My first experience with frozen dumplings was 15 years ago or so at Trader Joe’s. It’s been years since I’ve gone, but my wife stopped by recently, so I had her pick up a bag of my former favorite, TJ’s pork dumplings.

I decided to try them head to head with the Mandu Bulgogi dumplings from Costco. Both were cooked frozen, straight from the freezer.

The TJ’s dumplings were ok. My wife steamed, then pan fried them. They tasted fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. The wrappers held up fine during cooking.

Next was the Mandu. Prepared the same way. The wrapper did start to come apart a little while pan frying. The taste was far superior than TJ’s. I’d easily pay twice as much for the Mandu. Since Costco often runs a sale on them, I’d guess they can be up to 50% cheaper, on a weight basis than TJ’s. Huge advantage for the Mandu.