Din Tai Fung — Restaurant in Costa Mesa

MICHELIN STAR EXPERIENCE ! My wife and I are big fans of Din Tai Fung having dined at a number of their locations. The quality of the food and the courteous service never fails to please us. On Saturday we decided it was time to visit this location for the first time...in fact it was our first visit to this shopping mall. We tried to reserve a table online early in morning but they were totally booked out. We figured that we would arrive early...way before we were hungry, put our name down for a table and then browse around the mall for an hour or so. OH NO ! However when my wife put our name down with the hostess at midday we were told an hour and a half to 2 hour wait. OKAY ! So we had a very good browse around some of the upscale retail stores and headed back to Din Tai Fung at 1.30pm. I enquired at the hostess desk how things were coming along with our table. The male host replied that we were within the predicted time frame but it could be another 20 minutes. VERY BUSY ! It was very obvious to us that this was an extremely popular restaurant with a never ending line waiting to get in. I went inside to get a glass of water for my wife. A young polite server named Bane ( the good Bane we joked ) offered me a cup of water to go.....would you like ice too....how about 2 cups to go ? GREAT SERVICE ! Bane returned with 2 large plastic cups of iced water with lids plus straws. I went and joined my wife on a bench close by who was very pleased with her iced water. BINGO ! Within a couple of minutes my wife received a text that our table was ready. When we approached the hostess she told us to wait at the wall opposite the main entrance. WHOO HOO ! Within a very short time another hostess greeted us and took us to our table towards the rear of the restaurant. A tall male server named Khua came by soon after to help us. My wife asked for some Jasmine Tea and I asked about a Mango Smoothie ( loved them )...no more Mango Smoothies I was told. BUGGER ! I guess it had been a couple of years since our last Din Tai Fung visit. We asked for printed menus so we could choose our lunch order. When Khua returned we ordered our lunch items...3 each. I started off with 1 x Shrimp & Pork Spicy Wontons and 1 x String Beans with Garlic. My wife chose 1 x Shrimp & Pork Dumplings and 1 x Shrimp & Pork Potstickers. We wanted to try some new things but weren't quite sure what to get. HELP ! We asked Khua about a few items on the menu and he offered his opinion which helped us decide. So we added 1 x Noodles with Sesame sauce and 1 x Shrimp Shanghai Rice Cakes based on Khua's advice. AND THEN ! Our very first lunch item...Shrimp & Pork Spicy Wontons hit the table at 2.05pm and by 2.24pm we had everything in front of us courtesy of various food runners. IT'S ALL GOOD ! Of course everything tasted spectacular....maybe even better than usual. Great service always improves the taste of any meal in our vast experience world wide. Our super talented server Khua had set his standard of service in the stratosphere. The new items...Shrimp Shanghai Rice Cakes and the Noodles with Sesame Sauce were probably our favs..thanks to Khua. We tried but we couldn't quite get through everything and Khua kindly boxed our leftovers ever so neatly. THERE'S MORE ! And then Khua offered his expert advice on how to reheat each different item. Did we enjoy our lunch experience here ? We told Khua it was the best ever at any Din Tai Fung. And we found out the very first Din Tai Fung on the East Coast will be open in Manhattan by the time we have our 2 week vacation in New York, NY this September. EXPECT THE...

MASTER CLASS ! My wife and I have enjoyed delicious meals at Din Tai Fung restaurants more than a few times. We love the very courteous servers who take our food order, the synchronized delivery of each item by food runners and the excellent taste of our food visit after visit. VERY IMPRESSIVE ! After a fabulous first time lunch experience here a couple of weeks ago we had to come back. This time we were hoping not to wait so long for a table ( reservations are booked out weeks in advance ) so we arrived at South Coast Plaza before 10.45am. A few minutes later we put our names down for a table with a hostess at the front entrance...it was going to be up to an hour and a half. PERFECT TIMNG ! We headed straight to Bloomingdale's to buy a new bed. At around midday my wife received a text that our table would be available in a few minutes so we came back here. EXCELLENT SERVICE ! We were ushered inside by a hostess just after midday. A manager named Alfredo ( who remembered us from our previous visit ) gave us a warm welcome and showed us to a table near the full bar. We told Alfredo we wanted to be in the area serviced by Khua the amazing server on our first visit. FIRST UP ! I said hi to Bane behind the bar who remembered me with a big smile. I asked for a beer...a Belgian Blue Moon. MEANWHILE ! Back at our table Khua our talented server was ready to help us order....we wanted to try a few new items on the menu with Khua's advice. AND WE DID ! My ice cold glass of Blue Moon arrived courtesy of Bane the bartender. LUNCH ORDER ! We ordered 1 x SHRIMP & KUROBUTA PORK DUMPLINGS, 1 x BROCCOLI WITH GARLIC, 1 x KIMCHI & KUROBUTA PORK DUMPLINGS, 1 x SHANGHAI RICE CAKES WITH SHREDDED KUROBUTA PARK, 1 x NOODLES WITH SESAME SAUCE and 1 x SHRIMP & KUROBUTA PORK SHAO MAI. Khua kindly offered to mix our dipping sauce for us...thank you. Meanwhile my ice cold Blue Moon beer tasted very refreshing. The restaurant was totally packed out with a long line outside waiting to get in. Our lunch order of 6 different dishes arrived at our table courtesy of smiling food runners incl lovely trainee manager Devery...amazingly we had it all within 10 minutes. We shared virtually everything except the Kimchi & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings ( something new ).....a little too spicy for my wife. The Broccoli with Garlic ( something new ) tasted good but we like the Green Beans with Garlic better. Of course our favs....Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings and Rice Noodles with Sesame Sauce tasted as good as ever. The Shanghai Rice Cakes with Shredded Kurobuta Pork ( something new ) tasted very good..we had this dish with shrimp on our first visit. Lastly the Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Shao Mai ( something new ) was a little on the bland side. Khua expertly boxed up what we didn't eat to take home. On the way out we ran into Harrison the friendly GM...we had a lovely chat for a few minutes. Of course we gave our meals, this impressive restaurant and our server Khua big kudos. MUST BE NUMBER ONE IN...

Okay so. My cousin and I went here with plans to eat. Like, a lot. It took us a while to order because we were going all out, but shoutout to Brian Phan—our server—because he was such a sweetie and absolutely amazing the entire time.

He checked in on us a bunch, helped explain the menu (bless), and even gave tips like how 1–2 dishes per person is a good ratio so we wouldn’t overdo it (spoiler: we still did). He showed us how to use the digital menu for photos and explained the whole family-style setup, but made it clear we could eat however we wanted.

I got the honey milk tea (good quality, great boba), and my cousin got the matcha milk tea just to try it. Brian was honest and said it wasn’t his favorite, and told us if we didn’t like it, to let him know—we could refund or exchange. Super chill.

The matcha milk tea ended up tasting mostly like milk, kinda powdery, not enough matcha. My cousin was gonna just suffer through it, but I remembered Brian’s words. We asked about a refund, and he offered an exchange instead. She swapped for the sea salt cream iced green tea and was way happier!

Now onto the food: Sweet & Sour Pork Baby Back Ribs – more on the sweet side, not bad. 7/10 Pork Xiao Long Bao – a classic. Always hits. 8.5/10 Crab & Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao – strongest crab flavor, good soup pop, just not my fave. 5/10 Truffle & Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao – also strong, more of an acquired taste. 6.5/10 Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Pot Stickers – SO GOOD. Crispy, juicy, chewy. 10/10 surprise star Noodles with Sesame Sauce – very nutty. Add the spicy wontons and it's chef’s kiss. 8/10 Spicy Wontons – must get. Another cult classic. 10/10 Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao w/ Sea Salt Cream – YES. Brian suggested the cream topping and I’m so glad. He even gave a fun fact that the filling is white + dark chocolate mixed! 9/10

Brian was on top of everything—gave a heads-up about the strong flavors in the crab and truffle dumplings, checked for allergies, confirmed the number of pieces per dish, and even asked if we had a preferred order for how the food came out. He made our dipping sauces personally, following the recommended sauce ratios, and taught us the proper way to eat the xiao long bao—soup first, then the rest.

Everyone on staff was attentive and quick with clearing dishes, but Brian seriously went above and beyond. At the end, we had a bunch of leftovers (we tried a lot of new stuff just for fun), and he personally packed up every dish, added fresh sauces and utensils, and bagged it all up neatly.

Seriously—dining here was great, and the service was impeccable. Would absolutely come back. I didn’t take many photos—I got too caught up enjoying the food. Always...