Din Tai Fung

Its' no secret that with their no frill vibes, cheap but delicious eats and BYO policies, dumpling houses are one of my favourite things about the Melbourne food scene, so it may come as a surprise that I only recently tried Din Tai Fung's famous rainbow dumplings.

Allegedly naturally coloured without artificial food dyes (and I emphasise the word allegedly), Din Tai Fung's "Dumpling Gems" are made up of a Salad Green, Golden Corn, Seafood, Bolognese, Cheese, BBQ and Garlic Pork dumpling.

 

Whilst dumplings and cheese by themselves are up there with some of my favourite food - I thought the two would marry together about as well as a banana and cheese burrito (which unfortunately is a thing!), but the cheese dumping was actually the tastiest dumpling of the lot. The Golden Corn dumpling was also delicious. But novelty aside, once is probably enough for me to try these "Gem" dumplings, as they didn't quite hit the mark like the likes of a classic pan fried pork dumpling, or Din Tai Fung's Xiao Long Bao (pictured below).

 

 

When I heard that Din Tai Fung was located at the Emporium, I was expecting to pull up a chair at a food court - but to my delight, Din Tai Fung is its own self contained restaurant, which even has a separate entrance to Emporium if you don't want to be tempted by the shops on your way.

With its decent food and reasonable price tag, the novelty factor alone of the Gem dumplings means that this place is worth a try.
 

Food: 3/5

Decor: 3/5
Service: 3/5
Total: 9/15
Verdict: Like - Get around to trying it at some point.