Din Tai Fung Arcadia - Review - Arcadia - Los Angeles - The Infatuation

"Westfield Santa Anita is home to the usual mall suspects like Cheesecake Factory and Auntie Anne’s, as well as heavy-hitting Asian chains like Hai Di Lao, Meizhou Dongpo, and Ramen Nagi. Still, our favorite of them all is Din Tai Fung. This flagship location has a big banquet-style dining room and a giant lantern chandelier that looks airlifted from a Vegas nightclub (expect more kids in booster seats here). Just like other DTFs, the soup dumplings and other Taiwanese staples arrive fast and piping hot, and the whole operation is built for efficiency. Wait time estimates tend to be shorter than you’re told, so put your name down, wander around the mall, and come back when the table alert pings. Time flies when you’re trying on a few things at H&M anyway. Food Rundown Drinks Din Tai Fung sure knows how to do fruity drinks. The yuzu margarita and pear lychee martini go down like juice (in the best way), and the tea menu is customizable: milk tea, jasmine green tea, black tea, or lemon tea that you can add boba or sea salt cream to. The mango green tea is our favorite and tastes like someone blended an actual fruit into it, even though it’s just flavoring. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Cucumber Salad If for some reason you’re not sold on cucumbers, the vegetable famous for tasting like crunchy water, this will change your opinion. Here they’re cold, punchy, and well-seasoned with chili and sesame oil. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Seaweed & Beancurd Salad Proof that great salads don’t need any leafy greens. This slippery, vinegary tangle of bean curd, seaweed, and glass noodles is refreshing between mouthfuls of dumplings. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao The Beyoncé of the menu and an elite version of XLB with slightly translucent wrappers that are still sturdy enough to hold the soupy filling. These come out at the ideal temperature—steamy but not lawsuit-hot—so don’t wait long before nibbling the wrapper, slurping up the innards, and then dipping the whole thing into vinegar-ginger sauce to eat in one glorious gulp. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Spicy Wontons Another mandatory order. These slippery little blobs are lounging in chili oil, so give them a good mix so they’re evenly coated, and then hoard the leftover oil to spoon over the fried rice. photo credit: Jessie Clapp String Beans with Garlic DTF’s garlicky green beans arrive glistening and blistered like they barely escaped the wok. You’ll keep reaching for more without even realizing that you’ve officially gotten your serving of vegetables for the day. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Noodles with Sesame Sauce These look deceptively plain, but they’re our favorite noodles here—smothered in the sticky sesame sauce that clings to each strand. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Pork Chop Fried Rice Very eggy, not-too-oily fried rice that’s topped with a slab of pork chop. The pork doesn’t have much crunch, but it’s a solid choice for a filling and carb-y dish to round out the spread. photo credit: Jessie Clapp Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao Whichever DTF exec looked at the soup dumpling and thought “let’s fill these with molten brownie batter,” we salute you. Be sure to drag these through the sea salt whipped cream to complete the salty-sweet equation. photo credit: Jessie Clapp" - Cathy Park