Chef's Table by Din Tai Fung

Last Saturday, I was on my way to one of my friend's house when I passed Emporium Pluit and saw the signage of a new restaurant just opened, Chef's Table by Din Tai Fung. The later night, I went there with my parents and hubby. It was located on the 4th floor across Stickhouse & food court. As expected, new restaurant must be lined up with people, luckily the wait list was not too many so we decided to wait. 

There's nothing really to say about the interior of the place. It was white, sleek and clean. They didn't really put effort to make a special design, and just like other Din Tai Fung, they have an open kitchen only for the chefs making Xiao Long Bao.

Around 15 minutes, we got our table. Originally we were thinking to have Chinese main dishes, but looking through the menu, they didn't have too many selections on it, so we thought we just order their Lamien and Xiao Long Bao, both they were famous of, along with several dishes. We asked for Steamed pork dumpling -6pcs (49k), Braised lion head with salted egg yolk ala Shanghai (38k), Tofu with salted egg yolk (55k), Tom Yum seafood noodle soup (55k), Cha Jiang noodle (43k), Roast duck noodle (58k) and Chilli prawn udon (60k). For the noodle, we can opted regular one or spinach one. My mom and hubby chose spinach one for their Cha Jiang & Roast duck noodle, while dad sticks with the regular one for his Tomyum seafood noodle soup.

The orders didn't took look to be served, and surprisingly the service for a soft opening restaurant turns out to be very good and polite. The Cha jiang & roast duck noodle came first and they put it in a plate instead of bowl, I'm not good with food plating and decoration, but I think it will be nicer if they served it in a bowl. Serving those small portion noodle in a wide plate just making it look even smaller portion. Tom yum seafood noodle came in a bowl because it was a wet noodle. All the noodles tasted quite ok, it was not superb but not bad either, well seasoned not tasteless like the typical Lamian I had at Din Tai Fung. There was no difference though between the spinach and regular one, only the color.

Cha Jiang Noodle

Roast duck noodle

Tom yum seafood noodle

The lion braised and tofu came. I'm not sure why they called it lion braised with salted egg yolk as I didn't see any egg yolk for sure. Mom said that braised lion was a popular dish in Taiwan and she liked it when she ate it there, not feeling the same thing as eating the one they had here. I don't know whether they just can't cooked or my mom just simply had a weird taste with the braised lion she had in Taiwan, as this one was not good at all. As she's my mom, I will just put it simple by saying they were the one who can't cook. =) Basically it was rounded minced meat cooked with oyster sauce. Fortunately, the tofu with egg salted yolk was the hero for our night. I loved the soft Japanese tofu covered in salted egg yolk. Although, I thought that 55k was quite high for a tofu but I didn't complain when I ate 3 of them, it was yummy.

Braised Lion Head with salted egg yolk

Tofu with salted egg yolk

The steamed pork dumpling was nice, after all it was what they were famous for in the first place. The dumpling skin came in the right thickness, not too thick, also not too thin that easily ripped off.

Steamed pork dumpling

Finally, my udon came and it was as expected. On the picture from the menu book, it looked dark brown as how a fried udon supposed to be, however turn out they cooked the Udon with sweet sour sauce, so it tasted and looked like pasta. Me not likey but mom thought it was not bad.

Chilli prawn udon

Overall, with a 20% discount due to soft opening, it was not a bad dinner, it's just didn't came through on my expectation. I might be back for some light breakfast, Xiao Long Bao with Chinese tea. But not for dinner. Well, a plate of Tofu with salted egg yolk wouldn't hurt. 

Chef's Table by Din Tai Fung

Emporium Mall Level 4 unit 39

Jl. Pluit Selatan Raya

North Jakarta

Ph. +6221 29071918