What: The latest London restaurant from global Taiwanese restaurant group Din Tai Fung. Moments from the Elizabeth Line station, Din Tai Fung Canary Wharf is located in the space that was once home to Indian restaurant Chai-Ki and trades alongside a number of other high-profile Asian restaurant brands including Ippudo and Sticks’n’Sushi. The 112-cover site takes Din Tai Fung up to four London locations.
Who: Din Tai Fung was founded by Bing-Yi Yang in 1958 as a shop selling cooking oil in the Taiwanese capital Taipei. A decade or so later half of the shop was given over to making and serving xiaolongbao. The steamed soup dumplings proved so popular that the site became a fully-fledged restaurant a few years later and the rest, as they say, is history. Din Tai Fung now has more than 170 sites worldwide in locations including Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, South Korea and Thailand. The group made its UK debut in 2018 with a restaurant in Covent Garden. Din Tai Fung’s UK business has been established by Singapore’s BreadTalk Group under a franchise agreement. BreadTalk’s man on the ground in the UK is Din Tai Fung UK managing director XueFeng Bai.
The food: In a first for the group in the UK Din Tai Fung’s latest restaurant has launched offering a handful of exclusive dishes including mouthwatering chicken in spicy sauce; and beef fillet with broccoli and oyster sauce. Other than that it’s business as usual with Din Tai Fung’s famed xiaolongbao the headline attraction. Over 100 million are sold worldwide across the group every year and every one is prepared by hand at each site day in, day out. Fillings for xiaolongbao include beef, chicken, mushroom and truffle and the (classic) pork. The rest of the menu is wide-ranging including various other types of dumplings, soups, stir-frys and rice dishes. While the restaurants has is roots in Taiwan, the menu includes a number of classic Chinese dishes including Shanghainese drunken chicken and dan dan noodles.
To drink: The drinks list is expansive and comprises wine, sake, beers, and teas. Cocktails include the Din (Bombay Sapphire gin, lychee juice, jasmine syrup, strawberry purée, lemon juice); and the Fung (Bacardi Spiced rum, calvados, lemon juice, lemongrass and ginger syrup, ginger beer). The group recently teamed up with Andwell’s Brewery in Hampshire to create its own Din Tai Fung Craft Lager.
The vibe: Din Tai Fung seats 96 in the main dining area and a further 16 in a private dining room. The interiors blend traditional Chinese elements with modern design creating a ‘sophisticated yet welcoming atmosphere’. As at all of the group’s sites, the dumpling making operation is the focal point of the space.
And another thing: Din Tai Fung Canary Wharf is small by the brand’s standards. Last summer, the group launched a 25,000sq ft, 450-cover site in New York. The Manhattan restaurant makes around 10,000 dumplings a day.
Unit CR32, 1 Crossrail Place, London E14 5AR
www.dintaifung-uk.com