I was debating whether or not to go here, thinking; touristy and a massive wait. However whilst doing a trek I met a Swiss guy who’d lived in Hong Kong and Singapore and who seemed pretty food obsessed ( we had a long conversation about Hainanese chicken rice). He said I absolutely had to go and given his background go I did.
I opted for the original branch near Dongmen MRT and went at 3pm to minimize wait time. To be fair the advertised 10 min wait turned out to be only 5 and they have a pretty slick operation, taking your order whilst you wait for a table.
It was good that they do half orders of 5 dumplings for some of the choices as I was on my own and so could order three different types. I do love dumplings but I doubt if even i could manage 30 in one sitting. The first 5 to come were the classic pork XLB. The skins were the lightest I’ve had with a god pork filling and subtle broth. Next up were the pork and steamed shrimp. Not XLB and with a thicker skin and the flavours were a little bland TBH. Finally the stand out dumplings. Pork and crab roe XLB ( a rec from the Swiss guy). These were outstanding the crab roe adding a richness and hit of umami. On hearing I was from London the waitress informed me that they are opening a branch in London.
I must say I was disappointed by the new branch around San Francisco, opened earlier this year. I thought it paled versus to the other DTF I ate at previously- Hong Kong. (Obviously that is not the same as Taipei, though geographically its relatively close.)
But when I recently visited the HK branch again, the overall quality was still substantially higher than the DTF SF branch.
So I’d speculate that the London branch won’t measure up to the Taipei branch.
If I ever go to Taipei again I would probably give it go. Didn’t even cross my mind to try it when I was in Taipei.
Just checked. They do have a branch in Kaohsiung (in south Taiwan). I have plans to visit Kaohsiung next year, unless another travel plan gets in the way.
DTF is good, but you have so many other (better) options available to you, both in KL and Hong Kong. I’ve been to the DTF in Singapore, KL and also 2 branches here in So. CA. It’s good, but not amazing.
