Taipei Travel

Great at every location I have been. Best are black truffle/pork xialongbao. Not a cheap place but totally worth going if you like dumplings.

Have you heard all the fuzz about the famous soup dumplings when traveling to Taipei? Well, your visit won’t be complete if you miss the opportunity to go to the home of Xiaolongbao. Whatever you read, heard or saw is understated. If you want to avoid long queues, then go during the week to any of the outlets other than the original one and outside of meal timings, you won’t regret the experience.

If there is a Din Tai Fung in any city that I am visiting, I try to stop by for a meal. If you are a fan of dim sum, this place can not be beaten. This location is the very first Din Tai Fung that I ever went to ten years ago. I was back in Taipei for business and I had to stop by again. I went on a Sunday afternoon and the wait for a table was 80 minutes. I did not fret, I simply ordered take out which was ready in 15 minutes. I got a bubble tea from the place next door then walked down the street to Chiang Kai Shek park and ate my fabulous lunch. This meal is always a treat, I wish there were one in Washing tom DC

If you are a tourist and visiting 101 building and the Din Tai Fun restaurant for the first time, here you are a tip to avoid the cue, if you arrive at the restaurant for lunch or dinner and you see the waiting time is over 60 minutes, then take a number, and go to the 92 floor for the sightseeing, then when you come back, it might be your turn to get a table. If you don't want to have sightseeing, then go shopping to kill the long waiting time! The dumplings are very hot, be careful when you eat it. To dip the pork meat dumplings into the vinegar and soy sauce, it is up to each one's preference, I take it this simple without anything. Besides the pork meat dumplings, there are also many other dishes which are Muslim / vegetarian-friendly. There are chicken soup, beef noodle, fried rice with egg, pure vegetarian fried rice and dumplings, stir-fried vegetables, etc. Also, there is the "truffle chocolate" dumpling which is very tasty according to my European friends. The dessert which I recommend to most of my friends is the dumpling of red bean (6 units in a wooden basket), this is extremely HOT! You can leave it to cold down or use the chopstick to part it in the middle and let it cool a little bit before you put it into your mouth. Most of the waiters are bilingual, foreign visitors might have not a communication problem.

The Ding Tai Fung in Taipei is different from the one in Singapore. The one at Dongmen is even better than the rest of Taipei in my opinion. The setting is more authentic, food taste better to my liking and the service is top notched. I was there at 10am at the opening hour, and there was already a long queue of tourists, mostly from Japan. Didn’t have to wait long for a table, and was ushered to 3rd floor to share a table with a pair of Japanese ladies. Seated next to the window and ordered a basket of delicious xiao long bao and pork chop fried rice. While I could eat another 100 Xiao Long Bao because it just tasted so good, I hold myself back so that my tummy has space for other Taiwanese food. This will not be the last time for me to visit Ding Tai Fung, Dongmen!