Din Tai Fung

Just wanted to give a huge shout out to James (he looked pretty young and very sweet and was mainly serving at the back of the restaurant this night) at this location for taking such great care of our party of 8 on Tuesday, April 30th during dinner! It was most of our first time to DTF (the other two in our party had been there before) but James guided us through with how much we should order, gave great recommendations, and EVEN HELD OFF on sending a few orders because he honestly felt we had over-ordered and lo and behold we asked him to cancel it - and he thought beyond! We had a fantastic time. So many of us were impressed.

I will definitely be back. Service alone is enough to return despite the high pricing!

This is a great restaurant, but make sure you've got money to burn because it gets expensive really fast, especially if you've got a good appetite.
The wait is extremely long on the weekend, sometimes over 2.5 hours, but during the week, you can get in there pretty quickly, fifteen minutes, maybe thirty tops.
While you're waiting, you can watch the kitchen cooks make dumplings through the windows, which the kids really get into.
Service is pretty good most of the time, and the interior is really spacious and well decorated.
You'll have a great meal and a great time.

this was my first time ever eating at DTF!

wait time given was about 30 minutes. however, we actually waited 1 hr and 30 minutes. maybe they skipped us or prioritized others? it was just my friend and i.

i HIGHLY recommend the fresh orange green tea! it is so amazing and refreshing. i literally wanted to ask for one to go because i loved it so much. tbh i would go back just to get this drink.

the shrimp fried rice was light and good. i guess im use to the hearty type of fried rice that i wasn't feeling the lightweight fried rice they serve. it tasted clean and healthy LOL which im not a fan of. my friend says that the work im looking for is plain lol

10/10 for the spicy wonton! it's soo tender and delicious the wrapper wasn't doughy and there was a good portion of filling inside. i would totally get again

6/10 for the main event- the xiao long baos
hmmmmm i didn't like these. they are DECENT. perhaps it's because it's freshly made? to me, the dough was just too much in ratio to the filling. you know when you eat mochi and it has the white powdery texture? these XLBs have the same texture with the dough itself being thicc. i could only eat 3 and that's it. so sad about it because isn't this the place where it's known for? people like that doughy powdery texture? sorry it ain't for me

buuuut OML you know for years i've always heard and seen the infamous cucumber salad. in my mind i was like i WILL NEVER EVER PAY FOR THAT DISH lol HOWEVER I AM BLOWN AWAY! the cucumber salad isn't just cucumber with sauce on top, is it? i think it's marinated in the sauce because each bite was a burst of flavor of the dressing so much so that it's soaked into the cucumber. i absolutely loved these and i was so surprised and happy that they are definitely worth it.

we always need a vegetable on the table so we opted for the bokchoy which was good. that's all lol

DESSERT!
OKAY! i also always heard and seen these chocolate XLBs for years and all over tiktok. sooooo i was so excited to try it! we had the cream on the side and that cream alone was so yummy! still the dough was chewy and doughy buuuuut the ratio of chocolate inside and dipped in cream IT WAS SO HEAVENLY! im not a chocolate fan but these were actually so good. do they have a white chocolate or vanilla option? that would be so good lol i would get these again. the chocolate oozed out after the first bite and it was warm and mushy. i think you HAVE TO GET the cream on the side for dipping.

the service was great too! i would come back for sure!

Always saw the long line outside but never decided to try the restaurant, until my wife wanted to go!

We had a reservation for Wednesday afternoon, no line, fast service, and attentive servers. The interior of the restaurant is very modern, matches the exterior. To order you just mark what you want on a piece of paper. We definitely ordered a lot for two and a half (my 3 year old son). But, we were glad to take home leftovers.

The star of the dinner was of course the pork XLB's, perfect dough consistency, and very flavorful soup. The pork chop fried rice was one of my favorites, crispy pork chop provided a great texture alongside the rice. Everything was great and the food came out so quickly we ran out of room on the table.

You'll see us back here soon!

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.

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.

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.

This is the third location of this restaurant I have eaten at. I understand that in the Bay Area it may not rate high compared to other places. However, as a vegetarian most dim sum places don't carry veggie friendly buns and dumplings so in my list, Din TAi Fung continues to rank highly. Even in plant forward San Francisco, it's been hard to find veggie dim sum reliably.

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.

First time at this location, though I've been to a bunch of other locations in SoCal and a bunch in Taiwan. We put our names down around 6:15pm on a Monday evening and they estimated about 35 min wait but ended up being almost 1.5 hour wait. Didn't mind though since it's very easy to kill time in a mall.

We shared the cucumber salad, pork XLB, shrimp and pork spicy wontons, and fried pork chop fried rice. These are usually my go-to orders and all were wonderful. I especially love the fluffy rice in the fried rice. Server Kathy was friendly and efficient as well.

Restaurant is smaller than other DTF locations I've been to. It was clean and bathrooms were nice too. Would come back if the wait happened to be short.