Din Tai Fung

I am currently craving Shao Long Bao aka soup dumplings! There are couple places in San Francisco that serve pretty good ones, but right now, I am craving specifically the ones from Din Tai Fung in Arcadia, CA! What sets Din Tai Fung's shao long bao apart from others, and what makes their dumplings so memorable is the shao long bao's skin or wrap. It is thinner and seem less floury or doughy than others, yet it holds in the fillings and soup very well!

I'd been there twice so far, and both times, there was a wait. The service is okay, not super. Once walked into the restaurant, they have a room with see through window which you can watch the chefs rolling the dough, wrapping dumplings and steaming them.

Shao Long Bao

They have few kind of shao long bao here. I only tried the pork and vegetable ones and the crab meat ones. The pork and vegetable ones are my favorite. They are flavorful and juicy! They taste great with or without the dumpling sauce. The crab ones tasted almost exactly the same as the pork and vegetable ones because I could not taste crab at all.

The way to eat one: Take some ginger from the sauce bowl and with that drizzle some sauce on top.

Pork & Vegetable Dumplings - Pork & Vegetable fillings but with no soup

These dumplings contained more fillings than the shao long bao. The fillings were still very juicy.

Beef Stew Noodle - Five spices beef with noodle

The noodle was chewy but the broth was not too flavorful. The bowl only comes with a few pieces of beef and they are pretty rough.

Steamed Black Sesame Buns

The black sesame filling was very thick and pasty. It was also super sweet. I think I would like it better if it's a bit runny and not as sweet. The bun was a little rough and dry.

I highly recommend the shao long bao! I would definitely skip everything else and eat the shao long bao! They are soooo good, one tray is not enough!