Keith Miller for The Telegraph: “Everything looked spookily like its ­picture in the menu”

Keith Miller for The Telegraph: “Everything looked spookily like its ­picture in the menu”

Din Tai Fung arrived in London at the end of last year, amid levels of hype seldom seen even in this most hyperbolic of ­industries. To be honest, the hype put us off a little.

Their origin story – cooking-oil ­retailer in Taipei falls on hard times, wife starts selling dumplings out of a hole in the wall as a sideline, global superbrandhood and Michelin ­stardom, subsequently recalibrated to Bib Gourmand-dom after rigid cost parameters were introduced, ensues – may have been unimpeachably cute, but there was something a little too well-oiled about the machinery (their website is more expensive-looking than a James Cameron movie).

Then some friends went, and ­returned, saucer-eyed with delight, gibbering excitedly at the sheer wonderfulness of it all. Leave was cancelled. Space was cleared in the diary. After a light breakfast, we went for lunch last week. And yes – it was, largely, ­wonderful.

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