Taiwan: Din Tai Fung
With my trip to Taiwan quickly coming to an end, I didn't think that I would be able to make it to Din Tai Fung after all. Luckily, some old family friends came to the rescue:
We arranged to meet at the SOGO location at 6:30pm. I arrived at 6:10 to the sight of a massive line. I grabbed a number and and was told that the wait would be between 1.5 to 2 hours. When I arrived, the signboard was in the 220's. Our number was 338.
The wait did end up taking almost 2 hours. 70 numbers would be called in a span of 30 minutes, followed by an hour of nothing. Anyway, the important thing is that we got in and we got fed.
Just for fun...you can ask for a little collapsible stand for your bags, which I found really nifty:
On to the food. We started with a few appetizers. Because it was towards the end of the night, they were out of some of the good stuff. We got this plate of bean sprouts and another plate of some kind of veggie (I forget):
My favorite was the chilled bamboo:
I absolutely love bamboo in Taiwan. So sweet, so crisp...and served with MAYO. Awesomeness abound.
The beef noodle soup was surprisingly good:
The meat was very flavorful and very tender, while the noodles were quite Q.
I thought the wontons were okay, but the soup was great:
We got two orders of xiao long bao (the basic soup dumpling):
I loaded each with vinegar and ginger.
We also got these steamed dumplings stuffed with fish:
I expected the fish to be tough, but it actually wasn't:
As if that weren't enough, we also got steamed dumplings with shrimp:
I love how you can see the fat chunk of shrimp inside:
Then came dessert. We were advised to start with the taro, because the red bean ones were super sweet:
Here's the taro:
And the red bean:
I wasn't all that impressed by the dessert steamed buns. The skin was rather dry and tough to chew, probably because of the dry paste filling. I usually don't like taro, but the taro buns were quite subtle in flavor.
People have said that Din Tai Fung is an overpriced tourist trap. I can see why people complain about the prices, but you have to admit that they know their stuff. Service is incredibly attentive (you never have to ask for tea) and the buns and dumplings are excellent. I didn't get to try the crab roe buns that my friend had talked about, so I guess that just means I have to go again. Yay!
We arranged to meet at the SOGO location at 6:30pm. I arrived at 6:10 to the sight of a massive line. I grabbed a number and and was told that the wait would be between 1.5 to 2 hours. When I arrived, the signboard was in the 220's. Our number was 338.
The wait did end up taking almost 2 hours. 70 numbers would be called in a span of 30 minutes, followed by an hour of nothing. Anyway, the important thing is that we got in and we got fed.
Just for fun...you can ask for a little collapsible stand for your bags, which I found really nifty:
On to the food. We started with a few appetizers. Because it was towards the end of the night, they were out of some of the good stuff. We got this plate of bean sprouts and another plate of some kind of veggie (I forget):
My favorite was the chilled bamboo:
I absolutely love bamboo in Taiwan. So sweet, so crisp...and served with MAYO. Awesomeness abound.
The beef noodle soup was surprisingly good:
The meat was very flavorful and very tender, while the noodles were quite Q.
I thought the wontons were okay, but the soup was great:
We got two orders of xiao long bao (the basic soup dumpling):
I loaded each with vinegar and ginger.
We also got these steamed dumplings stuffed with fish:
I expected the fish to be tough, but it actually wasn't:
As if that weren't enough, we also got steamed dumplings with shrimp:
I love how you can see the fat chunk of shrimp inside:
Then came dessert. We were advised to start with the taro, because the red bean ones were super sweet:
Here's the taro:
And the red bean:
I wasn't all that impressed by the dessert steamed buns. The skin was rather dry and tough to chew, probably because of the dry paste filling. I usually don't like taro, but the taro buns were quite subtle in flavor.
People have said that Din Tai Fung is an overpriced tourist trap. I can see why people complain about the prices, but you have to admit that they know their stuff. Service is incredibly attentive (you never have to ask for tea) and the buns and dumplings are excellent. I didn't get to try the crab roe buns that my friend had talked about, so I guess that just means I have to go again. Yay!
鼎泰豐
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