“ it’s a great option for theatergoers, or XLB-curious out-of-towners who’ve just visited the M&M’s store.” 
Individual bar/counter seats are even reserved.
Haha
That’s unfair though
There are some very good dishes
@Saregama what do you recommend?
All the small dishes I’ve had have been good (salad-y / cold).
The vegetables are usually perfectly done and very flavorful.
The egg fried rice is classic (either with shrimp or pork chop).
The wontons are good — whichever prep you prefer. The vegetable dumplings are also good.
But the XLB that are a disappointment, perhaps more so because that’s what they’re “famous” for.
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Just saw this, and ha, we ordered everything you said, plus a few more things. The cucumber salad and green beans were perfect, as you said, and we loved the spicy chicken wontons (dipped everything in the sauce). We got the sesame noodles with my daughter in mind but we ended up eating them all because she thought they were too spicy. Pork chop fried rice was delicious - crispy boneless pork and fluffy fried rice with big pieces of egg. My daughter ate most of the 10 piece XLB - I agree not the best I’ve had ever but don’t regret getting them. Only miss was the kimchi dumplings. The chocolate dumplings were absolutely delicious especially with the salted cream to dip them in. We also enjoyed a few beverages that we thought were great - bubble tea, tea, and honey lemonade. The space is beautiful (and cavernous) and the service was mostly good with a few delays cleaning up finished plates. We sat right by the windows showcasing the people making the dumplings which was really cool to watch. I’d definitely go back again! It was really fun!
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Glad you enjoyed it
My wife and I had lunch there on Sunday. I checked the day before and they had several slots open for two that afternoon. It’s a grand space, high ceilinged, spacious and elegant, with reasonable separation between tables. They move with machine-like precision – you check in (and they acknowledge any special requests you might have made at that point), they direct you to a nice holding/seating area, then a tablet-wielding usher comes to escort you to your table. I worry a bit about this because these ushers seem to know exactly whom to go to individually in the waiting area. How are patrons identified? That aside, we were seated precisely at the time of our reservation.
I wasn’t blown away by the food, though. I found everything on the wan side. The fried rice with shrimp was undersalted, although there was certainly plenty of egg, and the rice was clean and greaseless. (A recent crab fried rice from Fish Cheeks was way tastier.) The Taiwanese cabbage with garlic gave off a wondrous aroma of garlic when it arrived, but after we’d gone through the 6–8 garlic slices on top, the rest of the dish was bland. The chicken wontons, although advertised as spicy, were far from (the chili sauce on the table, as well, was more smoky than spicy). Ditto the noodles with diced beef (the best part there was their generosity with the cilantro). The pork sticky rice was the tastiest dish.
I’ll go there again because there are other things I want to try and it’s convenient to my apartment, but it’s not the blockbuster in my backyard that I was hoping for.
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Sorry to read that…“wan” is not good in the food sense (or maybe not in any other sense!!
I was overwhelmed in a great way by the outposts for DTF in Seoul and on the mainland… But that was more than 16 years ago, or more, I think…
Good idea to check last minute but not even sure if it will be worth the effort. That other place, HK origin, I think, Tim Ho Wan…does that compare to DTF???
Interesting how different people’s experiences have been from all of the raves by critics. The New Yorker loved it-- seemed to have a transcendent experience, but all the field reports here make it seem skippable completely.
I’m really surprised to hear they were so late to get one in nyc because there are at least 2 and maybe 3 in the Seattle area. My favorite item on their menu is the stir fried cabbage.
???
2 reports of the nyc location, one loved it, one didn’t but plans to return
(My experience was elsewhere, and I liked plenty of stuff, just not the XLB)
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Not a lot of excitement. I was excited.
They serve a lot more than xlb
I understand. Wan is not encouraging. I guess a tepid reaction doesn’t mean “skip it” but it doesn’t sound like excitement.
