Din Tai Fung

It is currently one of the craziest times of semester, mid semester exams, assignments galore and weekly tutorials/practicals have consumed us over the past week and will continue to do so until the following Monday. So bear with us if posts are not coming at the scheduled times and for all our Brissie readers, apologies that most of the reviews are from Sydney still, we are trying our best to get them over and done with but with our busy schedules, it is hard! From now on, we will try to label all our Brissie posts with the Brisbane tag so you can click on it and easily find all things to do with Brisbane there! 

For this post, we are going to review Din Tai Fung in Sydney CBD. Crowned the 'world's best dumpling', Din Tai Fung has made a reputation for itself by producing a Xiao Long Bao, or Shanghai steamed pork dumpling, with the thinnest dumpling pastry in the world. Why is a thin pastry so amazing, you may ask? Well these ingenious little dumplings not only contain meat, as their normal Xiu mai dumpling counterparts do, but they also contain a rich warm ginger broth as well. So as you can see, creating a thin pastry which holds all the glorious contents of the dumplings as well as the soup, is a very hard feat. With a reputation so great, we were all eager to try the many delicacies on offer. Between all of us we shared a basket of 8 Xiao Long Bao ($12.80), Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai ($10.80), Vegetable and Pork Jiao Ze ($11.80) and Fried Rice with Shrimp ($14.80). A few of us supplemented our meal with Shrimp and Pork Won Ton Soup ($10.80). 

Our favourite is the Xiao Long Bao which has a delicious flavourful broth filling them and the pastry is as thin as they claim. I particularly love Shanghai dumplings and have fond memories of waiting in a massive line in the middle of a Shanghai winter with my family for what the Chinese claim are the best dumplings in the world, from a tiny, hole in the wall shop. The Din Tai Fung ones come pretty close to the standard and so I was satisfied. A big favourite for the night was the fried rice. It's surprising to find a good dish which deviates from the specialty of a restaurant's menu but on this occasion everyone was unanimous that the fried rice was fresh albeit a bit oily, but what Chinese food isn't, and yummy. We definitely recommend Din Tai Fung for a visit but heads up, the lines do get big at night and you will most likely have to share a table with others if visiting in couples or small groups so get in early or be prepared!

Where. Level 1, Shop 11.04, 664 George St, Sydney

Website. http://www.dintaifung.com.au/