Din Tai Fung - HK

Din Tai Fung in Causeway Bay is a one Michelin star restaurant and it's super famous for their xiaolongbao. 

 

Din Tai Fung is very popular all across Asia

A long (steamed basket) of xiaolongbao

The xiaolongbao were picture perfect. The skin was tender and super thin almost to the point of being translucent, but the stem was very sturdy and you could pick up a xiaolongbao from the stem without the skin breaking and spilling out all the soup. It can be a delicate process eating and appreciating xiaolongbao.

Regular xiaolongbao with pork and tons of delicious hot soup inside

Din Tai Fung really deserves its reputation for xiaolongbao (but the prices are pretty steep).

Xiaolongbao with pork and crab meat 

This xiaolongbao was so good! I loved the addition of the crab meat - it added a nice seafood aroma to the bao and they included some really yummy spices to make it richer

Fried Beancurd Puff with Vermicelli Soup (and pork)

The noodles were lamian which are Chinese hand pulled noodles. The broth was clear and tasty, but I found the noodles didn't really absorb the flavour. 

Zhajiangmian

This mian was a disappointment. It was Din Tai Fung's take on the traditional zhajiangmian, but I thought it fell flat since it wasn't very tasty and there wasn't enough sauce. The combination of ground pork, snow peas, tofu and tomatoes was really strange and the sauce didn't tie it together. 

Sauteed Water Spinach with Garlic

The spinach was okay, but it was one of the most expensive plates of vegetables we ordered in Hong Kong.

Braised Beef Noodle Soup

The soup had a nice and spicy base, but they used the same lamian that didn't really absorb the flavour from the broth or the ingredients. The beef was soft, but not quite tender enough. The tendons were good though and cooked well. The noodle soup was really lacking in noodles, so much so that we ordered a separate bowl of noodles to add to the broth:

Bowl of plain noodles

I like their clear broth. 

Overall: The xiaolongbao are worth a trip to Din Tai Fung, but everything else was overpriced and not really spectacular. Also, service was really sporadic: there were a lot of waiters, but sometimes they were super attentive and other times they pretty much ignored us no matter how many times we signaled them.