Din Tai Fung

Front of the New Restaurant

(The Old Restaurant is behind this building in another plaza)

Checklist Menu

This is the House Chicken Soup (steamed). The broth is very light, and the chicken is very tender. This soup is good to order when you are ordering a lot of food because it helps you be refreshed when you can no longer eat any more food.

All the Greens they have at this restaurant are good. Most of them are cooked with garlic. This dish is called Sauteed Spinach with Garlic. I like to order vegetables when I come here because they complement the rest of my food very well. You can basically eat the vegetables with almost anything you order there!

This dish is called Shrimp and Pork Wonton with Spicy Sauce. Although this dish may look very salty, and you might think how can you eat with without rice? But actually, the meat inside the skin is perfectly combined with the sauce and the green onions that once you put it in your mouth, it almost melts away. It is also not as spicy as it looks for those people who can't take very spicy foods.

The famous Juicy Pork Dumplings! This restaurant is very well-known for this dish. It comes in 10 pieces, and if you pass by every table in the restaurant, almost all of them order this dish. It is so perfectly steamed that once it comes to your table, you won't be able to resist not eating it right away. As you can still see the steam coming out of the dumplings, once you put it on your spoon and put the sauce of your preference, it is pretty much like you're in heaven. Once the skin splits open, the juice inside oozes out into your mouth and it tastes so delicious. These dumplings are one of the finest I've ever had, and not many places can compare their dumplings to Din Tai Fung's. For those who have never been to this restaurant and don't know what to order, I promise you that you will not go wrong with these Juicy Pork Dumplings. 

For any type of dumplings I order, I like to make this specific sauce. Every table already comes with a little bit of ginger in this mini dipping plate. I then put a little bit of soy sauce, and fill the rest with vinegar to the amount I want. I also add some chili along with the chili oil because I like to have some spiciness. This sauce tastes extremely well with any type of dumplings you order.

Everyone I am with that orders this dish is absolutely in love with it. It is called Pork Chop Fried Rice. Although it looks very simple and original, the way they cook their fried rice is absolutely amazing. I've never had such amazing fried rice in my life. It is not too salty, and it is not too plain. It seems like the put a lot of egg inside, and that is probably why it tastes so good because it doesn't just taste like all the other fried rice I've had from other restaurants. Also, the pork chop is not hard to chew and is not dry, like other places. It really complements the fried rice, and if you run out of things to order, you really can't go wrong with their friend rice. 

Finally, for dessert, I always like to order their Sesame Bun. There are a lot of times where they do not have any more left for dinner because they are so popular during lunch time. So you have to be lucky if they have it at nighttime. The bun is steamed and inside has sesame paste. It is pretty hot, and when you take a bite out of the bun, the sesame oozes into your mouth. I would highly recommend this to those who like sesame.

Inside the Sesame Bun

As you can see, the total is $50.68. This is the most expensive restaurant out of the four other restaurants I have talked about. This is probably because it is set in a nicer area, and is a little higher-class for certain people, compared to the other restaurants. It is also the most well-known restaurant around the SGV area. Even though it is pricey, I still think the food is worth the money to spend! I highly recommend this restaurant to anybody who stops by the SGV!