I went out to dinner with my sorority little sis AiKo in Gangnam (Line 2/Green Line) last night. It’s always nice to catch up aka bitch/rant/vent/gossip.. cough. We picked Gangnam because they recently re-did the entire floor of the subway and made it into this huge underground shopping center. I’m always down to pick up something for less than $5. 😛
One of her friends had previously recommended a chinese dimsum place nearby and of course, I was down to try anything remotely close to dim sum in this country! Here we go …
Welcome to Din Tai Fung.
Here’s a pic of the menu and the different types of sets that they offered. We chose the Dimsum Set on the upper right corner for 37,000 won. We decided on this one because we wanted to try different types of dumplings instead of ordering one item that were 10 of the same thing. That’s one of the cons at this place, their dishes are all large quantities of the same item — guess this menu suits larger tables.
We sat right in front of the window to the kitchen area. It was fun seeing them churn out dumplings one after another.
The first part of our set included sweet and sour soup as well as cucumber kimchi? Haha. The soup tasted like what it was supposed to, so that was good. Oh, and that’s pieces of ginger in the soysauce. Yum!
Second round was the first group of dumplings (so this would be what it would look like if you ordered it by itself). I think the dumplings were of leeks and some sort of meat? I’m not too sure of what we ate, but it wasn’t too hot when it came out and it as really doughy inside. Weird. Orange-ade on left (derricious), which you could pick blueberry or orange. On the far right are the spring rolls.
The other set of dumplings that came out. Those weird spout looking dumplings were supposed to be shumai (labeled shaomai in their menu) and uh, it was nothing similar to what I’ve had in Atlanta and in New York. Lol. It’s okay, they tried. The shrimp one wasn’t too bad, but the other one was wack. The two reddish ones in the middle had a simple pork filling and the other two were filled with leeks.
Our dessert — one was filled with ground black sesame seeds, red bean, and pumpkin?
Well, yes, I guess you can say that if you wanted dimsum and would take anything that would .. kinda/sorta/notreally/maybeifyouclosedyoureyesandprayedtogod be similar to what you’ve had before, this place would be it. I don’t try to judge any of the restaurants in Korea too harshly when it comes to foreign cuisine. Instead, I try to enjoy it for what it is — which is people trying to make money by selling food that isn’t Korean in Korea.
On that note, I don’t like this place because plainly, their dumplings weren’t good. However, I wouldn’t mind going back to try their other dishes because they have a lot non-dumpling items there.
One day we’ll meet again Shumai. ㅠㅠ (taken on my trip back to Atlanta this past August).
If you want to give this place a whirl, here are the directions: Go to Gangnam Station on Line 2/Green line. Leave out of Exit 5 and go straight out of the exit. Make a right at the very next street and continue straight until you see the restaurant on your right (2nd floor).
Stellaface 