Lunch at Din Tai Fung, Singapore

Having never been to the famed Din Tai Fung before, it was definitely time for me to pay them a visit. There are several outlets across Singapore, but I'd heard from others that the one at Paragon is the best, so on this sunday afternoon we decided to brave the lunch crowd and join the 30 minute queue. Upon arriving we were given a menu and a number and we had to indicate our order (I guess to speed up the process). Surprisingly they didn't actually place our order, instead the menu was just handed back to us. Lucky for us they were offering Chili Crab Xiao Long Baos, which they only offer from July 1st to August 31st. Before heading here I'd checked other reviews on what to order and so the selection of dishes we ordered were partially based on that.

Two of the signature dishes from their appetizer section include the Oriental Salad in Special Vinegar Dressing and the Shanghainese Style Drunken Chicken. Luckily we ordered two servings of the salad as it was really nice and refreshing and very tasty. I especially loved the crunch that the beansprouts provided. The chicken was interesting, it was served cold and the meat was tender. I didn't feel that it was that special though, since it just reminded me of the chicken that you get when you order chicken rice.

From the appetizer section we also got a serving of Stewed Beancurd and Spicy Pickled Cucumber. I was quite surprised at how refreshing the cucumber dish was though there was chili oil poured over it. I didn't really try the stewed beancurd since it looked slightly odd to me and instead just picked out the mushrooms and fungus since I enjoy those.

We ordered two different noodle dishes, Dan Dan Noodles and Braised Beef Noodle Soup. The Dan Dan noodles here had a peanut taste, so I'm guessing that they may have added peanut butter to the sauce. It was quite interesting and I'd never tried it before, but I don't think it really is something that I would order myself. The soup of the braised beef noodles was great and had a lot of taste. Also they were very generous with the amount of beef that they gave.

For dumplings we had Oriental Wontons with Black Vinegar & Chili Oil and Steamed Shrimp and Pork Dumplings. I think there was a slight confusion as we'd actually intended to order the soup dumplings and assumed that the shrimp and pork dumplings were these. Nevertheless they were very tasty and I don't regret having ordered them as I loved the shrimps inside. The succulent prawns in the Wontons was great and this is definitely a must order.

Being famous for their fried rice we also ordered a portion of Egg Fried Rice. The fried rice was indeed very good with the soft fluffy rice and pieces of egg generously spread.

As a vegetable dish we got our all-time favourite Dou Miao with Garlic - Pea shoots. The dou miao was very good, just as I expected, and I was happy to finally be able to eat this again, since it often isn't available.

The highlight of the meal, the very unassuming looking, Chili Crab Xiao Long Bao - Soup Dumplings.

Check out the filling of these babies. It's a larger version of the traditional xiao long bao and contains crabmeat in a chili crab-based broth. These were extremely good and I was glad that I had the chance to taste these. The subtle taste of crab was great in the form of a soup dumpling. Overall the meal was extremely delicious and I was glad that I'd finally gotten the chance to try it.

#chinese #restaurant #review #singapore #dimsum