Address: 290 Orchard Road, Paragon #B1-03/06, Singapore 238859
Tel: +65 68368336

Lest you scoff at a review on this rather ubiquitous restaurant, please note that in 1993, it was named by New York Times as one of the Top 10 International Restaurants. Top 10 ok…no joke. That will put it on par with those chi chi, high class, snobby places, with super pretentious names like Le something somthing, Tetsuya, Kanina…blah blah blah.

Not sure whether the editor of the Top 10 list knows anything about Chinese food but it is truely amazing to have this Taiwan chain included. Maybe the editor is a chino-phile (loves all things Chinese) and had an orgasmic experience tasting for the first time the steam dumplings…or the Din Tai Fungs back in 1993 was very much different.

My friends had agreed to meet up for dinner and we happened to choose Din Tai Fung at Paragon. Wiping my pre-conceptions away, I entered the restaurant with a clean tasting slate. I was on a mission to investigate the legend of Din Tai Fung.

We were seated in the private dinning room…quite spiffy..maybe the management knew I was a budding food critic (heh..heh). I wanted to take the seat next to Sky and was rewarded with a evil stare….apparently the dinner was to introduce his new girlfriend…say so earlier mah…

Sky is from Taiwan…here he is doing some product placement with the Taiwan Beer (S$6). I shared a hostel room with him for 1/2 a year in university. Those were interesting times indeed…filled with carefree, happy memories and the occasional (not so happy) sights of Sky’s butt cheeks when he changes without warning in our room.

We had ordered an assortment of dishes to accompany our individual portions of noodles or rice as main dishes.

The signature dish would of course be the Steam Dumplings (小笼包, S$8.50 for 10 or S$5.80 for 6). They have a gang of people working on just making the dumplings. I wonder how much they are paid just to make little morsels of meat wrapped in dough. Is there any job satisfaction? Would they have bad days and make sub-standard dumplings? Are their hands clean (I am sure they are…I think..unless it is their last day there…)?

The Steam Dumplings are individual packets of pork fillings infused with a clear liquid of stock from the steaming process. They were literally little elegant bags of soup. The proper way to eat them is to ladle a Dumpling onto your spoon, add lots of ginger and vinegar and pop the whole package into your mouth. Bask in the contentment as the soup and meat mixture explodes and overwhelms your taste buds. The dumplings are good. Not sure about Top 10 International good…but they are top of the range in Singapore.

The Shrimp Dumpling (虾肉蒸饺, 10 for S$9.50) was a variation of the signature dumpling, only this time instead of pork…you would have Prawns.

I enjoyed the Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣汤, S$4), extra small. Thick with quite a lot of ingredients, there was a correct balance of …err…hot and sour.

The Fried Wanton (炸虾馄饨, S$6.50）were normal while the Kailan vegetables (S$ 10) were termed as three flavoured. I guess the three flavours were..healthy…bland…and green.

As my main course of carbohydrates, I chose the Braised Beef with Beef Tendons Noodle Soup (红烧牛面, S$10). The essence of the beef was quite strong. I would not recommend it to people adverse to strong tasting stuff. It was passable for me…did like the chewy and fatty portions of the beef tendons.

The rest of the dudes had:

Beancurd with Noodles (油豆腐粉, S$7).

Noodles with Pork Ribs (S$8).

Fried Rice with Pork Ribs (S$8.50).

We ended the dinner with another batch of Dumplings - with fillings of Sweet Yam (芋泥小笼包, S$5.50 for 6). They tasted like Orh Nee, a Teochew dessert.

It was good seeing Sky and his girlfriend. And also the rest of the gang. Stay cool and funky always, dudes.