Din Tai Fung

Over and over, Australian locals were telling me to try Din Tai Fung.  If it's recommended by the locals, I must go try them.

Originated in Taiwan, Din Tai Fung had expanded worldwide, they have shops from Mainland China to Japan, to Korea, to West Coast US.

Known for their Siu Long Bao, the original pork dumpling with soup inside.  This dish made them famous.

This is the steam pork bun, which is similar to Char Siu Bao, the bread is less thick in terms of dough.

Another famous dish of theirs is the braised beef noodle in spicy soup.  From what I understand, it's not unusual for people to drink the soup too.  The noodles was very nice and smooth, the beef falls apart when you grab it with your chopsticks, it's very nice.  Highly recommend.

Another order of Siu Long Bao, but this is pork with crabmeat.  Honestly, I can't really tell that the crabmeat is in there... hmm.

For dessert, under the advisement of my cousin, whom I trust her taste, was these fried Taro Roll, sort of like the size of an eggroll, but filled with taro inside and sesame at both ends.  It's quite tasty, the taro is not too strong, just nice enough to sweeten your palette after the savory.  Not overly sweet that put you over.

If you come here, remember to bring your patience, no matter what time we come by here, there's a wait.  The weird thing is, they will give you a buzzer and an order sheet, which they encourage you to look over the menu while you're waiting for your table and start filling in the sheet.  So that when you sit down, they take your order sheet and starts to fill your table with dishes.  Literally, when we sat down, less than 5 minutes our first dish came out.

From the outside, you can also see that they have at least 8 workers in the open kitchen wrapping these dumplings endlessly, while couple others putting them onto the steamer.  So, you know they have the machine going.  It is quite a well-oiled machine.

Din Tai Fung
Australia Sydney Branch  (there is also a Take Away branch inside Star Casino)
Shop 11.04, World Square Shopping Centre,
644 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
TEL:61-2-9264-6010-12
http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp