The Best Dumplings in the World Question Mark?

I was reading a travel magazine that was lying around at my friend's house in DC, and there was an article about a lady who was a travel writer and was a big fan of eating dumplings!


She came across this chain of dumpling restaurants called Din Tai Fung. The chain started out in Taiwan and has steadily grown over the past two decades to dozens of branches across Japan, USA, Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore etc etc etc...to Sydney in 2008, with no doubt a million more stores opening across the world to eventually flood the world with dumpling domination. They claim to make "the best dumplings in the world".


One could easily doubt Din Tai Fung's awesomeness since it's "just a chain."

So when I was in LA, I hired a car and navigated my way on the wrong side of the road from Beverly Hills to Arcadia. This took me about 1.5 hours in peak hour traffic so I was pretty freekin peeved by the time I got there. 

Anyway, Din Tai Fung is famous for their Xiao Long Bao - little dumplings with soup in em, and OH BOY was it worth the effort getting there!!!! WOWOWOWOW!! There was pork xiao long bao and prawn + crab xiao long bao - all so good! And the broth in them was perfect! And you could pick it up with your chopsticks easily without breaking the skin. And I could eat the whole dumpling in one tasty gulp! (without squirting dumpling juice everywhere!) nom nom nom

No matter which chain you go to around the world, every single Din Tai Fung xiao long bao is made with the same recipe, same technique and same measurements. So to test this theory out, I came back home and went straight off to Sydney! After a 20 minute wait in the rain for a table, I got my dumplings and amazingly, they're the same!! (with slightly differing fillings) WOWOWOW!!! And the Sydney one has this super yummy lychee mint drink and awesome desserts!! nom nom nom

So all in all, Din Tai Fung is probably a little bit more expensive than your average Chinatown dumplings (which is still pretty cheap). But these little xiao long baos are yummy!!!


If you spot a Din Tai Fung chain somewhere in the world - eat it eat it eat it!!! 


Sydney - 644 George Street, Sydney (World Square)
Los Angeles - 1108 S.Baldwin Ave, Arcadia


(Expect a wait for a table - even on a weeknight. Try to come at odd eating times and avoid weekends)


http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp


xoxo