Ding Tai Feng 鼎泰豐

Ding Tai Feng is an extremely famous award winning restaurant from Taiwan. The restaurant is well known for its xiao long baos and has been named one of the top ten restaurants in the world by the New York Times. Although Ding Tai Feng has various outlets all over the world, I feel that it has been able to maintain is standards which is great because I've seen way too many restaurants's food quality go down due to fame and expansion.

Xiao long bao with crab roe filling
Crab roe is one of my favorite things to eat but sadly it is not always in season. Restaurants tend to always serve it anyways but the most rich and fragrant crab roe is available only during the fall (Oct to Nov). Although we savored this off season, the roe was still delicious :) Will write about the xiao long bao in the next photo.

Success. Did not break. Whew! 

The famous xiao long baos 
These exquisite little buns really do live up to their reputation. The skin, whilst thin, is firm enough to hold all the juicy meaty glory in. Many places have skins that break easily which result in the ultimate xiao long bao fail - all the juices break out. The top of the bun where all the skin is twisted together is not too hard or dried out which is a common mistake. The inside is filled with fresh and well seasoned meat and the juice is delicious and not too oily. My favorite way to eat these is  to wait til they are the perfect temperature and then pop the entire thing in your mouth for the perfect experience. I could eat these all day. 

Dan dan mian
Apart from its famous xiao long baos, the other dishes are Ding Tai Feng are also delicious. The noodles are firm and chewy, the soup is nutty and extremely flavorful. My only complaint is that the serving are way too small! 

Ding Tai Feng (various branches)

11A, 2nd floor 

Building 6

Xin Tian Di South Block

123 Xing Ye Lu

Lu Wan District

Shanghai

China