Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豐
Dingtaifeng, the land of xiaolongbao 小龙饱 (small steamed juicy buns, or dumplings). it’s far more famous and delicious than Nan Xiang. DTF’s buns are smaller and lots more expensive, and I haven’t seen a single one being broken. Yes, sometimes the buns get broken at NX. I only visited this one in Taipei at Tienmu SOGO Department Store. Both times, we had to wait: one was 30 and second time was 45 minutes. However their operation was very smooth and attentive. Watching the employees, it happened to be all men making the buns; reportedly they need to fold exactly same number of pleats for each buns, makes me wonder: really no machine could duplicate that task?
- 2016.03.06, Taipei 101
- 2014.06.02, Beijing
- 2011.08.11, Hong Kong 尖沙咀
It drawing power is just unbelievable. No matter what time of the day you go, you have to queue up. 3pm in the afternoon? Wait. At 11am on the mid autumn festival 中秋节 (9/22) DTF was a solid 30 minutes wait while the adjacent hall with various eateries was empty.
DTF gets a one star from Michelin. Wrestling a star out of Michelin is difficult and this is only some dumplings. Well, I want to go there again, again and again might say something. Well, what do I know about the Frenchies.
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