Din Tai Fung Covent Garden.

Din Tai Fung Covent Garden

Eighteen pleats to a dumpling, folded by hand and steamed to order, and this Henrietta Street room was the group's first door in Britain.21

Why go

The company is Taiwanese, sixty years old by its own count, and the thing it exports is one technique: a soup dumpling rolled, filled and folded to a fixed count of eighteen, then steamed when you order it.2 Harden's editors recorded this as one of the most hyped openings of its year, and four editions of survey feedback since have settled on the same two findings: the dumplings are the reason to come and the rest of the menu is not.1 Diners who have eaten the brand in Asia are blunt about the money: I lived in Asia for several years and ate at a DTF at least weekly, but here they've jacked the prices up to a level that is taking the p***.1 There are now four London restaurants and this is the original.2

Order this / avoid

• Order: the xiao long bao, soup-filled dumplings hand-made onsite and steamed to order. Harden's diners: you can't go past the xiao long bao.1
• Order: the beef noodle soup and the fried rice, the two other dishes the guide records as much-mentioned.1
• Avoid: filling the table with the rest of the card. All the other dishes are a bit hit and miss.1

What locals & experts say

• Harden's survey diners, most recent edition: Soup dumpling heaven! say fans, who experience the joy of dim sum in all its brilliance. The same entry records that well-travelled sceptics say they're relatively 'expensive for what they are'.1
• Harden's, an earlier edition, with the dissent in full: a well-travelled minority reckon they're 'nothing like the original restaurants in Asia', with prices, by comparison to e.g. Singapore, that are 'off the scale'. But you must go: 'cute robots help clear the plates!'1
• No bylined critic review names this door.

Good to know

• Which door this is. 5 Henrietta Street, the Covent Garden restaurant. The others are at Selfridges, Centre Point and Canary Wharf Crossrail Place.2
• Timing: Harden's records 11am to 10pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 10pm at weekends.1
• Money: wine from 22 pounds a bottle, filter coffee 3.50, service 10 percent.1
• Queues are the standing expectation at every branch, which Harden's flagged before Centre Point had even opened its 250 seats.1

Verdict

could-visit — The dumpling is the whole argument. Din Tai Fung folds its xiao long bao to eighteen pleats by hand and steams them to order, and four editions of Harden's survey feedback say the same thing about them: 'you can't go past the xiao long bao', 'soup dumpling heaven'. The same four editions say the other thing too, which is that the rest of the card is 'a bit hit and miss' and that anybody who has eaten the brand in Asia finds the London pricing hard to take, one diner putting it as 'I was shocked by the pricing of here vs Singapore'. Covent Garden was the first UK door, opened to more noise than any other launch of its year, and it is now one of four in London. Go, eat two baskets of dumplings, order carefully after that.