I love Ding Tai Fung. It’s one of my favorite restaurants, period.
Pictured above is my favorite dumpling: the meat and vegetable dumpling. As you can see, it’s mostly vegetable, which I love! It’s not greasy at all. It’s moist and flavorful on the inside and it’s got that AWESOME skin on the outside . . . sooo good (can you tell that I love this restaurant???)
We ate at this restaurant three times during our four day stay in Taiwan since I love this restaurant so much. Perfectly kneaded skin; small, delicate xiao-long baos (soup dumplings) whose skins miraculously don’t break even though they are filled with hot, juicy soup.
Heavenly eating experience. I would eat there every day if I could.
Prices are quite reasonable too. Dinner cost about $20 for three people – and we were really stuffed!
We went to several different locations. It’s worth trying out the original one just because the ambiance seems more authentic. There is a newer one in the basement of Sogo, but it’s just a bit more upscale, and thus you lose a little bit of the character.
In both places, you can watch the guys make the dumplings:
Even their other non-dumpling dishes are very good. We tried their hong-yo chao shou (hot oil wontons), Fried rice, Wonton soup, and Hot & Sour soup [yes, I know these sound like American style Chinese dishes, but honestly, we ordered them based on recommendations from our Taiwanese relatives!]. Although these other dishes were pretty good, I probably wouldn’t order them again when I could just order more dumplings instead!
Be prepared to wait almost anytime you go. Our wait times varied between 10 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the time of day. I think it’s virtually impossible to show up and not have to wait.
Bryan thought that he couldn’t tell the difference between the one in Taipei and the one in California (Arcadia). I’m not sure I’m convinced of that, but I will say that the one in Taiwan is AWESOME!
Original restaurant:
194 Xin Yi Road, Section 2
Taipei 106 Taiwan
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Ding Tai Fung is AMAZING! I can not wait till my family comes for a visit so I can take them there! I have found a local spot just a block down from Sogo, where the son and dad do dumplings as well. It is a hole in the wall and the menu has less then Ding Tai Fung, but the dumplings are as good if not a bit better….and cheaper. I will say this though, for all over menu and if you want “service” Ding Tai Fung is it!!
Cool! What’s the name of the local spot? I’ll have to check it out next time I’m in Taipei. 🙂
What is the restaurant in Arcadia called?
It’s called Din Tai Fung. The spelling is just slightly different.
i love love love this place. I live in Toronto and am so desperate I may need to try the fake one.
thanks for this post.