Din Tai Fung

This place is a must visit in Hong Kong– the dim sum is in a category of its own! The menus have pictures accompanying the dishes, which was very helpful! You are given a grid menu and a pencil to fill in how many of each dish you would like delivered to your table. It was an effective way of ordering for our group:
We decided to split a bunch of plates:
1. Fried Pork Chops
2. Pork XiaoLongBao
3. Chicken Dumplings
4. Shredded Pork Fried Rice
5. Noodles with sesame sauce and crushed peanuts
6. Pork Steamed Bun
Everything was phenomenal The servings are small, so it’s a great place to go with a large group and try a variety of dishes. If I ever find myself back in Hong Kong, I will insist upon returning! It was very casual and reasonably priced. The service was also very quick!

Din Tai Fung used to own one of those coveted Michelin stars, and lost it several years ago or so. That hasn’t stopped it from expanding across Hong Kong and Asia, and with good reason, as the food here is REALLY good!
Their xiao long bao are great, full of flavour and perfectly formed with their famous pleats. But the rest of the menu is equally if not better, with their prawn chilli dumplings, fried chicken and cold starter of drunken chicken being some of my favourite dishes as well.
We arrived for their 11am opening time and were 5^th in queue, and within 10 minutes of it being open they’d filled the restaurant!
In terms of comparison, I would say it’s better than Tim Ho Wan (though nothing can beat those BBQ beans) — and is a bit of a more «refined» experience with attentive service and better settings. This comes at a price however, as Din Tai Fund certainly isn’t a cheap meal! But overall, a great dim sum restaurant and well worth a visit!

Yes! I finally had my Din Tai Fung fix! I was really sad that I couldn’t check out the one in Seattle but glad I was able to try it in HK.
Really enjoyed their XLBs. It was juicy and the pork soup was delicious!
Their hot and sour soup was very tasty with the right balance of hot/​sourness. The beef noodle soup was okay. I found the beef a bit too tender and overcooked. Overall, my favourite is the pork dumpling.

I had a wonderful lunch at Din Tai Fung, the dining room is huge and there’s a lot of space. It feels clean and modern. The menu has pictures in it, which makes it easy for ordering. The tea is included. It has a mild taste which I prefer over red or black tea.
Cucumber juice: I saw this green juice on their menu so I ordered it.
Convolvulus with garlic: lots of garlic but not empowering.
Loofah shrimp soup dumpling: hurray, they have a meatless soup dumpling!
Mushroom steamed dumplings: the mushrooms were chewy. Tasty filling with lots of greens.
Taiwan style noodles: I didn’t know which noodle to choose. But this is a favorite on the menu, so I decided to order it. The spicy peanut sauce is mildly sweet, creamy and really good.
I was happy to find a lot of choice without meat in the menu. The staffs are quick at clearing the plates on the tables. There’s no restrooms in the restaurant, you have to take the escalators to the 2^nd floor of the mall.

Best dumplings I have had
This is my second time at one of their restaurants having gone to their Shanghai location in 2014
Highly recommend going and go hungry!

My uncle recommended this place for our visit to Hong Kong, and it was the best decision ever.
BEST SOUP DUMPLINGS EVAR. IN MY LIFE.
My brother and I went here for dinner and we were lucky to happen to go a bit early to beat the rush hour and the long wait. I was a bit skeptical as to how different these soup dumplings could be from… any other soup dumplings. Boy was I surprised and so pleasantly so.
We each got a tray of dumplings each (6 dumplings to a tray) — they weren’t cheap. We also got a batch or normal dumplings (not soup) and some side veggies. The normal dumplings were not worth it. They were… normal. STICK WITH THE SOUP DUMPLINGS!!! The veggies I did enjoy — all part of a balanced meal :)
The soup dumplings are TO DIE FOR! SO GOOD. They were super fresh — you could taste it (and see them being made in the window at the front of the restaurant). The dough/​wrap part doesn’t stick to the meat inside the soup like it does a lot with other soup dumplings. The soup was very tasty and comforting. The meat was sumptuous and tender. OH SO GOOD. I would go back to Hong Kong just for these soup dumplings — MMPH.
Other than that, the service was also professional and relatively quick. The place was clean and spacious. A+++ :)

This is probably one of the better or best Din Tai Fung restaurants in their fleet. Its a very large restaurant and true to other reviews very fast and efficient. Unless you’ve already had all their dumplings stick to the dumplings. Four or five courses for two people is great. They are all amazing.

The main thing about Din Tai Fung is the reliably consistent food. Dumplings galore — knock yerself out. Staff are fine, except for the little woman who told me «no photos, no photos», so naturally I took several and told her not to be a muppet

No wait for a party of 4 on Wednesday at 9:15pm. It’s located more on Pennington than on Yee Wo. Huge place and extremely packed. Service moves like clockwork with a large staff. Menu is conveniently numbered with pictures to help guide you. We ordered a lot but my favs were: the cucumbers, pork xlb, shrimp and pork shao mai, spicy shrimp and pork dumplings, pork buns, and spinach with garlic. Felt like the truffle xlb’s were overrated. Great meal; come in a group so you can order a lot!

Where can you eat for HK$ 150 (US$ 20) per person at a Michelin Star resturant? Granted, it’s only one star but still. Anyway, originally from Taipei, Din Tai Fung expanded across Asia with 2 stores in HK. The 1^st store in Taipei had a typical wait of 45 minute where they take you order while you wait & the food arrives within minutes of sitting down… The new stores are more relaxed with higher prices. All this aside, the signature 小籠包 are great. There are better or cheaper or grander places to eat but not one with all combined. The answer is Do it.

I FUXX WITH DTF.
Would give it 4 STARS BUT THE TRUFFLE XIAO LONG BAO which I am a die hard for deserves its own star so its a 5 STAR for me. Quite publicized because of its Michelin star, DTF is a place you should try out at least once because the lines can get long and you can honestly find cheaper alternatives in local eateries in the area. But a MICHELIN STAR right at your fingertips? Why wouldn’t you?
MUST HAVE ON YOUR TABLE?: TRUFFLE XIAO LONG BAO (XLB), SAUTEED SPINACH W/​GARLIC, PORKCHOP (APPETIZER or WITH FRIED RICE), PORK XLB, Red Bean Bun
Other recommendations: Tantanmen (spicy sesame nood soup with a peanut buttery taste), Cucumber Salad (marinated in soy sauce mix), Shrimp and Pork wontons (SPICY), Sticky Rice and Pork Shao Mai, Potstickers, Red Bean XLB
This establishment can fill up it’s large space for hours with a line that can have you waiting for at LEAST an hour so GET THERE EARLY. You are given a number and it is called out in Chinese/​displayed on an electronic board. You can see the crowd is comprised of a LOT of TOURISTS (MULTIPLE ORDERS OF EVERYTHING) but locals (WHO ORDER TWO or so DISHES TO SHARE) who I’ve seen eat here regularly as well. Once you are seated, you get a clean simple table with a paper place setting, chopsticks, plate, bowl, tea cup with I think Jasmine/​floral tea, small sauce cup with julienned ginger and condiments of vinegar and soy sauce on the side.
Tip no. 1: You have to request for COLD WATER because most locals drink warm drinks like tea when they eat.
Tip no. 2: If you do choose to drink tea, most Chinese restaurants give you two pots. One filled with steeping tea and the other with just hot water. The first pot can get overly dark so you balance it out with the hot water to give you a great tasting cuppa.
SAUCE RECIPE BREAK DOWN *Based on Din Tai Fung’s instructions on the table*
= 1 part soy sauce + 2 parts vinegar + julienned ginger
They have a menu with an English translation and you are given a small clipboard where you basically just tick off the assigned numbers of the dish you want. Doesn’t take much time for someone to come up standing next to your table with a tray of your food while your server takes it from the tray to place before you. There is a clear system here and every employee is nice and courteous.
The TRUFFLE XIAO LONG BAO is what I dream of every time I think of DTF. Each order of dumplings come in a steam basket filled with 10 pieces of these little soup pockets with a little knob of dough I believe they place there as an indicator of the batch’s doneness. THE TRUFFLE XIAO LONG BAO IS DECADENT.
TIP no. 2: Pinch the top of the XLB with your chopsticks instead of around the whole thing since the skin is delicate and can easily break.
You usually place this dumpling onto your soup spoon (WITHOUT SAUCE as suggested by the servers), poke a hole to let the soup out and slurp it all up and eat it. THIS XLB doesn’t mess with you. Open it up and it has CLEAR CHUNKS OF BLACK TRUFFLE in the mix with the juicy pork. I can eat this for dayssssss. Usually my go-​to with steamed spinach and garlic and I’m full. A heavier meal with the porkchop fried rice that has a wel season piece of fried breaded pork with an equally flavorful rice and a red bean bun filled with sweetness that bursts out for dessert and you’ve got me in a food coma.
If you cant finish your food, DTF has a to-​go set up that includes a plastic bag and plastic containers and you can walk out of there with their comb ass food. I think they’re still pretty good a day later and I’ve been to this DTF more than once and they’ve done no wrong to me so far.

Went here to the recommendation of a colleague (he also brought us there) and after some research, this restaurant actually is a one-​star Michelin restaurant! It’s interesting, right? So I really had to try it.
We went here at 11:30 sharp and we were the first in line (cause it always has a long queue)! So I had ordered some of their best sellers — Taiwan-​style spicy peanut sauce noodle and the spicy pork and shrimp dimsum. It was the best! It only costs like HK $ 60 so I really thought it was a very down-​to-​earth restaurant considering how good their food are! It has good value and doesn’t go with overpricing.
The waiters were very polite and patient with us even though there’s a little difficulty with communication. The space is really big and it looks very clean. They serve tea too and hot water and that is very considerate of their customer’s health. Spent a very good time in here. Must say it’s a definitely must-​try!

A chaque fois que je me rends à Hong Kong, je fais un passage obligé au Ding Tai Fung.
Rien que de penser à ces magnifiques xiao long bao, j’en bave… 58 $ pour le panier de 6, c’est vraiment pas grand chose pour gouter à ces petites bouchées de paradis !
Le reste est également excellent: les wontons, le drunk chicken, les nouilles sautées… Un bonheur !

The dim sum experience I have been looking for! DTF delivered when I wanted to try quality Canto dim sum. I got the black truffle XLBs, the black fungus with vinegar, and the chili sliced pork with bean curd noodles. The XLBs had a lot of flavor, but one knock on it was it didn’t have enough soup broth inside. I think Crystal Jade’s XLBs (in the IFC mall) were better. The other two dishes I got really stood out though, it was simple but just done really well. It was fresh, tasty, and didn’t need to be greasy like what dim sum typically is. I also got the pork bun was which perry basic to me. I wish they would open one on the East Coast in DC, it would own the dim sum market.

Again, were very happy with the Din Tai Fung chain. Not the best restaurant as far as ambiance goes but the food was really good as always. A little pricier than other DTF’s but that’s Hong Kong for ya!

The queue is long as usual, but the wait is worth it. Although there are many Shanghainese/​Taiwanese style restaurants in HK now, Din Tai Fung still has something unique to offer. Quality of service is polite, despite the crowds waiting, unlike many HK establishments.
The 什錦乾絲, with its mixture of shredded dried bean curd and sea food, is one of the perfect start to a Taiwanese meal. The taste is really good here. The chilled marinated bitter gourd 冰鎮苦瓜 was flavourful and refreshing. The xiao long bao 小籠包 is ok but not great. One might argue other places do it better. The fried rice with pork chop is good. The pork chop may not be as good as what one might find in Taiwan, but one should not demand too much in HK. The noodles with pickled vegetables and shredded pork 酸菜肉絲拌麵 is simply divine. It’s full of authentic Taiwanese flavour, one that took me back to another place and time. For dessert, we had the yam xiao long bao. This is unique and good.
Still one of the best dining experience in HK!

MIAM ! De la finesse de la pâté au croustillant de certains dim sum, tout est bon, frais et prepare a l instant dans la cuisine ouverte qu on admire en rentrant. Avec ses airs de grande cantine asiatique le service est simple, efficace et rapide. J’y retournerai surement prochainement. Un must do lors d une visite a HK.

We traveled to HongKong, for sure would like to try some Michelin Star restaurants and Din Tai Fung was one of them in our list. I would say their food is done to perfect and no matter when you go or how many times you go, you can expect the same consistency and quality. I have also tried Din Tai Fung in Los Angeles, it was very good too. However, I somehow like the HongKong better.
Because they don’t reseration, and the wait time can be 2 hours. To avoid the long line, you may arrive the restaurant 20 minutes early before their open. That was what we did. We had a great experience with it. ^_^

You can’t go wrong with DTF. Their food is done to perfection and no matter when you go or how many times you go, you can expect the same consistency and quality. Of course, their pork soup dumplings is a must order but their pan-​fried string beans, pork chop fried rice, Dan-​Dan noodles are also great dishes. The service at this store is quite commendable by Hong Kong standards, probably due to the number of tourists and westerners they serve as their clientele. I bring my out of towners here too but this is by no means, a dim sum house! At least not Cantonese styled dim sum! So don’t get it confused!
And yes, the line can be ridiculously long! I try to go early so I don’t have to wait. Try 11:00 for lunch and around 5:30 to 6:00 for dinner.
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Review #168

Délicieux Dim Sum taïwanais !
Une institution pour déguster ces raviolis vapeur accompagnés de thé vert.
Pas de réservation possible, service un peu à la chaîné pour cette cantine locale mais la qualité des dim sum vaut le coup.
Les classiques au porc sont tops, ceux à la truffe valent le détour de même que les végétariens aux champignons et ceux aux crevettes.
En dessert ceux à la pâte de sésame sont délicieux.

FINALLY I TRIED DIN TAI FUNG! I’m from LA and I never got to make it out to one of their restaurants because it’s so far!
I’m glad my first time was in Asian because here they are handmade and not machine made! When you walk in you will see a team of people making the dumplings come alive!
We tried:
SHANGHI STYLED BBQ FISH: ³⁄₅
STEAMED VEGETARIAN DUMPLING: ⁴⁄₅
PORK SHAO LONG BAO: ⁵⁄₅
PORK AND SHRIMP SHAO MAI: ⁵⁄₅
Everything was delicious and the Shao Mai’s even had juice in them too! I can’t wait to try the noodles and definitely will make the drive when I get back to LA!

Food (***** out of *****); The chicken xiaolungbao has savory soup inside. The shrimp xiaolungbao has whole shrimp inside in addition to the soup. All the xiaolungbao has a super thin, translucent wrapper.
The chrysanthemum or dandelion greens with tofu was hand chopped into very tiny squares. I can tell that it was not chopped with a food processor because every 1 mm square piece of tofu was consistent in shape and size. A machine would’ve made irregular shaped and sized pieces. Also, food processor machines crushes as it chops so that the veggies lose some moisture and juiciness. Using a human hands to chop with a very sharp chef’s knife cuts without crushing the veggies, leaving very moist and juicy pieces of veggies. This is also very special because most people who make this chilled veggie dish use spinach, which is easier to source.
The sweetened soy sauce fish was good but not special. Likewise for the beans curds with beans and veggies. The veggie dumplings were good, but not better than what you would get elsewhere.
The watercress greens with garlic was special. Most restaurants do not thoroughly wash the watercress greens and you get some sand in your mouth. The watercress greens are perfectly clean here.
The drunken chicken was special, too. Most places use cheap wine or not enough wine. They use a wine that was flavorful and full bodied. Furthermore, they used a lot of wine to make the drunken chicken.
The beef shank soup features the softest and tenderest beef shanks you’ll ever put in your mouth. The soup had the top layer of fat removed so it was clear. No detectable MSG and it was great.
Other places serve a hard piece of rice cake. Their rice cake was tender, moderately fluffy and not too sweet.
Service (***** out of *****); Impeccable service. They’ll change your dishes and utensils periodically. They’ll check up on you. The service is attentive. I’ve never had better service at a Chinese restaurant where I did not personally know the owner.
Atmosphere (**** out of *****); Very clean. Very classy. Simple décor.
Conclusion (***** out of *****); Very deserving of the Michelin star. You can really tell the attention to detail and painstaking care they’ve put into their dishes. Hands down the best meal I’ve had in Hong Kong in a long time. I will definitely be back.
P. S. Not all Din Tai Fungs are created equal. They’re a franchise and some franchisees really drop the ball. The one here in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui are good. The ones in Los Angeles and Sha Tin are failures.

Not your typical dim sum restaurant with the ladies pushing carts around and trying to sell you ha gow or siu mai. Instead, a hustling, bustling waiter service restaurant where you tick off all the dishes that you want to eat off of a checklist, and minutes later, the dishes start rolling in one after another.
As a group of four, we had a variety of dishes, the white wine braised chicken, some dan dan men, greens, spicy dumplings, mini soup dumplings, and some taro and milk custard buns. Every single dish was quality. It was fresh, hot, and made to order like it should be.
Forget about the Michelin star, whether you give it a star or not, I’d go back any day.