Din Tai Fung Centre Point
Taiwanese restaurant · St Giles ·
Authentic Taiwanese dumplings, noodles, fried rice and buns
Authentic Taiwanese dumplings, noodles, fried rice and buns
"Opened on Saturday 1 October after a five-year delay from its original announcement, this Centre Point restaurant is the chain’s third London site and replaces the short-lived retro restaurant Vivi. Originally intended to be the brand’s first UK location, redevelopment work meant the Henrietta Street Covent Garden site opened in 2018 and an in-store Selfridges venue followed. The 218-seat space features an open kitchen and serves the famous xiaolongbao—each undergoing a 40-minute hand-preparation process—alongside Huaiyang dishes, cocktails and signature items such as a salted egg yolk custard lava bun. To help address London’s staffing challenges, the venue will use robots to deliver food to guests, though it’s not yet clear whether they fully replace front-of-house staff. The chain sells over 100 million xiaolongbao annually worldwide." - Eater Staff
"After years of planning and changing sites, a famed xiao long bao restaurant is opening a 16,000-square-foot flagship at Centre Point (near Tottenham Court Road station), taking over the cavernous former Vivi space and scheduled to launch on 22 September 2022 during Centre Point’s 60th anniversary. The sprawling site — once set up for roughly 290 covers — will accommodate the open dumpling-preparation area that is a hallmark of its Henrietta Street outpost, where meticulously pleated xiao long bao are produced. Its London popularity, exemplified by four-to-five hour queues outside the Covent Garden restaurant in late 2018 and a later concession at Selfridges, stems from its translucent, broth-brimming dumplings and the way the food has felt simultaneously new and like a taste of home for many locals. The new flagship, aided by the buzz from the Arcade Food Hall below, aims to capitalize on that reputation and hit the ground running." - James Hansen
"A Taiwanese restaurant group with over 160 outlets worldwide and famed for its xiaolongbao (pork soup dumplings) and Huaiyang cuisine is set to open a second London site in the redeveloped Centre Point, taking over the large 290-cover space vacated by a short-lived retro restaurant. The opening follows extensive publicity around the brand's London debut, and the new central location is expected to draw significant crowds despite mixed critical response to the earlier outlet." - Adam Coghlan
"A newly opened restaurant in Centre Point serving British cuisine crafted to 'evoke a sense of nostalgia'; it has drawn celebrity diners but is described as not yet having impressed critics." - Guy Pewsey
"The renowned Taiwanese dim sum specialists are opening a second London branch at the redeveloped Centre Point on Tottenham Court Road, bringing their celebrated xiao long bao (steamed soup pork dumplings) — already a hit in the city — to the multi-use Centre Point development." - Adam Coghlan