din tai fung

Unless you live under a rock you may have seen a din tai fung. So you know the atmosphere and interiors are very inviting and warm. The restaurants use warm lighting and a lot of natural wood materials for both the furniture and interior elements.

What may strike you initially is the queue. Many of their branches have multiple row seating (think airport gates) outside to wait your turn. It's also impossible not to notice din tai fung's the service protocol. As you dine, kitchen servers in white bring out orders from the kitchen but stand in the aisles until a fully uniformed table server takes the tray and delivers them to you. This is a two-tier service that is about guest experience for it's orchestrated service choreography and perhaps less about efficiency. Interestingly, royal courts and houses in the west and in Imperial China and Japan practice this.

Steamed dish is served steaming! This effect is achieved with the white moist cloth where the dumplings are laid are soaked in hot water. They are indeed served hot but unfortunately soup-less this time.

All in all, it's good times. Dined here 3-4 times. One was satisfying, others were ok. That could be the one visit I didn't pay ; ).

From Top left, Salted fish fried rice, Pork chop with egg fried rice and Machang noodles in peanut sauce.

The sesame and peanut sauce is very thick but a bit bland relative to say eat fresh.

Milk tea with cheese froth. Well balanced and good for a rare milk tea drinker.

This I like crusty fillet fried chicken with a subtly sweet sauce. Unfortunately, it was very poorly served and presented (3 sides of the plate was full of spill drops and the plate looked half empty). So I just cropped it.

These are melted chocolate filled dumplings that you dip in white cream (that's 2 orders of 3pcs).