Din Tai Fung — Restaurant in Pasay

At long last! I’m a sucker for Asian cuisine, and I’ve been wanting to try their XLB for quite a while now. Finally, I had the chance.

Here are our orders:

Pork XLB (P195) Honestly, I was expecting more. Something like a wow factor since they’re known for this, but it kinda fell flat for me. The meat was a bit dry for my liking.

Chili Crab & Shrimp XLB (P395) Now we’re talking. I absolutely loved the chili broth and the seafood taste. It was heavenly. It was pricier than the pork variant, but it was 120x better. I wish I ordered more!

Vegetarian Mushroom Wontons (P240) My companions did not like this, but it was okay for me. I loved how the specialty sauce complemented the wontons. Although I did not feel or taste the mushrooms, I liked the veggies and overall texture of the dish.

Stir Fried Watercress (P155) I’ve never tried watercress before, but this was a good dish. The portion was generous, and it was properly seasoned as well. It wasn’t overcooked, so there’s a bit of crunch from the stems. Nothing fancy about it, but if you want a veggie dish to go with all the meat you’re ordering, you might want to opt for this.

Salted Egg Yolk Squid (P480) It’s not very salty, but you could definitely feel the graininess of the egg yolks. The squid itself is a bit chewy, and it could have been cooked better, in my opinion. The batter/breading did not overshadow the squid, and it was light and seasoned.

Black Pepper Beef (P940) Not much of a fan of this dish. Some bits were okay– chewy but decent– but some chunks were insufferably chewy, it hurt my jaw. I got tired from chewing, to be honest. Although the flavor was nice, it was expensive for its quality. I think they wasted a good portion of meat for this.

Pork Chop Fried Rice (P395) We loved this dish. The pork was so tender, and the breading, although it was sauced, did not fall apart. It’s not salty like any other Chinese-style porkchops I’ve tried before. The egg fried rice was light and fluffy.

Chicken Chop Fried Rice (P395) The chicken was surprisingly tender. It was a bit dry, but the portion was big and could probably accommodate 2-3 persons.

Fried Noodles with Seafood (P345) Meh. Not a fan. I was looking for the smokey notes on the noodles, but there were none. The seafood was just shrimp. And it’s not like fresh shrimp because it doesn’t taste like seafood, you know what I mean? Homecooked seafood noodles are better if I’m being honest about it.

Iced Rose Tea (P100) Nothing much to say here except it tasted like perfume.

Taiwanese Kao Fu (P295) Shet, ang mahal pala nito. It was good, but we didn’t know they offered appetizers upon arrival.

Spicy Pickled Cucumber (P175) My take is that if you want to maximize your expenses and dining experience, do not order appetizers and go straight for the main dish.

Another thing to note is that the staff taught us the proper ratio for the XLB dip. That’s a nice touch. However, I did not like how it tasted because uhm… matabang? Next time, I’ll do it myself na lang.

Anyway, we’re planning to come back to eat more...

I'm giving this DTF a 3/5 because even though the foods are very good, the price to food ratio is just too much. It is plainly expensive to the point that you might as well find other dim sum resto in Metro Manila that is cheaper yet still very good.

Anyways, here are what we ordered. Chicken Xiao Long Bao was flavorful. Chicken meat was tender and well seasoned. But not enough soup or juices inside for slurping. Next, Pork with Roasted Garlic Xiao Long Bao. Same as the chicken one. Flavorful and meat is tender just lacks juices inside. Now here is main problem with these Xiao Long Baos(Personally). They are just too small! For its price, I'm expecting more pieces of it. 5 pieces of XLB are just not enough for 1 person. I can't justify its price at all!

For the rest of the dishes, the Crispy Fried Shrimp and Veggie Wontons are delicious. I think this is a must ordered everytime you go dim sum. The Three Cup Chicken was also delicious. It's one of my fave dishes here in DTF. It's tender, juicy, and perfect pair for your fried rice. The Salt and Pepper Squid was okay. For its price(450PHP), I expect a very flavorful squid. Yes, the squid is tender but it just lacks seasoning. It's definitely not worth 450php at all.

As for the service, crews are attentive and they teach you how to eat xiao long bao if it's your first time. The resto is well lit and spacious. I think they are the best in service when it comes to dimsum resto.

Overall, as I've said above, the foods here are delicious if you're willing to pay the price. It's just disappointing to see how small the xiao long baos are. It will only leave you hanging if you only want xiao long bao and leave you shaking your head when you look at your bill and still craving. I'd look around somewhere for Xiao Long Bao without breaking my wallet and...

Everything we ordered was so satisfying, I had to get takeouts for my mom and my boyfriend 😭

My bestie and I got the following for dine-in: Porkchop fried rice Pork xiao long bao Choco xiao long bao Pickled cucumber Rose iced tea

I got the following for takeout: Porkchop Fried Rice Pork xiao long bao Pork noodle soup

The only thing that didn’t suit my taste was the rose iced tea, but everything else was amazing. It’s no secret that DTF is good and I can say it’s actually worth the hype!

Just a little downside with this specific branch: the service was not serving 😭 My requests were barely accommodated. I had to follow-up on my drink about 2-3 times before it was served. I asked and reminded the staff numerous times to separate the bill bcs my friend was paying for our dine-in and I was paying for my own takeout, and they still ended up putting everything together. Other restaurants separate bills upon request, so this part of the experience wasn’t very nice.

I also repeated my takeout order about 3-4 times, I specifically clarified that I am getting 2 orders of 5pcs XLB. But they ended up giving me 2 orders of 10pcs XLB 😭 When I tried to talk to the staff about it, they just said “sorry ma’am nagawa na po kasi yung order” 🥲 Quite disappointing. I understand that it was already late at night and the staff were most definitely exhausted so I just let it slide, but a little accountability on their part would be appreciated next time.

Good food,...