Hunting the Elusive

Prompted by a good review from Not Quite Nigella, which was linked to me by IRC peeps, I visited Din Tai Fung with my family (five people). Din Tai Fung is a fairly famous Taiwanese restaurant chain which specialises in dumplings. Apparently, the Sydney branch only opened a few weeks ago, and the word (as it does in the Chinese community) has spread already. Of course, we made sure to make a reservation beforehand.

That turned out to be a good idea, because the restaurant was full and a crowd was milling around outside waiting to get in. But even with a reservation we had to wait for five to ten minutes before we could make our way in, because they were short of tables. We did get to skip quite a few people though.

In the meantime, they gave us an order form of sorts, which we could use to start marking out dishes we wanted.

The level of service was immediately apparent even when in line, because they had set out a flask of hot tea, chairs and flame heaters for those who were waiting in the cold. We even got served the hot tea by an apologetic waitress.

(Interjection: Note the photos were taken by a mobile phone and a compact camera, not my standard Sony F717 plasma cannon, so the quality did suffer a bit.)

I guess we should start off with a few random shots of the menu. I didn't take these pictures and in fact, the family patriarch was in charge of ordering, so I didn't have a good look at the menu. The prices are in the upper ranges for a Chinese restaurant (typical of a conservative family, we tend to eat a cheaper places). For some reason, the patriarch chose to go all out on the ordering this time, so what was supposed to be a trial of the restaurant turned out to be a raid on almost half of the menu.

Many items in the menu were labelled "not available". I take this to mean "not available YET", possibly awaiting the settling-in period to source ingredients/expertise. A particular pity was the unavailability of the black sesame xiao long bao which would have been a surefire success. Ah well, there's always next time.

The decor in the restaurant was pretty bright, despite the contrast problems in these photos. Very well-lit interior, a bit small (enhances the popular feel/warmth of the place). Decorations are a bit obvious with the multiplication of various cooking and eating utensils. On the main display are the steamers for dumplings and buns, while lighted cabinets are arranged with soup spoons, bowls, and chopsticks.

The kitchen where the dumplings and buns are made is made especially visible to visitors. you can see the masked people busily engaging in the creation of those delicate items. Stacks of bamboo steamers tower above steam vents, timers run with marked urgency, and dough is kneaded, pounded, torn to pieces rapidly, flattened, and moulded.

Protip: there's a second kitchen behind the counter where more work is being done (mostly on the dishes which aren't dumplings and buns). Chefs there do not wear masks. :P

Basic table setting. Because of the focus of the restaurant on dumplings, the shredded ginger in the saucer is part of the standard -- this should be filled with vinegar, which is the common seasoning for the dumplings. The cup looks like a plastic type cup but is in fact porcelain.

The service here is very good for a Chinese restaurant. Upon arrival, the Family was welcomed (Huan Yin!) by around five waitresses to the table. The waitresses go around the table pouring the tea when they first bring out the teapot, then leave you to go about the business until your teapot is empty. After refill, they go round the table with the refills again, etc.

My little sister decided to test their sweeping skills by accidentally pushing a toothpick holder (porcelain of course) to the floor. Cleanup response and fervent apologies (on both sides) instantly ensued.

The food also comes out really fast from the kitchen. It's basically one after the other. It's not too fast that you feel rushed in eating your food though. I have a feeling the staff keep a close watch on everything and when you're done with a dish they dispatch the next one. Naturally, in such efficient serving, the removal of empty dishes have to be equally fast, or the table would quickly jam up.

 

Enough of the prelude I guess. Let's get to the main meal. We ordered multiples of some of the dishes, so I just took one photo of each dish. There are alternative photos which were taken from another angle with a mobile phone.

First up was of course the flagship xiao long tang bao (soup dumplings). Like modern Chinese restaurants, they use a cloth as the base to stop the dumplings from sticking to the steamer. This works really well. Many other restaurants in Sydney currently use vegetable leaves or some kind of paper.

We were very careful with the dumplings because past experience had taught us the susceptibility the xiao long baos have to breakage. When you pick them up with chopsticks, many rupture, spilling the precious soup within. As you can see from the second photo, this was not the case.

A combination of the correct ingredients and processing for the skin, the right amount of steaming (itself a delicate artform), wrapping, and the amount of ingredients within the dumpling itself, meant that not only was the skin acceptably thin (translucent), but that the weight of the contents could be successfully suspended in the skin, resulting in zero breakage during chopstick handling.

I might not be very experienced in terms of range of Chinese restaurants, but these are the best xiao long tang bao I have had the pleasure of encountering in Sydney.

I'm not sure what was beside the xiao long bao, but they were spicy (kind of) dumplings.

Spicy beef and noodle soup. The noodles, we suspect, are pulled in house, and they have that perfect texture for the noodles of this thickness. Again, the whole spicy thing: the stuff here has spice, as in it has the delicious fullness of the fragrant spices used, but is otherwise mild in terms of chili-burning-your-mouth hot. You could always add the chili oil available as a condiment to the dishes to give it a bit of an explosivity. The beef chunks were good-sized.

The next one was also xia long bao, but this one filled with seafood (pork is the standard). An alternative to the classic.

Soup dumplings nr one. The ergonomic thing comes into play again. These dumplings are shaped with little looping "handles" for easy picking and transporting with chopsticks. They can hang from the chopstick, without any pressure being exerted on the actual body of the dumplings, resulting in a drastic reduction in rupture.

Noodles with peanut-based sauce. These noodles should be mixed with the sauce, then served. The waitress recommended using a bit of chili sauce to give it some bite, and it works well. Again, the noodles are of the ideal texture, tension and smoothness. It's very pleasant to bite into.

Deep-fried prawn dumpling. A standard dish (for us anyway). Served piping hot, with salad cream as the dip. It's packed with prawns, crispy, and not too oily. Fast service is a key to having the perfect tasting dish for this one.

Sour and spicy soup. Another standard dish in a Chinese restaurant, but this one stands out from the others in terms of the scent and taste. Again, it is not too spicy hot (though hotter than other fare). What really stuck me was again the fragrance of the spices used within this dish, which combines in your mouth in a most refreshing manner.

Typical sour and spicy soups in Chinese restaurants have a very strong scent or after taste of the pork. I thought this was standard, and many people use pepper to neutralise the pork smell (adding to the spiciness). The rank smell was not present in the dish in this restaurant.

 

"Dam dam" noodle (as we call it in Cantonese). Similar in concept to the peanut-sauce noodle, you mix the noodle with the sauce and ingredients. I believe this one has a more savoury sauce, plus beef, tofu and beans. Another very good dish.

And soup dumpling mk II. I think this was a different dish, in that it was filled with vegetables this time round.

The pork and vegetable bun, the only bun we ordered for this meal. An apologetic waitress ran to tell us they had almost sold out of this item, and only one bun was left. So we got that. Literally, one bun in the steamer. We tried to share it, but when someone poked it, soup started streaming out. We ended up giving it to the patriarch, and the rest of us took small pieces from his bowl.

At this point, it was around 8:10pm. So here's a warning. The stocks might seem limitless, but they are not. Stuff does run out, so if you want to get your teeth in, come earlier.

The last dish (how did we managed to eat ALL THAT?!) was dessert xiao long bao with red bean paste (given how the sesame ones were not available). The red bean paste was a bit too sweet for the Matriarch, but it was alright for me. The colour within was vibrant, and the fragrance of the paste seemed to us an indication the restaurant had made their own red bean paste.

At this point, we called it quits. We had ordered enough dishes to keep the staff constantly editing our little receipt tally, and it seemed the dishes would never stop coming. At one point, a manager person made his appearance at our table and asked me how I found out about the place. I told him "the Internet(s)" and told him I saw a review at Not Quite Nigella.

I guess there's a good thing with going out with four other people, and the small bowls. It means smaller servings taken by each person, which means more stomach capacity for a great variety of food. Still, as per usual for the Family, we polished off each dish with great gusto. Astonishing wait-staff is part of our repertoire after all.

Total, all up? We thought it'd get to around 200 bucks, but it turned out close to $132 (averaging around 27AUD per person). That's a bit less than double the spend we usually have when we go out as a family, but within the upper ranges of standard when I go out with mates to dinner.

What's not to like? Great service, very friendly staff, a great ambience, impressive food, a great variety, a good cost-to-quality balance... The only problem is some of the dishes are spoilt for me forever. Like xiao long tang bao. It's a bit hard to go back to the "normal" fare after tasting the good stuff.

It's no wonder the customers keep streaming in and waiting in the cold! It seems almost too good to be true, and I certainly hope that it doesn't deteriorate after the few months of honeymoon. It's a bit hidden away on the first level of World Square, but it's very popular. From the looks of it, it's only going to get more so. Do your homework and reserve. Even though it won't eliminate waiting, it will cut your time in the queue by quite a bit.

7 comments