Din Tai Fung, World Square, Sydney

December 22, 2014

Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese Dumpling Restaurant Chain. It has many restaurants all over the world, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and in Australia. Today we visited their outlet in World Square on George Street, Sydney.

Setting and Decor

I would say, this restaurant is anything but quiet, especially on the weekends. Be well prepared to wait for quite a while for a table. Sometimes even up to an hour! Fortunately, there's plenty of seating outside the restaurant where the wait staff would give you a menu, so that when you go in you can place the order immediately. You can also view the kitchen from the waiting area. It's literally bustling from chefs and cooks making dumplings, noodles and the whole place is steamy!

The décor of the restaurant is modern oriental. I love the big paper lantern in the middle of the dining hall. And one wall is creatively decorated with bamboo steaming baskets. There is plenty of seating in this restaurant for any size group. However often because of the large crowds, wait staff would ask if you mind sharing a table with another group. It often gets you a table quicker that way if don't mind sharing.

Menu

The menu consist of the normal fare you would find in a Din Tai Fung Restaurant around the world. You can find the mouth watering Xiao Long Bao (steamed pork dumplings) and many other buns, dumplings, noodles, rich dishes, cold side dishes and warm main dishes. There is a good selection of desserts here too and a very interesting drinks menu.

Click to Enlarge

Drinks
Lychee Mint Freeze - The name of the drink says it all. This is a fruity drink with a tinge of mint, blended with lots of ice. Love it.
Chinese Tea - The typical oolong kind.

Food
Shanghai style Drunken Chicken - A cold serve of chicken in shao-xing wine. This chicken is very disappointing in a few levels. Firstly the skin of the chicken is very rough - it should really be smooth with a gelatinous layer just under the skin. Secondly, the shao-xing wine hasn't really been absorbed into the chicken, hence the chicken is pretty dry and I would say overcooked too. Disappointing.

Xiao Long Bao (Steamed pork dumplings) - Handmade silky thin-skinned dumplings, wrapped to perfection. What's a trip to Din Tai Fung without eating xiao-long-bao. It's claimed that each dumpling is within 1g of each other and the number of folds are exactly the same so as to achieve perfectly steamed dumplings. And they are indeed a little gem of juicy goodness!

Spicy Shrimp and Pork Wanton with Dry Noodles - Handmade wantons filled with shrimp and pork, on a bed of handmade wheat noodles with a spicy sauce. This sauce is not for the faint hearted - it is indeed spicy! The sichuan "ma la" (numbingly spicy) kind of spicy. The noodles are cooked perfectly to al dente. The dumplings are smooth on the outside, and juicy on the inside.

Overall

The food here is mainly good, particularly the dumplings and the noodles. The pricing is slightly dear here, but well worth it. The queue here particularly on the weekends is very long, and one has to exercise lots of patience. But once you are in, service is prompt. The food came quickly. I won't mind coming back again for the dumplings.

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