Din Tai Fung

It doesn't get any better than this for dumplings.
Food and argues is amazing. We come often and never disappointed. Super fresh ingredients cooked or steamed to perfection.

Went for the first time and Edmund was our server, he was one of the best waiters we have ever experienced.
He took us through the menu gave us great recommendations and made sure we had a overall great experience! Would definitely recommend going the food was so good the spicy chicken wontons and the chocolate XLB with the sea salt cream is definitely a must have. Everything was 10/10!

Great food, Great customer service. We come almost every other week. However today, we had an unexpected accident on our way. Manager and staff were kind enough to accommodate us, after missing our reservation. Thank you!!

Big fan of Din Tai Fung! One of my favorite nicer chain restaurants. I like it for a group or family outing, because even though the decor is definitely on the nicer side (I wouldn't call this a casual restaurant), the ambience is loud and lively. My husband and I went there recently with our baby, and was thankful that no one noticed our baby crying among the other sounds!

There's always a long line / wait, so I would highly recommend a reservation, or planning to shop around while you wait. Service is efficient and neutral; I wouldn't say it's the friendliest place, but I'm not upset about it either.

My go-to orders are their soup dumplings / XLB (any of them really), spinach (they don't skimp on the portion!), pork chop fried rice, taro dessert dumpling, and chocolate mochi desert dumpling (don't skip the sea salt cream!!). I'm not a big fan of their shao mai or noodles. Also, I've found that they're not the most consistent in their cooking.. I've had soup dumplings before that weren't hot enough, or didn't have enough soup inside. Overall though, still very good!

My friend and I came here right when it opened, and our wonderful waitress Nikki walked us through the menu, and let us know about the most popular items. She was helpful, attentive, and available throughout our dining experience! This was our first time at Din Tai Fung, and we were extremely impressed by the service by all of the staff members here.

The ambiance here, though inside Valley Fair, is very nice and paired with the service provides an upper-scale dining experience (though it should be noted that we were dressed VERY casually in jeans and leggings and it was totally fine.)

Truth be told, the food is just alright. We tried several dishes- cucumber salad, poke xiao long bao, wontons (I believe pork or chicken but I cannot recall), chicken fried rice, the noodles which I believe were also with pork or chicken, and the chocolate mochi xiao long bao with the sea salt cream.

We had heard so much about this place and were excited to try it. Our two favorite dishes were definitely the cucumber salad and the chicken fried rice, but I don't believe either of these dishes are worth returning for.

Thankfully, we didn't have to wait at all, as we arrived in line at 9:45 and were taken to our seats right at 10:00am. There were plenty of empty seats while we were there as well, so I recommend going early, as I have seen the long line at the mall in the past.

Always go to Din Tai Fung in Socal and was excited to get to come to the South Bay location. The wait is always really love (3-4 hours) for dinner so I would recommend either coming right when they open or putting your name before shopping around the mall.

Shrimp and Pork Wontons in Spicy Sauce (10/10): Favorite thing. I love the spicy sauce so much I use it on the dumplings and fried rice. (It's not spicy!)

Pork Xiao Long Bao (8/10): Must get for the experience

Pork Chop & Fried Rice (7/10): Good if you're looking for a carb

Green Beans w/ Garlic (8/10): Fav vegetable here

Chocolate Xiao Long Bao with a side of Sea Salt Cream (15/10): I dream about this dessert. Don't forget the cream on the side for a creamy and cold juxtaposition.

Absolutely incredible food paired with insane Chinese restaurant efficiency in service. You go in, order what you like, enjoy the food immensely, and GTFO in under an hour. Pro-tip for parties of 1-2: walk-ins at the bar are way faster and the way to go.

My gotos:
1x pork XLB (this is their signature dish, please absolutely get 1/person)

For parties 2+, share some amount of:
cucumber app
shrimp fried rice
string beans
shrimp and pork pot stickers
dandan noodles

If you wanna switch it up, consider:
veggie dumplings
shrimp and pork spicy wonton
taiwanese cabbage
beef noodle soup

I'm partial to:
black tea crema (surprisingly competitive to all the outside milk teas)
soy noodle salad

SKIP the dessert - you have much better options elsewhere in the mall.

DTF speaks for itself. The most amazing dim sum. Everything is so so good. The soup dumplings and wontons are my favorite. They have a fun little sauce they teach you to make at the beginning of the meal. The cocktails are also great.

Expect to wait. It's in the mall so you can go shopping in the meantime! They also do a great job with takeout or you can wait in the bar line if you only have 1-3 people.

Finally got to try this place!!! I've been waiting for so long and I'll say the wait was worth it! We tried practically everything off the menu & everything was delicious. I think the cucumber salad was perfectly light and paired well with the different entrees. If you're a fan of lychee martinis, I highly recommend trying their pear lychee martini. Our server took very good care of us and was really helpful in ordering. Hope to come back here soon!

I came here for my birthday with my friend and everything was so good! We came for Friday lunch and had about a 25 minute wait with no reservations and were able to go shopping so it worked out well. The waitress was kind and the food was so good! I already want to come back.

We ordered:
- green milk tea with boba
- honey milk tea - perfect level of sweetness
- pork xiao long bao
- spicy chicken wontons - love the seasoning of the spicy chicken wontons
- string beans with garlic - perfectly seasoned and best string beans I've had
- braised beef noodle soup - the beef was so tender
- vegetable and mushroom fried rice
- chocolate and mochi xlb - first time having this and the chocolate really oozes out. Enjoyed the soft chewy texture.

Had to make the reservation a month in advance for a weeknight dinner slot. I wanted to their famous dumplings for the longest time but was always skeptical with the low rating on yelp. Their service is quick and the restaurant was packed on a weeknight as well.

Dishes:
Kurobuta Pork XLB - According to the reviews and our server this was one of the most popular dishes on the menu and for good reason. They take a while to come and may arrive after other dishes but that's because almost every table orders it, it's that good.

Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings: I was expecting a lot from these dumplings, but unfortunately they didn't have a whole lot of flavor.

Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai: I liked the shao mai more than the dumplings above. Our server also recommended Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai over the Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings and she was absolutely right.

Chicken Spicy Wontons: This was a favourite from the meal as well. The spicy sauce made the whole dish work for me. I would definitely recommend it.

Noodles with Spicy Sauce: The noodles were the weakest dish on the table of everything we ordered. There wasn't much flavour and springiness in the noodles for me.

Chicken and Mushroom Buns: I think they were okay. Nothing great about them. I would not reorder them as there are better dishes on their menu.

Chocolate & Mochi XLB with the side of Sea Salt Cream: This was the star of the meal for me and I could be biased since I love chocolate. I feel it is mandatory to get the side of sea salt cream with the chocolate dumpling. That combination is made in heaven. If there wasn't a huge waiting line, I wouldn't mind going to the restaurant for just this dessert.

Was it worth the wait? I guess. Would I dine here again? Probably. But then there are so many dumpling options in bay area that I don't think I would go through the hassle of making the reservation a month in advance. I wouldn't mind sitting at their bar since anyway the tables in the dinning room section are so close to each other that you can almost hear the entire conversation on the other table with zero privacy.