Din Tai Fung Opens in NYC on July 18

"Located at 1633 Broadway near W. 50th St., this massive Midtown outpost occupies a 25,000-square-foot dining room with an Apple Store–style glass-cube entrance and seating for about 450, designed by David Rockwell to channel Broadway energy. It is the chain’s first East Coast branch and centers on obsessive consistency: new hires undergo a 12-week training program (most with no prior dumpling experience) that includes light-box testing to ensure the skin is as thin as possible without becoming transparent, and each xiao long bao is made with exactly 18 folds. The soup dumplings are small (about 21 grams), with a surprisingly thin but sturdy skin that holds rich pork (Kurobuta from Iowa farms) or crab broth; the recommended way to eat them is to bite a small hole, slurp some broth, then eat the rest in one bite. The restaurant reproduces the friendly service and precise dim sum experience found across the chain’s global locations while adapting locally (a larger central bar, a black-sesame espresso martini, and selective menu changes when ingredients like mustard greens can’t meet standards). The New York opening (grand opening July 18, 2024) builds on a family history that began with the original 1972 Taipei location and decades of international expansion." - Martin Gelin, Hugo Yu