About Me

sharing my thoughts on all things related to food.

Monday 5 July 2010

Din Tai Fung for four.


Date of visit: 2nd July 2010
Din Tai Fung @ Silvercord, TST
I think this must be my fourth time here in five months...but I'm not complaining at all! A friend arrived at about 7.15 to get us a ticket for a table for four. At 8pm we were finally seated and served some Chinese tea which we all thought was pretty good.

Here is our initial sheet, before we ordered round two:

home-made cold soya milk

From the appetizer section, we ordered some string beans with minced pork ($28). Slightly salty, but very addictive. My only problem was that, as an appetizer I thought it would be cold, whilst my friends who picked this dish expected it be hot, and it arrived being neither! It was luke warm - eeek. I think this dish is meant to be cold afterall, but tonight they were so busy they probably didn't have time to refrigerate it.... 

Noodles mixed in broad bean sauce aka za jiang mian, which was not quite what I expected. The sauce (bottom of bowl) was good, but the pressed hard tofu, minced pork and broad beans aren't really toppings which I would pick to go with noodles. And again, the dish was only lukewarm at most. I think I would have preferred the noodles in sesame and peanut sauce (dan dan mian)...


The signature xiao lung baos ($48) which are so delicate yet none of the skins broke and where intact from the steamers to our mouths =). The pork inside is very well seasoned and not fatty or with fillers like some restaurants. With a bit of the black vinegar these were very tasty indeed!


We ordered a single steamed pork and vegetable bun ($15 ea) to share. It was more vegetable than pork, and not bad, but incomparable to their juicy steamed plain pork buns.

Here you can see the insides were mostly vegetable...

Next was a fried rice with pork ($42). So simple but so satisfying and delicious. Strands of egg and lean pork was dispersed evenly throughout. The rice was however, rather 'wet' which I didn't mind, but some people often like their fried rice very dry...


Hot and Sour Soup ($32) which I finished alone as the others weren't interested in this. This is one item that is a must-order for me at DTF, because it is so good. (Sorry Crystal Jade, but you can't compare!) In here were strands of egg, tofu, mushrooms (fungus) and some shredded pork, in a balanced hot and sour thick soup topped with chilli oil....ahhhhhh.

 
a close-up of the soup!

Boiled Pork and translucent noodle ('fun pey') in garlic chilli dressing (蒜香粉皮肉) ($48) was picked by my friends. It was a new dish for me. When it arrived I thought the pork (belly) might be too tough because it was boiled and looked slightly dry, but luckily I was wrong. The marinade was quite spicy for me due to the chilli oil, but the garlic was quite addictive. The dish was good overall, but not something I'd order.

Xiao Lung Baos with crab roe soup ($68) tasted quite different to the regular one. The soup was more orange in colour. Taste wise, it matched the vinegar more and I like this one better! 

A couple other dishes which were ordered, but because I was so full and had tried these on previous visits, I didn't have any. 

Steamed taro buns ($30/3)

Steamed taro xiao lung baos ($33)

This restaurant is so popular with locals and tourists, with the quality much better than other Shanghainese chain restaurants that perhaps they should open a couple more here in Hong Kong. If it were up to me, I'd only make plans to come here during non-peak hours to avoid lengthy waiting times!

 The bill came to under $500 for the food above plus two glasses of soya milk. Not bad at all!
Food: ♥♥♥♥
Service: ♥♥♥♥
Price: $$$

Din Tai Fung
Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord, 30 Canton Road, 
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
(CWB Branch also)
Tel: +852 2730 6928

No comments: