My wife and I are big fans of Din Tai Fung having dined at a number of their locations. The quality of the food and the courteous service never fails to please us. On Saturday we decided it was time to visit this location for the first time . . in fact it was our first visit to this shopping mall. We tried to reserve a table online early in morning but they were totally booked out. We figured that we would arrive early . . way before we were hungry, put our name down for a table and then browse around the mall for a while. However when my wife put our name down with the hostess at midday we were told an hour and a half to 2 hour wait. So we had a good browse around some of the upscale retail stores and headed back here at 1.30pm.
I enquired at the hostess desk how things were coming along with our table. The male host replied that we were within the predicted time frame but it could be another 20 minutes. VERY BUSY ! It was very obvious to us that this was an extremely popular restaurant with a never ending line waiting to get in. I went inside to get a glass of water for my wife. A young polite server named Bane ( the good Bane we joked ) offered me a cup of water to go . . would you like ice too . . how about 2 cups to go ? GREAT SERVICE ! Bane returned with 2 large plastic cups of iced water with lids plus straws. I went and joined my wife on a bench close by who was very pleased with her iced water.
BINGO ! Within a couple of minutes my wife received a text that our table was ready. When we approached the hostess she told us to wait at the wall opposite the main entrance. WHOO HOO ! Within a very short time another hostess greeted us and took us to our table towards the rear of the restaurant. A tall male server named Khua came by soon after to help us. My wife asked for some Jasmine Tea and I asked about a Mango Smoothie ( loved them ) . . no more Mango Smoothies I was told. BUGGER ! I guess it had been a couple of years since our last Din Tai Fung visit. We asked for printed menus so we could choose our lunch order.
When Khua returned we ordered our lunch items. I started off with 1 x Spicy Wontons ( Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork ) and 1 x String Beans with Garlic. My wife chose 1 x Steamed Dumplings ( Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork ) and 1 x Pot Stickers ( Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork ). We wanted to try some new things but weren’t quite sure what to get. We asked Khua about a few items on the menu and he offered his opinion which helped us decide. So we added 1 x Noodles with Sesame Sauce and 1 x Shanghai Rice Cakes ( Shrimp ) based on Khua’s advice. Our very first lunch item . . Spicy Wontons hit the table at 2.05pm and by 2.24pm we had everything in front of us courtesy of various food runners.
IT’S ALL GOOD ! Of course everything tasted spectacular . . maybe even better than usual. Great service always improves the taste of any meal in our vast experience world wide. Our super talented server Khua had set his standard of service in the stratosphere. The new items . . Shanghai Rice Cakes with Shrimp and the Noodles with Sesame Sauce were probably our favs . . thanks to Khua. We tried but we couldn’t quite get through everything and Khua kindly boxed our leftovers ever so neatly. THERE’S MORE ! And then Khua offered his expert advice on how to reheat each different item. Did we enjoy our lunch experience here ? We told Khua it was the best ever at any Din Tai Fung. EXPECT THE VERY BEST HERE !
