Din Tai Fung — Restaurant in Torrance

Wow, after going to another location in Las Vegas that blew me away, I had to come to another location in the original state to see how it was. Easy to say that I was blown away.

A huge glass window outside the restaurant gives a great view of chefs preparing dumplings and xiao long baos.

The menu is a sheet where you can mark off what dishes you want. These dishes are brought out as they are ready, which leads to a nice experience of having a steady stream of new foods at different times.

The menu is pictured below. I’ll go through the dishes I had.

String beans with garlic. This is the one veggie dish I highly recommend getting. If you love garlic, this dish will delight your tastebuds with crunch, sautéed beans in a ton of garlic.

Vegan baos. These buns are about the size of your palm. They’re stuffed with spinach and mushrooms, but the real star is the bun itself, a delicious, soft, pillowy bread.

Chicken jidori bao. These are similar to the vegan buns but a chicken “meatball” is inside! Very flavorful.

Wontons in spicy sauce. This is it. This is the best dish I had. The wontons are soft, packed with meat and flavor, and in an amazing sweet and spicy sauce. This is the one to get!!

Shrimp and pork Xiao long bao. These soup dumplings have a lot of soup and so much flavor as well. I highly recommend getting these! They go great with the sauces on the side.

Dumplings. These are pretty good and the best bang for buck (most food for price).

Noodles in sesame sauce. The noodles are fresh, bouncy, and in a simple, sesame sauce, topped with green onions and crushed peanuts. It’s very nice to break up all the dumpling and baos with a simple noodle dish.

Overall, I loved the restaurant and would come here again in a heartbeat! Amazing experience with great service and even...

My favorite DTF location, been coming here since they first opened. Located on the 2nd floor of Del Amo mall. Definitely make a reservation as it can get pretty busy and long waits at times, but I usually try to do a week in advance and there’s no problems getting seated right away after check in. Nice location, same vibes as other DTF locations, maybe a little small but that’s understandable with the location in the mall.

I will say over the years, while the food remains consistently delicious, the portions have gotten smaller while prices increase. It makes DTF less of an everyday eat. The value just isn’t what it used to be.

Now to the food

Soy noodle salad or cucumber salad are perfect options to start. Both are light and refreshing.

Pork XLB - they’re a must try and we always order when we visit. Juicy and flavorful. Don’t bother trying the other XLB options, they don’t compare to the OG pork

Shrimp and Pork spicy wontons - this I always order as well. Probably my favorite dish there. Not too spicy and plenty of flavor

String beans w/garlic - All their veggies are pretty much the same just what veggie you prefer. Love crunch and flavor of the string beans

Specialty pot stickers - pass for me. While the flavors are good, I wish they were crispier

Minced pork noodles - it’s really sweet. At some point the recipe changed and it became more sweet than savory.

Pork chop fried rice - they’re very inconsistent. Sometimes it’s flavorful, sometimes it’s very bland. This time it was bland. Pork chop is seasoned and fried well m

Shanghai rice cakes - Another dish we enjoy but again inconsistent on flavor

One of the better DTF...

Okay, here’s the thing. The place is fantastic. The food is great. The service is impeccable, however the prices are not; the portions are not; the location is not. I get that you’re paying Los Angeles area prices, but if you ask me, the food is nothing special to merit higher end prices. It’s delicious, don’t get me wrong, there is nothing I would change about this place, but I can name you, off the top of my head, five other restaurants that will offer you the same quality food, sometimes with bigger portions, for less the price. I gave this place 5 stars all around because it’s a restaurant you will NOT REGRET in any regard- food, service, atmosphere. Sometimes a place will lack in the service department which can be a turn-off but not Din Tai Fung. The staff is extraordinary and the food is delicious. We ordered the baby ribs, wontons, spicy noodles, xiao long bao, vegan dumplings, chocolate buns, the lemonade and the milk tea- I am a milk tea connoisseur and it was probably one of the best milk teas I’ve had. It’s a perfect taste of milk and tea, like the ratio is perfection. Din Tai Fung is worth the hype… but I will say I’ll be supporting the smaller, mom and pop restaurants. However, I really did enjoy my experience here and I’m happy that I was able to try it out. It’s a real treat! I think that’s what this place’s purpose is- to serve you great food and a fantastic dining...