Din Tai Fung — Restaurant in Tigard

Wow! I’m shocked at my experience with management at this location.

This is my wife’s favorite restaurant and the reason we made a 6:00pm reservation here tonight to celebrate her birthday.

Our entire party arrived at the front of the Din Tai Fung and checked in at 6:02pm. I was on crutches so I came up a bit behind my wife, kids and mother in law.

Host, “Is your entire party here?”

My wife, “They are all walking up, now,” and as I crutched up, visible, but about 20’ away, “We are all here, now,” and she proceeded to count the 5 of us to the host as I crutched around another guest and next to my wife, a few crutches away.

The host asked us to wait at the chairs. We did. At that time, we had no idea our party had been marked “not all present”.

My only guess is that since we are a multiethnic couple and, due to my crutches, I was behind my wife, kids and mother-in-law, maybe they didn’t realize that I’m with my wife.

They asked us to sit outside and wait. 5 Minutes later I asked if our table is almost ready or if Grandma can finish shopping at the bakery with the kids. The host said our table is ready and they are just waiting for someone to seat us and asked me to sit back down, “I recommend you wait.” After 5 minutes my wife went to check again and asked how much longer it would be. She could not get a straight answer.

That’s when Morgan stepped in. She was acting like a floor manager, but may have been the Hostess Boss. She walked up and interrupted the conversation to inform my wife that, “We were ready to seat you at 6:02, but your party was incomplete.” My wife retorted, “That’s not correct. Our whole party is here and has been here for 12 minutes.”

Morgan clearly did not like to be challenged in front of her subordinates. She turned her nose up at my wife, and flicked her blonde ponytail around as she walked away.

Moments before this happened, I got a text from the restaurant saying that since our party is incomplete they will only hold the table for 2 more minutes.

As I looked up, I saw Morgan perform her hair move. I didn’t hear the words, but saw her body language and could tell my wife needed help. I crutched after Morgan who was at a desk a bit back, and she was speaking with other boss looking staff. I entered, “I’m sorry, but I’m trying to understand why have been waiting almost 15 minutes without being seated.”

Morgan came at me with a hot response, not even trying to learn what is really going on. Patrick, her manager stepped in, “I believe there has been a miscommunication.” I explained “All 5 of us have been here since 6:02.” Patrick said, “No, you weren’t.”

Patrick and Morgan just couldn’t be bothered to see that this clumsy white dude on crutches is married to this beautiful Dark-Skinned Woman with her mom and these two kids. All five of the people standing before you are the party of 5 you have been refusing to seat.

Patrick and Morgan were so focused on defending their policy neither of them could see the family of 5 in the reservation is standing right in front of them.

I said, “We are all here and have been for 15 minutes. Why did I get this text? You guys f’ed up.”

Patrick, “First of all, no we didn’t. And second, if you continue this, not only will I refuse to seat you, I’m going to ask you to leave.”

I didn’t want to crash my wife’s birthday diner so, I yielded and wrote this instead.

Just to make a point, they made us sit outside while they sat 3 more tables. I understand and support the idea behind this seating policy, but the management here are total bullies, and I’m not into that.

I’m sure there are other places in the world where restaurants that have amazing food treat their customers like trash, but I don’t want places like that in my world.

For posterity, our waitress, Eva, was amazing and super sweet. After the always amazing food and Eva’s awesome service, I’m gonna miss this place.

Unless Patrick and Morgan can acknowledge their mistake and offer an apology to my wife, Goodby Forever...

My husband and I have been to this location a few times now, and we always leave happy and full! We haven't gotten around to tasting the whole menu just yet, but these are our recommendations so far.

Would recommend: +Chicken soup dumplings! We tried the pork as well, but we're surprised to find that the chicken had a heartier flavor. Always warm, moist and delicious! +Garlic green beans, a must-have every single time for us. They're cooked nicely with a crisp and aren't mushy at all, plus the garlic flavor goes well with all the other dishes. +Spicy wontons, have gotten these multiple times and they're always yummy! A perfect amount of moderate spice to graze on throughout dinner. They're very slippery when trying to grab them with chopsticks though, so be careful! +Their cocktails and flavored black teas are delicious, I grab one or the other everytime I come in and it always hits the spot. The lychee cocktail has a good amount of sweetness to it, which is exactly what I was hoping for! +Chocolate xiao long bao were phenomenal!! They just melt in your mouth, the warm chocolate filling with the soft doughy outside was to die for, definitely try to save some room for these!

We were mixed on the pan fried noodles and fried rice, though. The noodles were fine but a bit underwhelming, and didn't jump out as extraordinary in any particular way. The fried rice is also extremely soft and hardly seems "fried" at all. It was good, but we just weren't impressed with it enough to want to get it again. You wanna save your limited stomach room for the amazing stuff, you know?

And finally, the only thing I wouldn't recommend are the (pork) steamed buns. The outside was soft and warm but the meat inside was so sparse and clumped together in a not-fresh-seeming way. I was honestly pretty disappointed, as the ones you find in Asian grocery stores tasted better than these.

But service is always fast, kind, knowledgeable and amazing! I'd definitely recommend a reservation though, just so you can skip a long wait at dinner time. Reservations are typically available same-day as long as you book them ahead of the...

Having been several years since our last visit (and also having somehow forgotten to write a review about it), we should have returned long before now, and honestly, probably wouldn't have made it out to Washington Square at all if it weren't for the collision of two unrelated events conspiring to bring us out here. We intended to have lunch at XLB in Northeast, but despite their posted hours saying they were open, sadly they were not. Additionally, I had planned to meet up with someone at Washington Square, so pivoting to another restaurant serving xiao long bao seemed like a no-brainer.

I've never had a visit to Din Tai Fung that didn't require a wait of at least 20+ minutes, but I've also never had to wait as long as their quoted times, either. Regardless, the food here is absolutely worth the wait! My wife and I split orders of Crab & Kurobuta Pork and Chicken Xiao Long Bao, as well as Kimchi & Kurobuta dumplings, and Shrimp & Kurobuta Shao Mai.

As each entrée trickled in, forming an ever-growing stack of steaming bamboo baskets, they were readily demolished in-turn, and simulaneously, leaving almost nothing behind. Each of us tailored our tasty morsels to our personal preference, with combinations of chili oil, soy sauce, and a vinegar with a distinctly cocoa-adjacent flavor profile. Each was fan-freaking-tastic!

From the get-go, both host and servers (we had two, as our first server's shift ended mid-meal) were gracious, informative and helpful, guiding us through all the nuances of our experience here (we played dumb and let them do their thing), and were each friendly, personable, and attentive. No complaints whatsoever!

If you've never had them before, this is the place where you want to pop your soup-dumpling cherry...you know, to let out the steam and let it cool off before scarfing it down. And for old pros like my wife and I, you know we are always DTF*.

*Din Tai Fung. Get your head out...