Five Loaves

Din Tai Fung is an award-winning restaurant of Taiwanese origin and known internationally for its Xiaolongbao. It was ranked as one of the world’s top 10 restaurants in 1993 by The New York Times. I have visited the Hong Kong and Shanghai branches before.

It has also been voted as the most favored dining place by political and commercial celebrities and is one of the must-see places for national and international stars.  There was a mural of Asian celebrities on the wall.  If you look carefully, the celebrity which has visited this branch has autographed their mural.

The layout of the restaurant was spacious and trendy.  Also, they have a very nice view over looking The Bund and right beside the Huangpu River.

A group of Xiaolongbao chefs working hard on the assembly line.  You can order uncooked Xiaolongbao for takeout.  They will prepare the Xiaolongbao in a small cooler with dry ice.  Its good for 6 hours.

They are famous for Double-boiled chicken soup served with noodles.  The soup was excellent - clear, fragrant, flavorful, and soulful.  It was simple good food.

This was egg fried rice with shrimp and shredded pork.  The dish was seasoned very well with generous amount of large shrimp and shredded pork.  Its incredible that I could taste and distinguish each grain of rice in my mouth.

For vegetables, we ordered the Snow Pea Shoots with garlic.  I couldn’t get enough snow pea shoots on this trip.  I’m almost ordering it every meal.  Definitely, veggies were much fresher and tastier in China.

Now, the main attraction, Din Tai Fung’s famous Xiaolongbao.  This was not your typical Xiaolongbao.  The filling was made of pork and Shanghai hairy crab meat.  The Xiaolongbao was excellent with its thin, smooth folded skin and excellent filling.  I loved how every Xiaolongbao has a small pouch of soup.  The Xiaolongbao tasted sharper because of the extra crab meat ingredient.  Its hard to imagine that the soup can be contained with such a thin skin.

For dessert, we ordered shaved ice topped with almond tofu and condensed milk.  I love shaved ice here because its like eating freshly fallen powdered snow.  Its not icy and the powder just felts in your mouth.  The almond tofu was very fresh and tastes like almond.  The perfect balance of shaved ice, almond tofu, and condensed milk makes this one of my most favorite desserts.

Five Loaves Rating:
Value: 8/10
Quality: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Verdict: I always order the double boiled chicken, Xiaolongbao and shaved ice topped with almond tofu and condensed milk because they are my goto dishes.

Din Tai Fung
Unit 24, 3F, Super Brand Mall, No. 168, West Lujiazui Road
Lujiazui, New Pudong, Shanghai
China
(021)50478882/50478883
Open daily 11am-3pm, 5pm-10pm