Din Tai Fung Restaurant Review

Food Review

Yesterday my mom and I went to Jurong Point for food, and we really wanted to eat at Crystal Jade Restaurant, but it was like under renovation or something, so we had no choice but to change a place.

Since my mom had seen Din Tai Fung several times whilst passing, we thought we could try the food there, since you know, both are sort of like dim sum and Chinese food serving restaurants!

Here is how the Din Tai Fung at Jurong Point looks like, I didn't snap a picture, and the follow picture is taken from source.

Photosource

 The table for two are relatively small and cozy, and I though the way they arranged the ginger on the condiment dishes was really cute! Normally restaurants just  "piak" (randomly slap) some ginger onto the dishes, but here they squeeze them into nice tapered shapes, hehe. ^u^

I didn't exactly like the table because it looked so old, but at the same time I liked the fact that this means that DTF is exo-friendly (I hope) since they don't throw out more worn tables.


Sze Chuan Ma La (Spicy) Soup from Din Tai Fung, Medium, $8.00

Since we really liked the Sze Chuan Ma La soup (Sze Chuan Spicy soup) from Crystal Jade, we happily ordered the same soup here! Woah look at the portion! This is medium sized soup, and compared to Crystal Jade, it is a really large portion, for just $8.00!! A small portion in DTF will cost you only $6.00, which is not too pricey either.

Sze Chuan Ma La (Spicy) Soup from Din Tai Fung, Medium, $8.00

For the soup, it is not as flavorful as I had expected it to be, like maybe a little more watery than expected? However, overall the flavor of tangi-ness and spiciness is still there, and it is really value for money! It also managed to retain the fragrance of the sze chuan spicy soup. I would probably grade it a 8/10!

Kao Fu (Wheat Gluten), $4.80
Braised wheat gluten was relatively decent, and I like the fact that it is so cheap, because com'on very rarely do restaurants have like things under $5.00!! The kaofu (brown pieces) are lukewarm, quite yummy, the bamboo shoots (off-white squares on top) are like not really bamboo-ish tasting but still passable. The black fungus is quite uck and unfresh in my opinion, and the shitake strips are generally no good.

Kao Fu (Wheat Gluten) from Din Tai Fung, $4.80

I have no idea why, but my mom loves it, and even though taste-wise it is not bad, but I was really expecting a lot from DTF since I heard so much about it and people have praised it so much before my mom and myself, so the Kao Fu was actually rather disappointing.

I think the key issue is that the Kaofu taste like it is from canned food rather than you know, the dried "fresh" ones which you have to soak and then cook from scratch. The shitake, the bamboo and the black fungus just all have the same canned food taste, which disappointed me a bit I guess. x( Overall I would give it a 7/10, but my mum argues for a 8/10. Okay, 8/10 it is then, since the price is very pleasing.

Beef Brisket Noodles $12.00

My mom loves beef, so she was like over-excited when she saw the beef noodles, and whoo! She ordered this. Here is what we think of the noodles:

The serving is really really super generous. To the point where there are way too much beef and way too much noodles. That's not a bad thing, I mean it is good, especially for people who have huge appetites (like me, if I had not ate like half the bowl of that yummy spicy soup).

But then the noodles are too plain, in the sense that there is nothing else in the bowl apart from BEEF BEEF BEEF. Yes yes, I know. The photo on the menu showed us there is none. But that's why this beef noodles is not really that appetizing when you see it in real life. It is just a never-ending expanse of beeeeeef! Okay, rant over.

Din Tai Fung Beef Brisket Noodles, $12

If you are a beef-noodles lover, I would recommend you to try out Lai Lai Lai Beef Noodles at Jurong Point, same floor as Din Tai Fung, outside the Cocoa Trees instead. Their beef noodles are spaced with greens, and bursting with so much more flavor. As for these noodles, we give it a 5/10.

Egg fried Rice with Grilled Pork, $10.80

Actually, I quite like this dish. Although yes, I have a lot of complaints about it, overall, I still think it is quite yummy and the pork was tender and very nicely flavored and grilled, all the way to the center. It is really quite fragrant and succulent, but here is the same problem: too much pork. Like my entire fried rice is covered with these giant slabs of pork pork pork and when things exist in great quantity, it has like this de-appetizing effect.

Egg fried Rice with Grilled Pork, $10.80

 Not only so, the fried rice was really really oily, like when we were almost done with the rice, we could see bright yellow, rather copious amount of oil on the plate, and then I didn't finish my rice since the sight wasn't so pleasant.  I didn't finish the pork either, even though my mom helped me eat like 3 slices, I still have 2 more leftover. Too much pork.

However, this set is still delicious, and yes I won't hesitate to order it again because it is really not bad! I am not going to complain about too much food when I can share it with a friend right! So I like this, 9/10!

Haha cute random picture of a chick! Guess where it was found in?

 YES IT IS A XIAO LONG PAO!!!!

Xiao Long Pao

I have no idea why I could NOT flip the pao over to show you how it looks upright, despite me trying so many times. Now I have so many of the same pau in my picture folder, labelled "pau 1" "pau 2", "pau 3" and "pau pau". Gah.

Anyways. Verdict. No good. Not nice. Not enough "juice" or soup in the pao, and I don't like the mixture of veggy-chicken filling either, like the balance just wasn't there! Overall, 4/10, 1 mark unfairly deducted for being a stupid upside-down pau!

Annoyed~~with the pau.

Okay~~~! That's all for Din Tai Fung! Hope you enjoyed reading my post and see you all!