I've always loved dumplings-but din tai fung's is something else, not only clean but taste good. As for the drinks,I particularly love the honey juice with cucumber.Unfortunately, i did not have too many dumpings because the drink made me enough before i could have more of them .
What else...The service is quite fast and the waiters are friendly. Above all, it is not noisy at all.

The dumplings are almost like those from your neighborhood baozi pu. Here, however, the dumplings taste 30% better, and cost 300% more than on the street. You can also be assured that there's a minimum of dog, cat, and mouse in the meat filling, something I couldn't confidently say about my neighborhood baozi pu.

For two people dining here, I'd recommend ordering a large classic Xiao Long Bao, and a large size of whatever else looks good to you. The Tang Cu Pai Gu (sweet and sour ribs) is one of the best cold appetizers. The stir fried Dou Miao makes a good vegetable accompaniment. The meal I described would be around 300-400 yuan total, best I can recall.

Service here is as quick as can be. They have rapid turnover when they're busy, but you'll not get any pressure from the staff to hurry up and leave. You can linger as long as you'd like, but the environment is conducive to a quick meal.

Had an intensive day at work. Feeling a bit hungry right now and decided to rave at Din Tai Fung preparing my appetite for dinner.

I like juicy, meaty dumplings. There is something special about them that the dry, veg ones just wouldn't do. The dumpling skin at Din Tai Fung is very elastic and thin. I am usually a big sucker of that kind of skin. But not at Din Tai Fung, probably because the stuffing is too little and it never feels like real food. Yet more like a big juicy candy, and not in a good way. The juice in the dumplings is usually very hot, which does a very good job on hurting old ladies' tongues and appetite as well as mine... Not to mention the juice tastes like plain oil. I really am not sure why people find that enjoyable.

Interesting facts about Din Tai Fung.
Each dumpling looks extremely similar like another. They are always in the same size and have the same amount of pleats. Taste is always the same. I am not only talking about each visit. Say you eat 20 dumplings at one meal, the 20th you eat tastes same like the first of the tenth. I know it sounds odd. But usually when you eat something, its taste changes as you eat. At least, it's the case for me and me friends.

It reminded me a recent experiment I heard about. A kid's burger and a few other things from McDonald's were put in a regular room where people live in for a year. And none of them went bad.

Crazy chain restaurant recipes...

Call me a heretic, but I find Din Tai Fung's menu a little boring. Sure if you like the dumplings you are in heaven but frankly I don't like having searing hot broth in my dumplings, as when you are an abject amateur with the chopsticks it means the saucy little buggers are extraordinarily hard to pince between two sticks, and the sensation of piping hot juice dribbling down my chin and then onto my lap is not something I find charming.

Having said that, if you like xiaolongbao you're going to like this place. Clean with great service as well.