Din Tai Fung - Shanghai XinTianDi

I was sent to Shanghai, the land of  XLB for a week. I was expecting to find XLB everywhere and I wasn't disappointed. Ironically when I asked the locals, what they would call the best XLB in Shanghai, they named a Taiwanese chain. I have been to Din Tai Fung in a number of countries/cities and I tend to walk out quite satisfied.

When I was exploring and stumbled across it, I found myself sitting down and happily ordering in a number of minutes. The one thing that really sucks when you are travelling/eating alone, is you are limited in choices when you dine. Anyway, the inner glutton in me took over and I still ordered more than I could finish.


Green beans with mince meat. This was actually served as a cold dish, I was slightly surprised as I am use to this being a hot dish. Crispy green beans and tasty mince meat, only down side was the level of oiliness. 

With the XLB I thought I would go all out and get the crab roe with pork. This was delicate and had a lovely crab sweetness laced with the pork. The soup within the XLB was warm but not so hot that it would burn your tongue. Together with the ginger/vinegar dipping sauce, it made a very satisfying dinner.

Glutenous rice, pork shao mai was an interesting twist of the shao mai that I am familiar with. The glutenous rice made it a filling dish and pork was slightly overshadowed by the rice.

Overall 17.5/20 It was definitely a good meal and the waitress had a higher level of English and service skills than the average in Shanghai. The XLB was definitely one of the better ones that I tasted in Shanghai, however I still think the Din Tai Fung in Hong Kong still ranks at number in my eyes.