Din Tai Fung Restaurant Review

Din Tai Fun is located inside the Westfield Valley Fair in Santa Clara.

Oh soup dumplings…why must you temp me so. You are so soft, chewy, and delicious and I want you in my life on a daily. Your cute little soup filled, pork filled, wrapped in dough bundles of deliciousness is what foodie dreams are made of. This is what you’re in for at Din Tai Fung at Westfield Valley Fair.

I debated whether to even write a post about this but then thought to myself, hell yes this place deserves its own blog post! It deserves that respect dammit!

Where do I even begin? So first let me start off by saying that it took me months to get a reservation for 4 here and when I finally did it was at 5:15pm on a Tuesday. Weekends at Din Tai Fung are completely booked a month in advance and don’t even try a Sunday afternoon. The crowds are starting to settle down a bit now and you can actually get a table if you make a reservation a few weeks out.

Din Tai Fung is located at the Westfield Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, CA. When we arrived we checked in with the hostess. Don’t get confused when you get there like we did. There are two lines. One for those with reservations and another for those that don’t. The ones that don’t have a reservation basically wait until a seat at the bar opens up. When the restaurant first opened, we actually saw people camped out with their lawn chairs like they were waiting for the new iPhone at the Apple store. It was cray!

So we checked in and the hostess told us to wait in the tiny waiting area by the front. While we waited, we gazed and drooled as the chefs were making magic!

At this point, we were literally salivating and could not wait to be seated. After about 10 minutes of them getting our table ready, we were seated in the dining area and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice and elegant it was inside. It was quite big and very spacious. The bar area was pretty large too so I would imagine it might be worth it to wait for a seat at the bar if you don’t have reservations.

Once we were settled in our seat,  we were given two menus. One that you mark with the items you want to order and one with pictures on it. The menu with pictures on it was so helpful because unless you have dined at Din Tai Fung before, you wouldn’t know what all the items are. Our waiter was very helpful in making suggestions and telling us what the most popular items were. Definitely we wanted Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings) but also wanted to try other dishes as well.

Here is a list of dishes that we ordered and all was meant for sharing:

Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings)
Kimchi & Pork Dumplings
Sticky Rice and Pork Shao Mai
Shrimp Fried Noodles
Shrimp & Pork Wontons with Spicy Sauce
Shrimp & Pork Potstickers

Everything was sooooooo good! But our absolute favorite was the shrimp & pork wontons in spicy sauce! I was afraid it was going to be too spicy for my liking but it was actually not very spicy at all. In fact, I thought it was a mix of sweet and spicy. Anyways, it was AMAZING!!!!! Of course the soup dumplings were also super good and the broth inside the dumpling wasn’t too hot so you’re able to bit into it without burning your mouth.

Our bill came out to around $70 with tip. While it is on the pricier side for dim sum type of food, it was worth the price in my opinion.  The quality of the food was fantastic and you can taste the freshness of the ingredients with every bite. The flavors are just out of this world and the service is impeccable. The staff functions like a well oiled machine. They were all efficient, helpful, polite and quick.

We all devoured the food and savored each bite. Even my 5 year old son kept saying “Mmm this is good!”

In conclusion, yes, we would absolutely go back to Din Tai Fung. In fact, I think i’ll go make reservations now!

Enjoy the images below and I challenge you not to drool.