First Taste: Din Tai Fung’s Dumplings Are Worth the Hype

Should I begin with the confession that I had never, until the long-delayed, finally arrived opening of the New York mothership, been to Din Tai Fung? The Taiwanese chain has locations all over the world, including a number in California, the Pacific Northwest, and Vegas, and is renowned worldwide for its xiao long bao (XLB for short), the pog-size, 18-fold Shanghainese soup dumplings. Is this a disqualifying admission? I can plead only that the chain never...