A Taste of Din Tai Fung

As we mentioned briefly last week, the Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung is in town. With arguably the best soup dumplings in the world, Din Tai Fung is in New York until Sunday, November 20th at the Sheraton in Flushing. The menu is limited to only 15 items with items supposedly flown over from Taiwan, which included regular soup dumplings, as well as those with crab meat, two types of shao mai, and Din Tai Fung's special chicken soup.

Unfortunately, Gothamist was severely congested when we went so our tastebuds were unable to enjoy the food, but our dining companions did say that it was amazing. While they said the food wasn't better than the original restaurant in Taipei, they did say it was still better than any soup dumpling in New York.

We were thinking of heading back before Din Tai Fung ended their annual trip to New York, but it seems like all the time slots are filled. The Sheraton employee we talked to did say that people could try to walk in, but would not be guaranteed seating.

A couple more photos in the extended entry and on Tien's site.

Din Tai Fung at the Sheraton LaGuardia East
135-20 39th Ave in Flushing
(718) 460-6666
Dinner from Wed, 11/16 to Sunday, 11/20 with lunch Saturday and Sunday

Photos by Tien Mao

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By tien mao in Food on November 14, 2005 12:24 PM

Comments [rss]

ChiLLin d0od

There are actually 2 Taiwanese restaurants that I have been to in Manhattan's Chinatown.

May Wah - http://menupages.com/restaurantdetails.asp?areaid=0&restaurantid=2104&neighborhoodid=0&cuisineid=0

and "Excellent Pork Chop House" on 3 Doyers St. directly across from the post office.

Here is a list of other Taiwanese restaurants in Manhattan that I have yet to try.

http://www.nychinatown.org/directory/m_chinese.html

My impression of May Wah is this... Their pork chop with rice is excellent. The aroma of pork chops and fried chicken can be smelt 20 feet from the restaurant. That is about all that is good there. I usually judge a Taiwanese restaurant by their hot and sour soup and beef stew noodle soup. Their hot and sour soup caters to vegetarians, so there is no pork flavor at all. It is unfortunately a very important flavor in hot and sour soup. The beef and noodle soup on 2 or more occasions have been overcooked (soggy), not enough beef stew broth (too diluted with water and no star anise flavor), and contained with 4 or 5 small measly pieces of meat.

Excellent Pork Chop House has excellent hot and sour soup and beef noodle soup. Pork chop is also good. The boba tea looks like it is made from some type of mixing powder, but is cheap for Manhattan ($2.50)and very consistent in taste. They also serve Taiwanese slushy.

Sorry no oyster pancakes served here.

tien

someone on my site just said they made a reservation for 6:30 sunday night!

Teresa

I myself have not found a Taiwanese restaurant in Manhattan. There are a lot more in Flushing unfortunately. As for great soup dumplings in Chinatown, I love New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe and New Green Bo. Their dumplings are deliciously juicy. :)

I miss the whole Din Tai Fung atmosphere at the Taipei restaurant. It's just not the same when it's at the Sheraton! Anyhow, I'm going on Friday!!

Johnie

Anyone know any good Taiwanese restaurants in Manhattan? Sometimes I have huge cravings for oyster pancakes and oyster noodle soup .. and a trek out to Flushing is far too long ...

tien

actually, it was in the restaurant space of the hotel. not sure what they serve in that space normally though.

and yes, cjc, it was awesome even though i couldn't taste anything.

Cheng-Jih Chen

I went a couple of years ago, and it was pretty awesome.

Note that this isn't "a chinese restaurant in an airport hotel". They're using the conference/banquet rooms of the hotel -- which is centrally located in Flushing -- for a culinary event. They'll be gone Sunday evening.

You have comic book conventions. Why not a dumpling convention? That's not the worst analogy.