Din Tai Fung — Restaurant in Seattle

This is not good food. We ordered more than what is in the photo here, but the food was so bland and uninspired that I didn’t care to take any more photos than the one I took of the first dish that came out.

We ordered: Hot and Sour Soup. Short Ribs (appetizer). Spicy pork wontons. Kurobata pork buns. And pork soup dumplings.

The Hot and Sour soup: I eat this dish relatively regularly. On a sourness scale of 1-10, this one was a zero. Literally not the slightest sour taste. I don’t know if they forgot ingredients or what, but it was not a Hot and Sour soup. It was so bland as to be unbearably boring. Did not finish it.

Short Rib appetizer. I’ve had this dish in Korea and Taiwan and Hong Kong before. Done well, it is one of my favorite dishes of all time. This - again - was so incredibly bland. Overly sweet, and with no complexity at all. And a strange chocolate undertone, which I have never experienced before on an Asian dish. Very odd.

The pork buns. Nothing special at all. Boring, bland flavor. Would eat if free, but wouldn’t pay money for this again.

Spicy Pork Wontons. Again, nothing special at all. Not very spicy. And the inside was not very good at all; an odd taste, and nothing that made me crave eating the next wonton. Again the same: boring.

Soup Dumplings: if I was forced at gunpoint to choose a ‘best dish’, I guess I would choose this. But I’ve had better soup dumplings at any number of other places in Seattle. Literally just google a place in Chinatown, and choose any place with above average ratings, and you will have way better soup dumplings than here.

Conclusion. This place is - I’m sorry to be so direct - terrible. I tend to care for the flavor of food very much and very little about restaurant ambience or service. On the latter two, it’s all fine here. Service was good; place looked clean and it had a nice ambiance.

But the food is the most bland I’ve ever tasted for this type of food. That is the key word here: everything was bland. Bland and boring and uninspired. There is no flavor to anything at all. I was hoping for at least one of the dishes to be something satisfying. But out of the 5 we ordered, every single dish was nothing other than disappointing. I do not understand why the restaurant had so many people in it.

And my taste buds are fine. I didn’t lose my ability to taste because of Covid or something. I eat Vietnamese and Cantonese and Thai food every week. Favorite places of mine. And I love the food. I am able to taste and there is no issue with my taste buds.

So I cannot explain why so many people would come to this restaurant, where I found every single dish to be a bland, unsatisfying disappointment. I didn’t go into it expecting the moon, but I thought that between the restaurant being full, and the fact it represents itself as a ‘world-renowned chain’, that I would at least get ‘good (if overpriced) food’. Not even close. Honestly, I would have been happier with a burger and milkshake from Dick’s Drive-Thru.

My advice: do not waste your time and money here - why would you, when there are so many other excellent restaurants in Seattle? When there are so many excellent Taiwanese and Chinese restaurants...

I come here with my friends every time we visit Seattle. This is one of my favorite places to eat (especially with a big group). Every time we come here, there are usually some new people. Every person always ends up loving this place and wanting to come back next time!

They do allow for reservations on Yelp, but honestly, even with a decent sized group (6 - 10), if you go there, you won't have to wait longer than 20 or 30 minutes for a table. This has been the case the 5 times I have gone there during the evening on weekdays.

This place is definitely good for bigger groups, which also allows for trying more food. Think of this place as serving somewhat like Dim-Sum style - but instead you order what you want on a paper instead of the food actually coming around to you. Also, the food is served family-style.

The only reason I gave the service 4-stars instead of 5 is because I wish they just gave us a new paper every time, in case we wanted to order more food, instead of waiting for the waiter/waitress to come around and then asking for another paper, only to take more time filling it out and giving it back. (My tip is to always ask for a new order paper after they take yours to start serving you food, just in case).

As for the food, everything here is awesome! My most favorite dishes are: String Beans with Garlic, Bok Choy with Scallion-Infused Oil, Chicken Fried Rice, and Chicken Fried Noodles. I can say that most people who eat here with me also really enjoy these 4 dishes. The Bok Choy does not have much flavor itself, but be sure to use the available soy sauce and chili oil to add some more delicious taste to this and many other dishes! I took a few picture, but some I also forgot to take while eating, and I couldn't find ones from the previous times I came here, but their website has pretty accurate pictures of their food which is a plus.

Also, be sure to try the Chocolate Buns for dessert. They are gooey and warm on the inside! I have also tried the Sweet Taro Buns before, and they were pretty nice too, but overall I think if I had to choose, I will also order the Chocolate Buns :)

If you have not, definitely check this place out! It is ever-so slightly Americanized and is a little more on the expensive side, but as long as you come with a big group, it won't be so bad! My group is always more on the expensive side because a couple of us eat a lot, and some people also order alcoholic...

My wife and I have been coming to Seattle specifically for dumplings. Since the location opened, staff have changed obviously. We had a reservation and had to wait a little bit after which is whatever. It's a weekend, no crud it will be busy. Our server forgot to put in both of our drinks, we got two orders of vegan regular dumplings and two of the spicy ones. Also tried out vegetable noodles dish. He tried blaming the bar, for not serving my beer. Which ended up that neither drink was ordered, and my wife got a lemonade tea kind of drink. I don't drink tea so couldn't tell you exactly what it is. The restaurant was not even half full, but had plenty of staff. There was 3 hostesses, which not too sure why but none of anyone's buisness how the location is ran. But the server did not admit to forgetting or messing up. We are all human, stuff happens. Our server went on break, so we got another server to finish off our dining. When we brough up the issue about the tea, which we had not recieved yet almost at the end of our dining. The first server came up fighting us and the other server that we didn't order the drink. He pulled out the order which was in his apron, and it was on the paper. Crazy part is they go over prior to placing our order, what we have ordered. So that's two issues with drinks, we got the beer 20 min after we got the food. The only reason we got it, is because we had to very obviously get his attention. So end of meal, we asked for boxes and the check, as we are packing everything up. The second server is rushing for us to get out. Bad days happen, off days happen. But you chose the job, if you dont enjoy it I definitely wish you all the luck finding a better option. Which in the current economy and lack of jobs, is difficult. Put the effort in to actually do the job, unfortunately getting paid to not even do the bare minimum. Just doesn't cut it, for the buisness or...