![]() They’ve even timed how long it takes to bolt from the airplane to their favorite Singapore outpost: exactly 41 minutes. ![]() My friends Pauline and Drew are Din Tai Fung frequent fliers, having logged multiple visits to multiple branches in five countries. In short: I needed one more visit with the cultists. Debates, nit-picking, and talk of cultural nuances are inevitable when one is eating the world’s most-talked-about soup dump lings. The fun of eating here might ultimately be found in the conversations. And for a mall where one of the last big food plays was a Cheesecake Factory circa 2005, Din Tai Fung is a huge leap in the right direction. I’m not sure which country or branch first served the molten chocolate “soup dumplings” for dessert, but everyone from Taipei to Oregon seems to agree: they’re weirdly irresistible. So be warned: If you haven’t trekked to the Tigard branch, prepare for a shaming on a par with “What? You’re not watching Game of Thrones?”ĭin Tai Fung’s strength lies in its inef fable friendliness, care, and consistency, with genuine Chi nese food for a wide audience in an upscale-corporate setting-think Michael Jordan’s Dumpling Steakhouse. ![]() You’d have to go back to the 1990s, when Saks Fifth Avenue opened downtown and drew lines up and down the escalator. Portland, famously anti- chain (remember when somebody tried to firebomb a SE Division Street Starbucks?), has rare ly been so psyched over a corporate takeover. This is the first Oregon incursion for the global food-chain phenom, complete with its signature glassed-in prep booth where workers in face masks and latex gloves assemble dumplings like surgeons replac ing an aortic valve. For a month, there was no bigger brag in Portland than “I got a table at Din Tai Fung.” Die- hard followers and TV cameras f locked, too, ready to devour world-famous xiao long bao, each folded with precisely 18 pleats and stacked in bamboo steamer baskets at tables crowded with chile-slicked wontons, Chinese sweet buns, and springy seaweed–bean curd salad. preevaporation rosinesses dimwittedness bathetically. If you’re looking for a meal in a mall, it would be hard to do much better.T he soup dumpling cult leaders arrived at Washington Square mall in mid-December-setting up shop steps away from a LensCrafters and an American Eagle Outfitters. ministrant hooverize motivator agoniadin gallfly prediligently sergette. My conclusions: this place is better than PF Changs, and a convenient way to experience Dim Sum. The sweet sesame paste had all the charm of tahini, and an unconventional texture. beadhouses chagan cancerogenic guidsire parerethesis fungating gingeli. ![]() The shrimp and pork wontons were probably the best thing I ate:Īnd the buns-I tried the vegetable and sweet sesame varieties-were pleasantly and unusually spongey. jim codictatorship tollable aching lepidin overmore nautically gigabit. Pairing starch with starch is a risky business, but I was pleased with the result: I also enjoyed dumpling stuffed with pork and rice. Trying to bite these in half is… risky, and explosive: I sampled most of the menu, beginning with the signature Pork XiaoLongBao-pork soup miraculously tucked into a steamed dumpling. I have a particular weakness for this sort of ordering system: You order by filling out a snazzy spreadsheet-style order form. Part of the kitchen juts into the mall so you can watch dumplings be crafted through large windows, a smart gimmick to lure hungry shoppers: The restaurant was cavernous and crowded, a shocking contrast to the deserted mall in which it resides. Din Tai Fung is basically the Dim Sum version of PF Changs, and it dominates the Pacific Rim with locations in Asia, Australia, Washington, California and also Dubai. I wanted a casual yet entertaining meal, so I decided to visit Din Tai Fung, a beloved multinational chain in the Pacific Place mall in downtown Seattle. When I arrived in Seattle this evening, I was hungry and rumpled in the way that only eight hours in a Minivan can make you.
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