Din Tai Fung, PARAGON SINGAPORE

Greetings from the "City of Merlion". It's been a while since I updated on the eating scene in Singapore. The same excuse i give all the time, well yes " I have been really busy with work". I applaud to both Ange and Monica for religiously updating their blog.

A couple of weeks ago, when my friends from KL visited me, they wanted to try the Singapore version of Din Tai Fung. I obviously said to them that "We have it in KL, why come all the way to Singapore for it, wouldn't it taste the same, or it should taste the same right?" Well, let this review determine on the quality and the standard of the food it produces. Does it taste the same as in KL? In Taiwan? in Japan? In America? Oh well, at least i can do a reasonable comparison between KL and Sg.

When you mention the name "Din Tai Fung", the first thing we normally associate it with "Xiao Long Bao". This is the exterior of "Din Tai Fung" in Paragon. It pretty much looks the same for most of the outlets I have seen around. There is practically an army of workers workinf on the food. The service and efficiency is definitely a "plus point" for DTF. Everything was very organised and despite the long queue, we were quick to get a seat and our food.

We ordered some side dishes such as the deep fried pork chop, vege and shrimp fried rice.

Stir fried Dou Miu

The vege was nice and green and fresh!!

It was not too salty and the vege had the crisp to it as well.

It was lightly stir fried with garlic.

The shrimp fried rice is nice and tasty as well (not too MSG loaded).

The shrimp was nice and juicy. If it was overcooked it can get tough.

The colour was attractive, and its a nice and light dish to savor.

The deep fried pork chopwas a little tad too oily for my liking. It was tasty but I'd prefer a more crispier and less oily version of this. That being said, its deep fried, its bound to be oily.

Steamed Pork Dumpling "Xiao Long Bao"

This is how the dumpling looks like when you bite into it. Make sure you let it cool down a little bit otherwise risk getting your lips and tongue burnt. Taste wise, it was nice and porky. It has to be eaten with vinegar and ginger slices that they provide. I think it cuts out the fattiness of the pork.

This was the highlight of the lot!

The special braised beef noodle with beef brisket

Flavour wise, it was absolutely delicious. The soup was tasty and not too spicy nor salty. The broth was just satisfying to the palete. We ordered 3 bowls of beef noodles amongst us. The noodle was nice and QQ (as what the chinese will use to describe the texture of the noodle).

Siu Mai " Shrimp Dumpling"

This was OK. Nothing too out of the ordinary nor did it fall below expectation. Its different from the regular siu mai you have for your Dim Sum. Firstly cause it is soupy base and secondly it is taiwanese style. I still prefer the normal siu mai we get. The hong kong version of siu mai.

We also ordered some "paos" . We ordered the pork pau and red bean pau.

Initially we thought it would be the char siu pau style. Little did we know, it is the pork style pau. The same filling the use for anything pork in their menu. It gets a bit too much if you have already ordered pork dumpling. This is what we call the taiwanese style of pork pao. The hong kong style is those that is nice, juicy and sweet base with char siu pork in it. Also, the pao skin was touch and dense. It wasn't light and fluffy. I guess, the denseness its to hold on to the "soupy base" of the filling.

Well, this is just your regular red bean pau which i must add that at least they did not skimp on their filing. It was filled with red bean.


The happy eaters. The boys enjoyed their noodles very much. Apparently it tasted better than the KL one. But everything else, taste just the same.

For dessert, we ordered the Mango Dessert with crushed ice and selaseh seed.
The mango part is almost like mango pudding. Taste wise, mangoey! I know it is not a word, but it is the best way to describe it. Selaseh seed is actually basil seed. It swells up when it is in liquid.

All in all, we enjoyed our dining experience at Din Tai Fung. I dare to say that there is a consistency of the flavour of the food and the experience they deliver both here in Singapore and in Malaysia.

A little mantra that i have in my head that i would love to share with the readers. It is definitely something i try to live by and i hope that you can too.

"nobody really cares if you are miserable, so you might as well be happy"

Namaste and till my next post, be happy and stay healthy. Happiness and health has a very strong co-relation!