Dishin': Din Tai Fung Brings Its Dumplings to Seattle

This Seattlest broke the news two weeks ago at the Gastrolust site, but new details have emerged: Din Tai Fung is targeting September or October to open its second restaurant in the States. This beloved dumpling house, based in Taiwan, will dole out dumplings and more on the second floor of Lincoln Square in Bellevue.

Will Seattleites make the trek across the water for the chance to finally eat high quality xiao long bao (soup dumplings)? And will the dumplings be as good as they are in Taipei? There's sure to be an early uproar, as people on food message boards have bemoaned the lack of good xiao long bao in the area. (Shanghai Garden serves them, but they leak and lack porky goodness.) We've sampled many xiao long bao, and based on our experience in Taipei, would say that Din Tai Fung's wrappers are the most delicate. But while Din Tai Fung rates right near the top, we give a slight edge for overall quality to Jin Din Rou, and for overall taste to Joe's Shanghai for their crab and pork-filled dumplings. Interestingly, all three restaurants, perhaps three of the best in the world for xiao long bao, can be found in Tokyo. It's quite a score to get Din Tai Fung here in Seattle. Well, Bellevue.

While we expect that the dumplings will set us back more dough in pretty Lincoln Square than in more gritty Taipei, eating locally will be cheaper than trekking up to Richmond (B.C.), where there are some good xiao long bao options. And it will save us the hassle of making our own (pictured here), rolling out dough to do wrappers, using pig skin to gelatinize the soup inside, and coming up with a tasty pork belly filling in a thicker ("rustic," as chefs say) wrapper. Though those are dumplings made with love, enough to have held over dumpling lovers like us who've waited a long time for the likes of Din Tai Fung to arrive.