Din Tai Fung in the Bay Area loses points with me because of the long wait. To be very clear, I think that Journey To The Dumpling is BETTER than any Din Tai Fung in the United States. My baby girl knocked over a dish of sauce and it was cleaned up quickly and they even brought us more napkins without me having to ask for it to replace the ones we used stopping up the sauce. The waiters accommodated my request for a dish of chili oil, didn’t mind when I requested children’s waters with a lid and a straw, kept refilling our water glasses (my hubby downs water like a camel) and didn’t seem overly overwhelmed as most waiters and waitresses would be during a Grand Opening. Considering this was a Grand Opening, I think that they executed it rather well. Both times we went she greeted us warmly and thanked us for coming to her restaurant. I also noted that their bathroom was spotlessly clean, although there is only one bathroom for each gender with no stalls. My husband really appreciated the 4 flat screen tvs they have inside the restaurant. The decor is very modern with an Asian contemporary design. They definitely were good, they just didn’t have the wow factor that the other dishes did. I’m going to be honest and say that the Beef Noodle Soup and the Beef Roll were reasonable but didn’t knock my socks off. I do really highly recommend the Beef Chow Fun with Black Bean Sauce and the Tan Tan Mein as well. Stick with the dumplings and you really can’t go wrong. Journey To The Dumpling has an obvious strong point with their dumplings. Nice touch! I had the chrysanthemum tea and liked it. I also loved the fact that they heat up their tea pots over a small candle. Note that this Tan Tan Mein wasn’t in soup. The Tan Tan Mein wasn’t too spicy and it was right on par with Tan Tan Mein that you would eat in Asia. It’s tasty and I just like it better than the other versions. You have an option about whether to get it wet, with gravy, or with Black Bean Sauce. The Beef Chow Fun was very good with the Black Bean Sauce. It was very good and exactly what a potsticker should be with one side browned and a little crispy and the inside nice and meaty. The Potstickers had this crispy lattice thing all over it so you got to eat it with the dumpling. I’ve been all over Asia and I hadn’t tried it before. The Wonton in Chili Oil was something pretty unique. I have no idea how you fry a dumpling without the soup inside spilling out, but it was pretty darn delicious. The Sheng Jian Bao was lightly fried and crispy on the inside but it was genius because when you bit in, there was soup inside. We didn’t have breaks with XLB! The Xiao Long Bao was juicy and flavorful with a satisfactory gush of soup when I bit into it.
The greatest faux pas in when you make xiao long bao is to make it so that the skins break when someone tries to pick them up. The Xiao Long Bao was good because the skins didn’t break. I liked the Xiao Long Bao (soup dumpling), the Sheng Jian Bao (fried soup dumpling), the Wonton in Chili Oil, the Potstickers with Pork & Cabbage, the Beef Chow Fun with Black Bean Sauce, and the Tan Tan Mein. I’m going to be very straight-forward about what I recommend. We have visited Journey To The Dumpling twice now. I’m happy to say that the xiao long bao and the dumplings at Journey To The Dumpling are up to my standards.
I grew up going to Hong Kong all the time and so I am extremely critical of Chinese food in the United States. I love xiao long bao! But my standards for xiao long bao are high.
I’ve really been anticipating the opening of this place. I got a chance to check out Journey To The Dumpling in Elk Grove. Roxy and I with Yvonne, the owner of Journey To The Dumpling
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