Unrelated. DTF Bellevue came close to getting shut down with 85 critical food safety violations. (90 gets shut down)
Hah. I’m surprised they weren’t shutdown. One look at the staff there and you’ll see that apathy is rampant. Pretty funny that they haven’t cracked down on obvious rule violations occurring in the dumpling viewing room. Not that I mind, but rules are rules. More reason to head to Facing East now?
Totally off-topic but did you see this about Facing East???
That’s not surprising either. Pretty funny how obvious it was if the allegations/evidence is true. Low % of cash transactions in an Asian restaurant and cash tips being higher than cash sales on a given day. Sounds like she would be doing the other restaurants a favor by outing this “software” as it’s terribly written. I wonder what percentage of restaurants that don’t take AMEX also avoid paying taxes. Thanks for the article, catholiver.
Maybe she was “beta testing” 
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very interesting
It is, isn’t it? And she’s like, oh, okay, I’ll pay it all back.
I’m not sure what to make of this:
She also told investigators the cash removed from the register was used
to pay kitchen staff under the table because they preferred to be paid
that way, the complaint said. She told state investigators that she was
worried she would be “in trouble in the community for sharing how the
software worked because so many restaurants use it,”
I wonder if she offered workers a better wage if they took cash as an incentive to help launder it, or if they didn’t necessarily have the documents to get a bank account. Now are all the employees going to get audited too?
That she’s worried other restaurateurs will be pissed at her for telling is kind of funny though.
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I’m not actually sure this would stop me from going for soup dumplings. I mean, the walk-in was probably just warm temporarily because of some cooling stock, right? And permits don’t really count 
Seems like there is such fast turnover (at least with the dumplings) that food isn’t staying anywhere for long. Hmm, they actually have along history of poor inspection scores http://info.kingcounty.gov/health/ehs/foodsafety/inspections/Results.aspx?Output=W&Business_Name=din%20tai%20fung&Business_Address=&Longitude=&Latitude=&City=bellevue&Zip_Code=&Inspection_Type=All&Inspection_Start=&Inspection_End=&Inspection_Closed_Business=A&Violation_Points=&Violation_Red_Points=&Violation_Descr=&Fuzzy_Search=N&Sort=B
I wonder if it’s one of those things where the inspector is freaking out about the tubs of filling out in the dumpling room and the paper towels are low, or if they are really taking risks. At least they didn’t find any mice 
I have the same opinion as you. I’ve eaten at that one and saw nothing untoward. Off-topic, now that there’s one in the U-District we ate there last year. Equally good.
Yes. One has to take a lot of the violations with a grain of salt, but when you are bordering on the edge of closing shop as a chain restaurant then something seems off. I agree that the numerous times I have been there the only thing that seemed off was the dumpling preparing room and even then it was off for an inspector not for truly affecting the food quality. I haven’t been in some time, but it would take more than these reports to stop me from returning.
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Speaking of DTF, I was at pacific place in downtown Seattle today and saw this -
It’ll be 4th floor, 4th & pine corner.
For me you photo totally failed. Nothing 
Huh. I posted from my phone but I see it on my laptop too. Must be an apple thing. Anyway, the pic is of the DTF coming summer 2016 sign at Pacific Place.
Both pics work for me. They really need to get the SF Bay Area one open (Its been far too long) before they open yours…
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And Southcenter next year. I’m not sure we need four in the greater Seattle area, but good to know I’ll never be far from soup dumplings!
If the crowd is as ridiculous at the Seattle outposts as some other places, having more branches perhaps can thin out the crowds to the extent that the wait is actually manageable.
We’ve only been for lunch in both Bellevue and U District. Got there perhaps 15 minutes before opening and no problem.
Yes. Lunch crowds seem to be far lower for DTF. There are better options for dim sum in the ID, but you also don’t get the environment either.
I did eat at DTF again and it seems the consistency they once had is gone or they changed the skins on their dumplings. Will probably be another month or two before going back since it isn’t worth the price if they keep changing things.
