better Chinese kitchens in the Charleston area out of West Ashley since 2024. Now owners Emely Yan and Yupeng Lin are betting Mount Pleasant wants the same thing.

The new spot, Loong Yan, is taking over the old White Duck Taco Shop space, a 150-plus-seat room that gives them real room to work. The plan is to open within the month, with the same hand-rolled dumplings, noodles, and scallion pancakes that made the original a hit, plus the rest of the dim sum lineup.

Yan and Lin didn't come up through restaurants. Both have advanced degrees, one in business analytics, one in engineering, before deciding food was the actual plan. That background shows up in the parts of the business you don't see on the menu: they're holding meals in the $25 to $30 range even as food costs climb everywhere else, a call that's as much strategy as it is generosity.

"We see ourselves as a part of the community who serve the local people," Lin told the Post & Courier. It's a simple line, but it explains the pricing decision better than any press release would.

Mount Pleasant has no shortage of places competing for a Friday night table. What it's been missing is a dumpling spot with a proven track record instead of an opening-week gamble. Loong Yan is showing up with that track record already built, a room big enough to handle the crowd West Ashley already knows to expect, and a price point that isn't punishing anyone for showing up.

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