Din Tai Fung is a world-renowned Taiwanese restaurant chain famous for its delicious dumplings and other traditional Taiwanese dishes. Once the proud owner of a Michelin star, founded in Taipei in 1958, it has now expanded globally with locations in over 10 countries. Known for its signature dish, xiao long bao, a type of steamed dumpling filled with soup and meat, the dumplings are carefully crafted by skilled chefs and are made fresh to order, ensuring quality and flavour. For anyone looking to experience traditional Taiwanese cuisine and sample some of the best dumplings in the world, eating at Din Tai Fung is absolutely essential for you foodies out there!
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If you are in the DaAn area of Taipei, then just off of Yongkang Street on Xinyi Road is the slightly newer branch of Din Tai Fung.
You might prefer the Taipei 101 branch if you want a restaurant with a view in a landmark-heavy area, but I think this Din Tai Fung Dongmen location and the Xinyi ShinKong Mitsukoshi in the A4 building near Taipei City Hall Station are the top 2 picks for me.
The menu at Din Tai Fung
So as soon as you go to the information area outside the restaurant itself, you'll be given the dining in paper, simply scan the QR code on the paper, then you can check Din Tai Fung menu and start ordering online!
After you have submitted your order through the app/webpage, you'll probably have to wait a little longer before your table is ready. There's often a wait here, but it is honestly worth it. If you don't want to stay there lining up for ages, you can download their app, and type in your number. The app will notify you when it's your turn!
If you are not sure what to order and also want to save some time waiting, you should consider to book the set menu through Klook in advance.
Once called up to your table, you will walk past the preparation area where I imagine they make countless numbers of dumplings throughout the day. The famous pleats are delicately pressed into the dumpling skin, carefully encasing a pork mixture that will pop with flavour on your spoon.
Careful product placement will guide you past the small side plates that you can add to your order. Honestly, I see them as quite expensive for what they are. We have had wood ear mushrooms, cucumber, eggplant, and green beans before. They're all good, but not worth the price, in my opinion.
As you sit down at the table in any of their branches, you'll get the exact setup you see here. There's a precision to each and every placement of the cutlery and crockery. The tea will be steaming hot. The ginger will be perfectly aligned, and the salivation will no doubt begin.
The service here is incredible. No sooner will you have taken a sip of your tea and sighed in pleasure as you put the cup down, when you'll find the server topping you up again. There are specific servers who bring the food out of the kitchen and will wait by your table for the main servers to take the food from them and place it on your table, introducing your dish to you each time using perfect English. When we sat down, there was a Japanese lady next to us, and our server was seamlessly switching between Japanese, English, and Chinese. It was quite something.
Rice vinegar and soy sauce.
The more you eat here, the more you will explore the ratio between vinegar and soy sauce. But, for me, I go for a 1:1 ratio. Fill up your little dish of fresh ginger with whatever ratio you would like, then sit in anticipation for your meal.
Your guide to eating dumplings
Say no more. Follow this process, and you will be just as impressed each and every time you come here. You have to have some good chopstick skills to pull this off, mind you.
Steamed soup dumplings
Alright, so don't go for any of those half measures and order a half order of their incredible steamed soup dumpling Xiao Long Bao. You absolutely must get at least 1 steamer of the 10's.
The skin is so thin that you can see the contents lurking on the inside. As soon as you have drained off the deliciously rich soup from inside the dumpling, make sure to dunk it into your soy vinegar combination, add a couple of strands of that sliced ginger on top, and then take each dumpling in with one single bite. This is what gained Din Tai Fung their Michelin star way back when. They may not have it anymore, but I still think it's unbeatable.
Honestly, I don't feel like there are any better-steamed soup dumplings in Taipei. The carefully pleated skin of these, mixed with the perfect meat-to-soup ratio inside, is just all so wonderfully balanced. It doesn't get better than this, in my opinion.
Spicy wontons
I have had the spicy shrimp wontons here before, but I thought they were a little on the greasy side. So, this time we went for the vegetable and pork wontons, and they were much better. Packed with veggies, they pair with the spicy chilli oil really well, with an excellent pop of spice and a clean vegetable dumpling flavour that works really nicely.
Fried rice with pork
You absolutely must get the fried rice and pork chop here. The fried rice is excellent. Some fried rice can be oily, greasy, and salty. Not here. Each grain of rice seems independent of one another, held together with green onions and fluffy eggs. Sitting on top you will find their deep-fried pork chop. The juiciness of this pork chop is what allows it to stand apart from the competition. Excellently seasoned, delicately fried, and juicy to the point of almost dripping with juice. Get this, and you won't be disappointed in any way.
Shrimp Shaomai
Not satisfied with just ordering one type of dumpling? These Shrimp Shaomai are worth a go! The fat, juicy shrimp sitting on top not only looks aesthetically pleasing but is delicious, too! Inside you'll find a juicy and succulent mix of pork, with a slightly thicker skin than the steamed soup dumplings above.
Taro sweet dumplings
It's totally worth ordering the sweet dumplings here, too. They're not as good as the savoury ones, but still pretty good to draw your meal to a close.
We ordered the taro ones, which were filled with sweetened taro paste. It was silky smooth, and tasty, and I would order it again. However, having eaten both the read beans and also the chocolate ones here, too, I would probably pick either of those over the taro ones.
The bottom line
Is it worth it? I have been here countless times and never had a bad meal. It is by far one of my favourite places in the city.
What is the must-order? It goes without saying - the steamed soup dumplings. But, other than that, the fried rice and pork chop combo is a close second.
Are there any similar places that are better? There are many similar places, but are they better? In my opinion, it doesn't get better than here for steamed soup dumplings. Su Hang does some great ones, and 京鼎小館 does some great alternative flavours, too. But whilst some elements of their dumplings may be on par, the overall finished article doesn't hold a candle to Din Tai Fing's.