Best laid plans n ‘ all… poor @buttertart was still dealing with the same pain that prevented her from meeting up with @mariacarmen during her recent whirlwind visit, and a family of four had to cancel due to their kids’ GI crud 
This left one Brooklyn couple, one part of which had temporal and spatial restrictions, as she had to leave for work by 1:15pm.
We’d already resigned ourselves to the fact that exceptional culinary experiences weren’t going to be a priority during this very, very brief visit — especially with my PIC’s various obligations, and we gladly sacrificed any such aspirations to see friends we hadn’t in a few years. Being a smaller crowd than anticipated, we nixed the dim sum lunch (sorry, @fooddabbler!) and instead found ourselves at Din Tai Fung, which was a short walk from our hotel & easy to reach for our friends. I’d already lowered my expectations thanks to this thread, and that was for the better.
“Mid” perfectly describes the meal. While the cukes were presented beautifully,
they lacked any oomph and were overall unremarkable. Almost everything else was served lukewarm including both XLB (pork and crab & pork) — despite the warning that we should wait so we don’t burn our mouths 
The crab XLB were better than the pork ones, which lacked flavor.
The pork chop atop the fried rice was just ok,
the rice cakes with shrimp slightly more interesting (and one of the warmer plates).
My favorite plate was the pork & shrimp wontons in chili oil.
By the time we left there was a sizable line at the check-in, and the place had filled up steadily with Midtown lunchers. Location, location, location 
At least the meal didn’t break the bank, and we got to hang out with our friends for a while and catch up #priorities
Perhaps we’ll satisfy our XLB cravings more successfully at Dim Sum Garden in Philly this weekend 
