My Honest Review of Din Tai Fung in Downtown Disney

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Initially announced at Disney’s D23 fan expo in 2022, the five-time winner of the coveted Michelin star (at their original location in Hong Kong), Din Tai Fung, made its long awaited debut at the Disneyland Resort in June 2024.

Located in the west end of the resort’s Downtown Disney District, Din Tai Fung opened to much fan fare. In fact, the initial post-opening months often saw tables booked to capacity, with walk-ups waiting an hour or more.

During our last visit to Disneyland, my wife and I had the opportunity to dine here with friends. In the review below, I’ll discuss topics such as the food offerings, drinks, atmosphere, service, reservations, and more.

DIN TAI FUNG DISNEYLAND RESERVATIONS

As stated above, reservations at Din Tai Fung in Downtown Disney can be difficult to get. That was more-so in the months proceeding its opening, when tables were booked out nearly thirty days in advance.

These days, reservations are a bit easier to come by, though you’ll still need to plan ahead. For starters, you cannot make reservations for Din Tai Fung through the Disneyland website (or through Din Tai Fung directly, for that matter).

To make a reservation, you’ll need to do it through their Yelp profile. They accept reservations up to thirty days in advance. If you want one of the coveted dinner time slots, do your best to make it right at the thirty day mark, as they go the fastest.

Looking at their availability, lunch slots appear to be much easier to reserve, especially day of or next day. Joining the walk-up list is also an option. Just know that you could possibly wait up to an hour or more for a table at dinner time.

Takeout Option

If you weren’t able to book a table and don’t want to deal with the walk-up line, you could always order takeout through their online ordering system. There’s a lot more outdoor seating options in Downtown Disney than there used to be.

You won’t get the full dining experience, which is a major part of what makes Din Tai Fung so special, but it beats not be able to eat there at all. After you pay for your order and it’s ready, simply go to the restaurant and give the host/hostess your name.

Din Tai Fung Disneyland Dining Experience

Upon walking into the interior, you’ll be initially greeted by a bronze statue of Bao Bao, the official mascot of the restaurant. Beyond the statue, you’ll be greeted by a striking 360-degree bar adorned with a suspended, beaded installation that pays homage to the restaurant’s Taiwanese heritage, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

The remaining interior showcases intricately detailed decor, including jade tiling on the walls and tapestry-like chandeliers hanging from above, contributing to a calming and elegant ambiance.

Floor-to-ceiling windows encompass the dining areas on either side of the bar, allowing a bounty of natural light to flood the space. Exposed, curved ceiling beams mirror the shape of the exterior roof, enhancing the architectural cohesion.

Guests can also observe Din Tai Fung’s artistry behind the dumpling-making process through a viewable kitchen, providing an engaging and authentic dining experience. If you have kids, this feature will sure to impress.

Din Tai Fung Menu Items We Tried

Din Tai Fung’s menu offers a wide-variety of traditional Chinese and Taiwanese dishes with a modern twist, most of which are served family-style for easy sharing. Needless to say, the four of us ordered to our hearts content.

Your table will be given an ordering sheet and a pen. Simply decide which menu items you and your group want to try, mark the quantity next to each item on the sheet, and hand it to your server (you could always add to it later, if you wanted).

To kick things off, our table ordered one serving each of the Cucumber Salad and Sweet & Sour Pork Baby Back Ribs. Both were presented beautifully and tasted amazing.

The ribs had the perfect amount of “pull” off the bone. The flavor was amazing, with the meat itself seasoned well and accompanied sauce containing a perfect balance of sweet and tangy.

The cucumbers were thickly sliced and had a great crunch to them. The sauce drizzled over them had a great balance of sweet and tangy (similar to the ribs, but thinner) and also contained mildly spicy notes.

To go with our meal, my wife and I decided to order their two most well-known cocktails; the DTF Old Fashioned and Pear Lychee Martini. The old fashioned’s base is a serving of Kavalan Taiwanese single malt whiskey and stirred with house-made Oolong tea syrup and orange bitters, topped with a Luxardo cherry.

The Pear Lychee Martini is one of their signiture cocktails and is made with Grey Goose La Poire Vodka with St-Germain, fresh lemon juice and topped with a piece of lychee fruit. Both cocktails were supremely delicious and worth a second round.

Keep in mind that the cocktails won’t be listed on the ordering sheet. You’ll need to order those with your server separately. After you’ve made your selections, your food will start coming out of the kitchen fairly quickly.

The staff do their best to stagger the food but in my experience (at this and the Las Vegas locations) your table will run out of space fairly quickly. By the way, that’s pretty much my only complaint about Din Tai Fung. I wish they would stagger your selections better.

The Xiao Long Bao is one of their specialities. They’re stuffed with a variety of meats and seasonings, in addition to hot broth. Each bao is then hand-folded using their “Golden Ratio” 18-fold method.

If you’ve never eaten Xiao Long Baos before, don’t be intimidated. The restaurant provides instructions at every table on how to enjoy them without making a mess of yourself. Your server will also walk you through it, if requested.

We ordered a variety of their baos, buns, and noodles. I’ve also tried additional dishes when I dined at their Las Vegas location a couple of months later. For easy reading, I’ll list the entrees we ordered below and post their photos in the order listed:

• Kurobuta Pork Xiao Long Bao

• Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Dumplings

• Kurabuto Pork Buns

• Shrimp & Kurobuta Pork Pot Stickers

• Noodles with Spicy Sauce

• Noodles with Minced Kurobuta Pork

• Chocolate Buns with Sea Salt Cream

In short, all of the food we tried at Din Tai Fung was nothing short of fantastic. I will say I preferred the noodles with spicy sauce over the noodles with minced pork. Additionally, I personally enjoyed the two pork buns over the broth filled Xiao Long Bao.

Definitely DO NOT skip on dessert. The chocolate baos (filled with chocolate sauce) are divine! Also, do yourself a favor and spend the additional $1.00 for the accompanying sea salt cream (topped with matcha powder). Those two, combined, are out-of-this-world delectable.

Does Din Tai Fung Live up to the Hype?

In my opinion (and those of my wife and our two friends who came with us) the answer to that question is a resounding “yes”! The food is outstanding, the service is world-class, and the atmosphere is warm and inviting.

In recent years, Disney have stepped up their restaurant game in a big way in Downtown Disney. Centrico, another DTD upscale restaurant, serves up authentic Mexican cusine (see my review here) and their upcoming steakhouse, Arthur and Sons Steak and Bourbon, is sure to please.

Could Din Tai Fung be the best of the new crop? I believe so. It’s certainly an expensive place to eat, with our group of four paying nearly $300 for our meal. That said, it’s worth every dime, in my opinion. If you have the money, definitely don’t skip it.

*If you’re researching hotels for your Disneyland vacation, see my number one recommendation here!