Overrated Din Tai Fung

There are many restaurants that I’d have expected to have visited a long time ago, yet somehow have not. Din Tai Fung is one such place. So, two days ago, I made my first visit to the much famed Din Tai Fung, rated by the New York Times as among the top 10 restaurants in the world (albeit that was in 1993). I went to the outlet at Paragon.

The restaurant was quite nicely setup. Service was above average. Unfortunately, the food was quite overrated in my opinion. We ordered a few simple dishes (we were there just for afternoon tea…): Xiao Long Bao, Sze Chuan Hot & Sour Soup, and some kind of Wan Ton dumpling dish. The Xiao Long Bao’s skin was a little tough. The meat and gravy wasn’t very good either. The Hot & Sour soup was neither hot nor sour, and it wasn’t salty enough too. Finally the Wan Ton thingy, while it had enough chilli in it, wasn’t very tasty either.

I wonder if, perhaps, in-between lunch and dinner an apprentice chef takes over the kitchen?