Dumpling Bar is taking over the approximately 1,500-square-foot restaurant space currently occupied by Ramen Mik at 157 North Twin Oaks Valley Road, Suite 132, in San Marcos. The restaurant sits within the Grand Plaza shopping center near Cal State San Marcos, a sprawling retail development also home to businesses including Pizza Nova, LA Fitness, The Pita Guys and The Old Spaghetti Factory.
California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control records provide the first official indication of the impending change. Dumpling San Marcos Inc. filed for the transfer of Ramen Mik's existing Type 41 beer-and-wine license, with the application listed as pending as of September 21 and a temporary permit issued beginning September 22.
The new company's corporate filings with ABC identify Shuai Liu as chief executive officer and chief financial officer, while Alex Zili Hu is listed as secretary and a shareholder alongside Liu. The liquor-license application specifically identifies the incoming business as Dumpling Bar and gives its address as the same Suite 132 currently occupied by Ramen Mik.
Ramen Mik remains open at the San Marcos location as of this week, and its own website continues to list the restaurant with daily hours from 11am to 9pm. The Japanese restaurant specializes in Sapporo-style ramen and operates a second location at 1028 West Valley Parkway in Escondido.
Ramen Mik debuted in San Marcos in 2022 under veteran restaurateur Noriyuki "Nori" Mori, whose family has roots in Japan's ramen industry. The restaurant built its menu around the miso ramen associated with Sapporo on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido, using noodles from longtime Sapporo noodle maker Nishiyama Seimen and offering dishes ranging from spicy miso and shoyu ramen to Japanese curry, fried rice, takoyaki, gyoza and chicken karaage.
It is not yet clear when Ramen Mik will serve its final customers in San Marcos or whether its closure there will affect the Escondido restaurant. Ramen Mik's website continues to advertise both locations, and no closing announcement for the San Marcos branch had been posted as of publication.
The incoming Dumpling Bar is part of a growing restaurant group with deep ties to San Diego's Chinese dining scene. Liu and his partners are also behind restaurants including Taste of Hong Kong and Kanpai BBQ & Shabu, as well as the revival of longtime Convoy District institution China Max.
Dumpling Bar made its San Diego County debut in September 2024 at Encinitas Village Shopping Center. The intimate restaurant was designed around an open display kitchen where customers can watch chefs roll dough, fill wrappers and assemble dumplings by hand.
The menu centers on xiao long bao soup dumplings, potstickers and steamed dumplings filled with combinations including Kurobuta pork and shrimp, as well as vegan varieties. Other offerings have included chicken wontons in housemade chili sauce, fried rice, noodle dishes and sweet dumplings filled with ingredients like red bean, chocolate and black sesame.
One of the restaurant's more unusual specialties is its "thumb buns," miniature pan-fried buns served in containers perched over drinks such as Thai tea, soda and boba milk tea. The presentation draws from a street-food trend that had already gained traction in parts of China and Southern California when Dumpling Bar opened.
The Encinitas restaurant quickly proved influential beyond its own dining room. When the owners finally reopened China Max in the Convoy District in March 2025 following a devastating fire and nearly five-year closure, they renamed the landmark restaurant China Max Dumpling House and shifted its menu toward dumplings after seeing the response to Dumpling Bar.
China Max had been a San Diego institution since the 1980s before an April 2020 fire caused an estimated $4.5 million in damage and forced the restaurant to close. Original owners Cindy Woo and her husband initially hoped to rebuild but ultimately retired and sold the business to a new ownership group that includes Liu, UC San Diego graduate Yingkang Lu and restaurateur Yukun Sun.
After years of permitting, insurance negotiations and extensive reconstruction, China Max returned with a dramatically renovated interior, an open dumpling-making area and an expanded menu. Its new dumpling-heavy approach includes pork xiao long bao, pan-fried soup dumplings, chile wontons, hand-rolled noodles, sweet-and-sour ribs, Beijing duck tacos and other Chinese dishes.
The restaurant group has continued expanding beyond San Diego County as well. A second Dumpling Bar opened in San Marino in Los Angeles County in 2025, where the concept now promotes an all-you-can-eat menu featuring more than 18 varieties of handmade dumplings along with noodles and dim sum.
The San Marcos expansion brings the concept farther inland in North County and into one of the area's busiest restaurant and retail corridors. Its location near Cal State San Marcos and the State Route 78 freeway gives Dumpling Bar a substantially different customer base from the coastal Encinitas restaurant.
An opening date for Dumpling Bar San Marcos has not yet been announced, nor has the company revealed whether the new location will duplicate the Encinitas menu or incorporate the all-you-can-eat format offered by its San Marino sibling.
Dumpling Bar will open at 157 North Twin Oaks Valley Road, Suite 132, in San Marcos. For more information, follow @dumplingbarencinitas on Instagram.
Originally published on September 23, 2026.
