Back to Din Tai Fung

Five of us went to Din Tai Fung in Torrance yesterday for an early dinner. I was apprehensive since my last trip there with Sandi was such a disappointment. We ordered the Xiao Long Bao among other things and found it to be dry inside. It didn't have the soup! I had to bring it to the attention of the manager then, Kevin because when our young lady server asked how everything was and I told her about the problem, all she said was, "Oh".   A good manager would have been apologetic, offer to replace the order give some kind of a discount. I know what I would have done; I would have apologized profusely and told the customer the next time they were in, the dish would be on me.

Last night our experience was so much better. We started out with a nice young man, Andrew who was to be our server. He asked if we have been there before. I told him about our last experience and he sincerely apologized. We told him, he should have been the manager. We ordered the Xiao Long Bao and Andrew promised us all that it would be very good. The Spicy Shrimp & Pork Wontons had to be ordered and the Pork Chop Fried Rice. We, of course, had to have Chicken Fried Noodles. It was a lot of food since we ordered 3 orders of everything except for the Rice and Noodles (we only had 2 orders of those). In the middle of our feast, there was "changing of the guards", Andrew had to leave so he introduces us to another young man, Jackie. He too was attentive and professional.

When we no longer could eat any more food. Jackie asked if we wanted our dessert in seven minutes or do we want to wait. We opted to wait a bit. I ordered the Dark Chocolate Xiao Long Bao. As always, it was a hit!

It was Amy and Nako's first time there and they did enjoy it. Mertz, Sandi and I were truly delighted that our experience was not a repeat performance of the previous disaster.

Din Tai Fung is located at the Del Amo Mall in Torrance.  There is also one in South Coast Plaza in Orange County and one in Glendale.