din tai fung

Din Tai Fung opened an outlet in Sydney recently. I popped in today for lunch at a weird hour of close to 3pm to avoid the queue. There was no queue, thankfully, because I was starving. I managed to walk straight in but the place was packed. I had expected it to be half empty at that hour. One thing to note, they actually take the last order for lunch at about 3pm, then close for business until dinner. I thought that strange for a chinese restaurant.




The interior looks neat and modern. I especially like the wall decorated with those bamboo basket lids (from those bamboo baskets used for steaming dim sum) of all sizes.




I had a cold dish of tofu with pork floss and century egg with a bit of soy sauce. It was the first time I tried that dish and wah it was so yummy lor. Didn't manage to take a decent photo of it though.

Then it was on to the usual dishes - the wantons and the dumplings. I had the wanton in spicy sauce (红油抄手) and I only remembered to take a picture when all was devoured except one. They were not as good as the onces from the Shancheng hotpot place at Sussex Street.




I tried 2 different types of dumplings (小笼包), the normal pork ones and the crab meat with pork ones. I think the normal pork ones still taste the best.




It was a very satisfying lunch. I even adjourned to the Shancheng hotpot place at Sussex Street for round 2 - some sichuan cold noodles and more wanton in spicy sauce. Those sichuan cold noodles are addictive, man. Eliss can testify to that. I introduced the dish to her and she had a craving for it the next day!

For those who are unaware, this one and only Din Tai Fung branch in Sydney is located at:
World Square Shopping Centre
644 George Street, Sydney

I have to go back again to try the other dishes on the menu. Today's lunch was satisfying but definitely not enough. And oh, actually, the pinyin for the name should be 'Ding Tai Feng'. So I never figured out why it's called Din Tai Fung. But well, who cares as long as the business is good.