Dumpling mania Restaurant in Torrance
Bao noodles and green beans at Din Tai Fung, which specializes in dumplings and noodles but serves several excellent vegetable dishes.
As you stroll past trendy clothing stores on the upper floor of the Del Amo Mall, you find yourself looking at an unlikely scene: a glass wall separates you from an undecorated white room that looks like it might be an operating theater. Inside a group of people wearing spotless white uniforms and face masks are bent over tables, their hands constantly moving as they focus intently. Has Torrance Memorial alleviated a space shortage by moving into the mall? Will the patient survive?
In fact, the people behind the glass are hand-rolling dumplings that will be steamed, boiled, or fried and served to patrons at Din Tai Fung, the South Bay’s newest and most popular Chinese restaurant. How popular? A recent expansion that raised the available seating to 150 has reduced typical wait times from two hours down to fifteen minutes. Since they take your phone number so they can text you when a table is ready you are free to peruse nearby shops, but most people spend at least a while watching the noodle rollers. It’s oddly mesmerizing as well as stimulating to the appetite.
The noodle makers at Din Tai Fung. Photos
Once you are summoned by that text message, you are shown to a table and given a menu and an ordering sheet to fill out and give to your server. The menu has pictures but no prices, the order sheet prices but no descriptions, and it’s a fairly straightforward ordering process.
As the show in the front window suggests, the specialty here is noodles and dumplings, and one or the other is in about eighty percent of the items served here. The rest are vegetable dishes, soups, fried rice, and desserts that are mostly based on sweet buns filled with red bean paste. If you want things to come in any particular order you’ll have to order those first and add to the order later, because everything comes out of the kitchen the moment it’s ready.
You’ll order noodles or dumplings, but do get some of those vegetable items. I have tried stir-fried green beans with garlic (well-made but standard) and two more unusual items, Taiwanese fried cabbage and wood ear mushrooms in vinegar. The lightly fried cabbage is very simple and is just what it sounds like, the vegetable tossed with sliced garlic in lightly seasoned oil. It has a slightly smoky flavor and balances the soft dumplings and noodles. As for the mushrooms, I usually see these as a component of soups and stir-fries where they are prized for their texture as much as their delicate flavor. Like seaweed salad they have a moist crunch that is pleasant, and the vinegar with just a wisp of chili adds a little extra interest. By themselves they’re not particularly impressive, but like the cabbage they’re a good companion to rich sauces and broths.
A prime example of this was the chicken soup with pork-vegetable dumplings, which featured mild wontons in an excellent broth. The flavors are simple and straightforward, with just a little garlic and chopped green onion to modify the fresh, luscious broth. When the umami is hitting overload just pop a vinegared mushroom in your mouth and it’s like hitting reset.
If you enjoy peppery flavors then the must-have item is wontons in spicy sauce. The wontons are steamed, put in a bowl of garlic and chili oil, and topped with chopped green onion, and as good as they were in soup this is even better. I highly recommend getting a steamed dumpling dish because this is the way to appreciate the crepe-like softness of freshly made dough. You can tell that there’s a difference in soup, but this puts it front and center.
That difference was also apparent in the pork fried noodles with spinach and onion, and it manifests as a slight springiness in the thicker noodles used here. You really can tell the difference between these and noodles made even a few hours earlier, because they lose that texture very quickly as they oxidize.
The item that Din Tai Fung is most famous for, and that they popularized in the USA, is the Xiaolongbao or soup noodle. These are not noodles in soup, but an order of dumplings consisting of thin dough rolled around gelatinized chilled soup. When they are heated the soup liquefies, and a diner is treated to a bite-size explosion of flavor. Your first one is an amazing experience as your senses try to figure out what happened to that thing in your mouth that started out dry and turned warm and wet. Whatever you do, do not try to take a bite of it because half will end up in your mouth, half on your shirt.
Some Chinese like to bite off just the top of the dumpling and pour in a little vinegar, but you can get the same effect by putting it in your soup spoon and adding some vinegar and perhaps a few shreds of ginger that are provided. Either way, it’s a delightful experience.
To accompany your meal they offer a variety of teas, soft drinks, smoothies, and a decent selection of beers and wines. They have a full bar and we tried two cocktails, a “Black Dragon” made with cognac, Oolong tea syrup, and vermouth and a “Golden Emperor” of bourbon, ginger puree, and blood orange liqueur. Both were enjoyable novelties but not a great pairing with the cuisine, and I’d stick with wine or beer.
Din Tai Fung is an outgrowth of a little cooking oil shop in Taiwan that now is operating in ten countries, a global game changer that has elevated street snacks to prominence. The food is simple and superb, and worth it even though it’s a bit more expensive than their competitors. You’re paying for the experience of freshly made food, and they throw in a show in the front window for free.
Din Tai Fung is at 21540 Hawthorne Blvd. #519 in the Del Amo Mall. Open 11 a.m – 9 p.m. No-Thu, 11 a.m. 9:30 p.m., Fr, 10 a.m. – 9:30 p.m. Sa, 10 a.m. 9 p.m. Su. Parking lot, full bar, wheelchair access good, some vegetarian items. No reservations accepted, partial menu at dintaifungusa.com. Phone 310-214-1175. ER