A few weeks ago Mimi and I took a nine-day trip to Taiwan to visit a friend and see the sights. With Gary showing us around it turned out to be an eating frenzy that we wont soon forget.

Shortly after landing and checking into the Park Taipei Hotel near Da-an Station, Mimi and I were on the hunt for our first meal. The friendly clerk at the front desk recommended that we walk a few blocks north to Din Tai Fung, which is a well-known chain of soup dumpling restaurants that originated in Taiwan. With our love of soup dumplings and the restaurants great reputation we decided to give it a shot.

Unfortunately, this is probably one of the cases where the reality didn’t quite live up to the hype. While the service was great and the food was good, there were some little details that made the soup dumplings only average (especially for the price).

Perusing the many choices. Fortunately there menus had english. We had a little seaweed and bean sprout side dish as we waited.

We decided to try the crab and pork xiaolongbao (小籠包). While the filling was tasty, the pinched tips of the dumplings were a little hard and the soup inside just lukewarm.

Aside from the dumplings we ordered a bowl of beef noodle soup. Pretty good considering its not one of the dishes they are known for.

One of the pork dumplings just before being devoured

Cute dumpling and steam basket mascots. We didn’t love the food so we didn’t buy one.