Din Tai Fung is a table-service restaurant in Disneyland Resort’s entertainment district. This international chain is part of the Downtown Disney makeover and adds some real diversity to culinary options there. With 170 locations around the world specializing in soup dumplings and noodles, the restaurant has a strong reputation before ever coming to Disneyland. This new addition is a standalone and beautiful building though, as opposed to most Din Tai Fungs. In this post, we’ll review the restaurant’s cuisine, atmosphere and value.

Very few international restaurant chains have the reputation that Din Tai Fung has. Starting in Taiwan all the way back in the 1920’s, the restaurant has continued to grow for nearly a century. Even with that growth, the craftsmanship and quality is still there. Din Tai Fung has earned a Michelin Star and dozens, if not hundreds, of other accolades.

While I’ll always advocate for unique and original places coming to the Disney theme parks and entertainment areas, it’s hard to argue against the inclusion of Din Tai Fung in a redone Downtown Disney. This isn’t exactly Olive Garden being thrown in, no shade at the breadsticks. Despite expanding, Din Tai Fung still feels somewhat exclusive and the quality of the food and atmosphere is winning.

With this opening, along with Paseo, Centrico, Tiendita and the coming Porto’s, the Downtown Disney restaurant lineup is getting stronger and covering different bases. I’m not breaking new ground in saying that Southern California is home to incredible food. Having Downtown Disney be a catch-all for many different types of food is a smart way to go. There’s a variety of Mexican food spots now, a brewery and now an excellent Asian restaurant. It’s definitely not the peak of LA dining but the quality and variation has seen a significant upgrade.

Along with improving the food, Din Tai Fung helps the aesthetic in Downtown Disney. In fact, I’d say it’s easily the most interesting and beautiful building there. My biggest critique with the new look entertainment area is how uniform the colors and architecture have become. There’s a lack of character because of that. Din Tai Fung breaks from that uniformity with a gorgeous inverted roof, that invokes a pagoda. From both inside and out, the lines are very clean and precise. It’s a nice bit of modern Asian architecture to add variation to the outdoor shopping mall Downtown Disney can feel like.

Inside of the restaurant, lanterns are hung all over and natural light from the floor-to-ceiling windows pours in. The tables are fairly close together. I’d guess that the restaurant’s capacity is pretty high thanks to that and there being two large rooms on both sides of the entrance.

In sticking with the other new additions in Downtown Disney, Din Tai Fung isn’t transportive or overly immersive. Instead, it’s sleek and modern. The atmospheric goal is to be a really nice place to eat. That’s certainly not novel but the restaurant succeeds in being a modern, slightly upscale spot. There are a few cool features though!

As with most (maybe all?) Din Tai Fungs, there is a spot to view chefs crafting the baos and dumplings. This isn’t really a spot to gather around or to sit by while you eat but it is fun to view in passing or watch for a minute or two!

The bar was my favorite feature in the restaurant. With it being more open, the flooring pattern really came through and naturally led your eyes to the cool lighting above the bar. Along with the restaurants, the bar game at Downtown Disney has taken a massive step up in the last few months! I’m not sure about the food availability at the bar but this might be the easiest way to enjoy the restaurant if you don’t have a reservation.

Speaking of, getting a reservation is highly recommended. We came at an off time on a weekday (with a reservation) and heard people asking about the walk-up list. The wait was over an hour and the hostess said that they usually cap the list by 6 each night. It’s best to just grab a reservation if you can. Here’s a link to do just that!

Moving on to the food, this is the menu! Din Tai Fung is best as a family style restaurant. Our waiter advised to get two dishes per person. That seemed about right but may have been on the higher end, three dishes for two people would probably suffice.

There are a number of drinks on the menu. I especially liked the Sea Salt Cream Topped Black Tea. While it bordered on overly sweet, the cream was delicious mixed in with the cold tea. It’s a great treat for a hot day.

In the name of research, we ordered way too much food. It was no fun at all! I’ll start with my favorites, although they were all good. Above is the Crab & Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao! This is one of Din Tai Fung’s specialties and for good reason. Most of the time when something is crab filled it seems like the proportion of crab to filling is quite low. Not here though! I could taste plenty of crab meat and the texture inside of the bao was perfect, not soggy at all. If you like crab then I highly recommend these! They were around $20.

The Cod Dumplings were another winner. They were juicy and had a more subtle flavor, although the fish did come through and tasted great. These were fairly unique and the dumplings were eloquently crafted. The price was around $20 for 10 of them and I’d happily get them again, even if I liked the crab option more.

These are the Sticky Rice Shao Mai with Kurobuta Pork & Mushroom. The filling is wrapped in wonton, with a slightly different texture than the Cod Dumplings. I liked these, as well. The mushroom flavor was the main one to come through and the difference in dough was interesting. Of the four savory dishes we ordered, these were probably my least favorite but I still enjoyed them.

Moving away from the dumplings, this is the Pork Chop Fried Rice. The pork is finely sliced and absolutely delicious, with a slightly crunch texture and almost ending up with a bit of sausage flavor to them. As for the fried rice, this had a richer egg flavor than most others and was fantastic. The freshness of the dish was evident. This and the Xiao Long Bao were my favorite things we ordered.

Finally, we ended with the Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao. Like the rest of them, these were expertly crafted. After the first one I thought the flavor got a little rich. Admittedly, I don’t love chocolate as much as others so your mileage may vary here. More than anything, I just didn’t think these were worth the price as it was $13 for the 5 bao. But this could be a fun one to share with a group!

The quality was apparent through every dish we had, even on the ones we didn’t love. Unsurprisingly, you pay for that quality. Din Tai Fung is one of the most expensive restaurants at Disneyland Resort. I don’t think that necessarily makes it a bad value as the food is good enough to warrant the price. But there may be some sticker shock if you’re trying to keep your meals on the cheaper side.

Overall, we came away very impressed by Din Tai Fung. Downtown Disney sorely needed a really good Asian food spot and this certainly covers that. The building is beautiful and, while I wouldn’t call it a fancy experience, the restaurant provides an upscale but casual spot. While I might prefer a couple of other Disneyland Resort restaurants, Din Tai Fung offers some of the best food you can find there.

Have you tried Din Tai Fung? Let us know your thoughts, along with any questions you have, in the comments below! Planning a trip to Disneyland? Check out our Planning Guide here. Looking for discount tickets? Check out this site! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!