Omnipork: Shanghai Wonton Chain Launches Plant-Based Dumplings At 500 Locations

August 12 2020 Update: The Omnipork Shanghai launch has been so successful, with some branches reportedly selling out the first week that Gll Wonton has announced they will go ahead with a China nationwide launch of the plant-based menu items.

Gll Wonton (吉祥馄饨), a Shanghainese wonton and noodle chain, has partnered with Green Monday to launch Omnipork dumplings across 500 locations in the city. It comes after supermarket giant Aldi China began rolling out Omnipork ready meals in Shanghai, representing yet another sign of the growing demand for plant-based options amongst mainstream Chinese consumers. 

Fast food chain Gll Wonton (吉祥馄饨 or JiXiang Wonton), a household name in Shanghai for more than twenty years, has just added Omnipork dumplings to its menu across 500 locations in the city. The new wontons at Gll Wonton will be filled with Omnipork, water chestnuts, cabbage, corn and carrots in a buckwheat flour-based wrapper. 

The restaurant is well known in Shanghai for its traditional wontons and authentic wonton noodle soups. While its traditional menu contains around 20 different types of dumplings, it had so far only offered one vegetable-based dumpling and the new Omnipork dumplings represent the first to be made using plant-based meat alternatives. 

Green Monday’s plant-based pork analogue first debuted in Hong Kong two years ago under its food tech brand OmniFoods, and is made with non-GMO soybeans, pea protein, rice and shiitake mushrooms. Not only does look, cook and taste like real meat, it contains no hormones or cholesterol, and because it is 100% animal-free, it comes at a fraction of the carbon footprint compared to traditional pork. 

For Chinese consumers, plant-based meat alternatives also represent a safer food choice, particularly in light of the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen the meat supply chain breakdown due to global slaughterhouse viral outbreaks, leading to imported meat shortages on Chinese shelves – against the backdrop of the ongoing the African swine fever crisis that had already inundated the country’s supplies. 

Amid heightened consumer concerns over the safety, health and sustainability of conventional meat, Omnipork has made significant inroads into the Chinese market in recent months. Most recently, Green Monday partnered with supermarket chain Aldi China to launch ready-made convenient meals for online delivery and takeaway – all vegetarian and made with Omnipork. 

Omnipork was first introduced to Chinese consumers through the Alibaba-run online retail site Tmall last year. Green Monday had also previously partnered with a number of restaurant chains in China, including Taco Bell China and Starbucks China. 

Lead image courtesy of Gll Wonton.