Din Tai Fung Opens to Breathtaking Waits
Bring a magazine, or a medium-length book, to help while away the hours before your table is ready.
International dumpling chain Din Tai Fung opened in Bellevue over the weekend, easily one of the most hyped restaurant arrivals of the year. In the restaurant's first few days, the waits for lunch and dinner have topped three hours, and rarely dropped to less than two hours.
The reason for this frenzy? Xiao long bao, or soup dumplings. These delicate wrappers encasing pork (or crab or such) and lush, often scalding hot broth are amazing, and tough to find in our part of the world.
As Seattle Magazine food editor Allison Scheff noted on Twitter this morning, the army of dumpling makers must have fought back serious panic attacks watching the hordes of diners waiting and waiting...and waiting through the glass windows.
With the relentless buzz and immediate onslaught of diners, it would be nigh impossible for a restaurant to exceed, or even meet, expectations on opening day. We'll see if the crowds abate in the coming weeks. Food writer-about-town Lorna Yee has an early report on her new blog. She notes that the aforementioned dumpling army isn't quite as speedy or precise as their counterparts at other DTF locations.
Regardless, this Seattlest is ecstatic to have a longtime favorite food so close to home (and to cross an item off our recent "43 things Seattle is missing" list).
