First Look: Din Tai Fung
Global chain restaurant Din Tai Fung set to start steaming soup dumplings this fall.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Aug 26, 2010 at 10:48AM
10 Comments
The Din Tai Fung training suite. Employees train for four months before they’re speedy enough to staff the giant dumpling house. That’s a lot of training.
View Slideshow »A Taiwanese master chef shows the new rollers how its done.
View Slideshow »In addition to soup dumplings, the restaurant will offer these Gyoza-shaped steamers as well as the little round parcels known as shiaomai.
I have to admit, I was kinda hoping someone would slip me a soup dumpling when I visited the construction site/training facility of Din Tai Fung yesterday. No such luck. In fact, there was no cooking happening at all.
When I arrived at dumpling class—held in a suite down the hall from where the second-floor Lincoln Square restaurant is being built—about 25 members of the 80-person staff were hovered diligently over butcher-block tables, rolling dough into identical disks. They were learning not only how to roll the dumplings, but how to roll them fast—when the restaurant opens this fall, they will be feeding 300-plus tables of hungry locals. Speed, says franchisee David Wasielewski, is essential.
Din Tai Fung originated in Taipai Taipei, Taiwan. It now has branches in six countries (its Hong Kong restaurant recently received a Michelin star) and is known especially for xiao long bao—soup dumplings—though it serves rice and noodle dishes and other sorts of dumplings too. I asked Wasielewski why he picked Bellevue. He said that Eastside execs—from Microsoft, Expedia, etc—are already familiar with Din Tai Fung from their corporate travels in Asia, as are a lot of the frequent fliers holed up in nearby Westin and Hyatt hotels.
At the same time, Wasielewski thinks he can appeal to weekenders who come to Lincoln Square for a movie or to bowl at Lucky Strike Lanes. Everything on Din Tai Fung’s menu is $10 and under, and it will be open for lunch, dinner, and late-night snacks. “We’re not in the bar business,” says Wasielewski, who is careful to point out he’s not trying to compete with Joey’s and the like for cocktail dollars. Still, the 7,000 square-foot restaurant (the kitchen takes up almost half of the total space) will have bar and lounge area, and there are plans to incorporate a happy hour drink menu.
Translucent when cooked, the skins of soup dumplings are rolled just thick enough so that the dumpling stays together. In addition to a meat or vegetable stuffing, a solid meat gelatin is wrapped inside the dumpling. When it steams, the gelatin turns to a juicy broth. The onus is on the restaurant, said Waielewski, to teach diners how to eat them without searing their tongues on the boiling-hot broth inside. (Before eating, you poke a hole in the dumpling and let the juice spill out onto your spoon.)
Din Tai Fung is set to open in late October or early November. To whet your dumpling appetite, here is a delicious segment from No Reservations, taped at a famous Shanghai restaurant.
Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, New Seattle Restaurants, Bellevue, Seattle Restaurant Openings
OMG! Can’t wait! The soup dumplings are amazing! BTW, I don’t poke a hole in it; I bite the top off and suck the soup out. Takes practice, but you can do it without burning yourself. :) Amazing! So happy it’s coming over to Seattle Metro area, and the Eastside no less!
The original location is spelled TAIPEI not Taipai. Please check your geography knowledge. Nonetheless, looking forward to the grand opening as I’ve only been to the Toronto location and their XLBs were nothing short of amazing. Hopefully, they will copy TAIPEI’s recipe as a dear friend of mine says the Los Angeles’ location doesn’t do Din Tai Fung any justice. She’s originally from Taiwan so she knows her XLBs!
Thanks for pointing out, Erick. The correction has been noted.
I also noticed on your slideshow that Gyoza is spelled incorrectly as well. Not trying to be a spelling-Nazi, but either you folks don’t have any Asian food experts on your staff, just lazy to do some research on how these food names should be spelled, or don’t do a very thorough job in editing. I could understand if this article was written by some publication in the Midwest where access to traditional Asian food and their names would be limited. But here in Seattle!! In these days of instant search with Bing or Google!! You’ve just showed us how ignorant you are about Asian food in general. This is quite a sad commentary on how much more further we need to educate the masses on Asian cuisine. Your publication, with its blatant geographical and spelling errors, doesn’t help.
My goodness. I corrected the spelling errors.
This place will be awesome. There is a famous XLB place in Vancouver, BC that has lines as long as the best XLB places in Asia. It’s about time we got something on par with that level of goodness over here.
For heaven’s sake, Erick, you need to relax and correct yourself; the punctuation of “Los Angeles” in your post is incorrect. Chill out, this is a blog post and you know what she meant. Note the corrections and then run along and OCD on something else.
Further, XLB are not from Taiwan, they originate in Shanghai. Just because a person is from Taiwan doesn’t mean they are an expert on these buns, no more than any Seattleite can be said to automatically be an expert on coffee or smoked salmon. Lame reasoning.
Good to know that the prices will be $10 and less and not astronomical just because of the swanky location. Looking forward to its opening.
Can’t wait for the magnificent soup dumplings to make their way to our area. The location in LA was a favorite spot when I lived there.
- From a native Midwesterner who has managed to overcome the apparently rampant ignorance about Asian cuisine that supposedly rules the entire region. Ignorance indeed.
Erick, Wow. You should think about keeping one of those stress balls at your desk.
So when is the exact (projected) date of opening?
Anyone? Anyone?
My first experience with soup dumplings was last year at Yank Sing in San Francisco – and they were marvelous – simply ethereal – closer to home I tried them at O’Asian – atrocious – leathery skin, very salty soup, no ginger, no vinegar. Really looking forward to Din Tai Fung!