Ding Tai Fung - 鼎泰豐 (Taiwan)

Ding Tai Fung - 鼎泰豐

Address: Taipei 101, 10, Taiwan, Taipei City, Xinyi District, City Hall Rd, 45號台北101購物中心
Phone:  +886 2 8101 7799

When in Taiwan, i would be remiss to not at least give Ding Tai Fung a try. After all, this restaurant is now pretty globalized and widely accepted by many countries. The question is whether the actual restaurant in Taiwan would taste the same or better then the franchises elsewhere in the world?

This Taipei 101 outlet is the most frequently visited outlet by tourists because its located centrally and next to one of their more interesting architectural attractions. The Taipei 101 tower is a tall obelisk towering over the city and was once the tallest building in the world. What is extremely interesting about it is how this building can even exist in earthquake prone Taiwan. You'll need to visit and check it out yourself or i can write about it in future posts if you prefer.

Majority of the outlet feels pretty much the same as the outlets in Singapore. The decor, the open kitchen and the staff uniforms are quite similar. Coming here almost made me question if i'd left Singapore at all until the service convinced me i was in another country. Service in Taiwan has always impressed me and thats not to say the outlets in Singapore have bad service, its just that service in Taiwan just feels like they have more heart.

Fragrant, finely coated fried rice with prawns.

Pork chop is more generous in size and girth then Singapore outlet.

I won't be going into all the details about each dish but put simply, the quality is on par or slightly better then Singapore. The meat tastes sweeter for the xiao long bao (not shown here), the rice is more evenly coated and the noodles tasted more springy. It might be the "holiday effect" where everything tastes, looks and feels better but at the very least, i can say Singapore's version is pretty spot on when compared.

The difference is that the Taiwan outlet is cheaper then Singapore and that also played a part in making everything better. Same quality food for cheaper, how can it be worse? 

Verdict: If you're traveling to Taiwan and from Singapore, you can give this a miss because what you get back home is pretty close. Otherwise, giving this place a try is definitely a must.