Continuing my tour of U.S. Din Tai Fung locations, on a recent trip to LA I checked out the Santa Monica location.  I have long argued that Din Tai Fung’s Xiao Long Bao are over-rated and Santa Monica reinforced my point of view.  On the plus side the dumplings are consistent across locations and visits and they are rarely over cooked, but I have had more flavorful soup dumplings at plenty of other dumpling spots.  For this outing we got two steamers of pork soup dumplings and a steamer of pork and truffle soup dumplings, which were amazing at the downtown Seattle location.  All three steamers of dumplings suffered from the same issue, the top of the dumplings, where the folds were pinched together, were dry and crunchy.  Our hypothesis was that the dumplings had not been made to order and had been sitting out for a while. As a result, the tops dried out and the steam cooking was not able to refresh this denser part of the dough wrapper. 

The Vegan Spicy Wontons (filled with bean curd, baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, glass noodles, and jicama) and the Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Pot Stickers were both really good and far more enjoyable than the soup dumplings.  The pot stickers were prepared with a golden crispy skirt of fried batter, which I always enjoy. The steamed vegan dumplings had the same filling as the vegan spicy wontons, and were good, but I preferred the wontons. Din Tai Fung has also upped it vegan game in recent years, the Spinach with garlic and String beans with garlic were both great.