Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐, ディンタイフォン) is an extremely popular restaurant in Asia taking East Asia by storm. It originates from Taipei, Taiwan. They serve all sorts of dim sum dishes from Taiwan and Shanghai. The most popular item is arguably the xiao long bao (小籠包, シュウロンバオ), a famous pork dumpling. It looks like this:
Xiaolongbao
Shrimp Xiaomai Dumpling & Xiaolongbao
They make them so juicy! There is broth inside each delicately made dumpling (Forgot the name but you know how fatty stuff solidifies into gelatin? That's the trick.. no magically ladling of broth). This restaurant made it onto New York Times' Top 10 Restaurants in the World. There are many other delicious delicacies like noodles, soups, and of course dim sum dumplings.
In Taipei they have menus in Chinese, English, and Japanese. Their food is relatively inexpensive compared to food in America, but in Japan, the prices are jacked up a bit. It's not formal at all and it tends to have a loud atmosphere. You get in to eat and you get a sense that they want you out ASAP... either that or you feel guilty for taking up seats for the hundreds of people waiting in the hot sun outside.
Each branch is operated by a team of chefs that were trained in Taiwan's headquarters. Unfortunately for North Americans, there is only one location in the area: Arcadia, California. The branch is swamped with people all the time. This restaurant has a huge legacy - in Taipei, you can see lines piling up as early as 2 hours before opening. Japanese tourists horde the restaurants after it was featured on a famous show there. Now, there are more branches in Japan than anywhere else. Taiwan has 2 - both in Taipei. There are 11 all over Japan (from Tokyo to Nagoya to Kyoto to Tsuruya). They are usually found in Takashimaya Department Stores and are always crowded! There are 6 in Mainland China (1 in Hong Kong's Whampoa Garden in Hung Hom). There is one branch in Indonesia (Jakarta) and 3 in Singapore. Luckily for Koreans, there's a branch in Seoul since 2004 (Myeongdong). It's address is 104 Myeong-dong 2-ga Jung-gu Seoul 100-021. Go check it out!
Din Tai Fung Seoul
Directions to Din Tai Fung Seoul
"All items here are cooked with the authentic recipes used in the head restaurant in Taipei, except that we use local provisions,'' said a manager of the restaurant. "But on the other hand, we are preparing to add some unique items of our own, such as `kimchi xiaolongbao.'" - Wow that'd be interesting.
(note: it's now available. it's called 김치 샤오롱바오)Links
http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/eng/index.htm - Main Site in English
http://www.dintaifung.co.kr/ - Korean Site
http://www.dintaifungusa.com/ - Arcadia Branch Site
