so today we're heading to an awesome Taiwanese restaurant here in Las Vegas
on the Las Vegas Strip called Din Tai Fung for their famous soup dumplings y'all can't
wait Din Tai Fung just opened up on October 19th at Aria here on the Las Vegas Strip
and we're not gonna waste any more time right now because it is time
for us to eat so I'm ready to go you ready to rock I'm ready let's rock
Welcome to Din Tai Fung we are so excited to be here finally yes this just opened up here at the
Aria on the Las Vegas Strip and we've been waiting for this we have been we've walked past this place
several times looking inside seeing the chefs kind of preparing things now we're actually
sitting in a seat ready to try and eat them
now we already sat down here they kind of prepped us briefly a little bit in terms
of how it works they do things more family style they set a menu in place and a lot of these look
amazingly delicious our waitress Carol already said that the one of the favorite dumplings is the
pork xiao long bao yeah definitely excited to try their famous soup dumplings here so it's gonna be
fun we really are so I know there's some choice cocktails she mentions you guys know we like
to start with some cocktails so that is up first while we figure out what the heck we're gonna eat
voila voila this is amazing I like the presentation already of the cocktail I ended up
getting just so you guys know this is the pear lychee martini and what's in it is basically pear
vodka elderberry lychee orchid it's just beautiful presentation another one of those drinks it's
like you know what it's so pretty I'm not sure I'm gonna drink it but I am it looks great and
this is dtf old-fashioned Japanese whiskey and I'm going to read this it's Taiwanese oolong tea syrup
I've cheated I've had some it tastes really good right and some orange bitters as well
but it's good yeah you know what I love the way that looks I mean you
always get these wonderful cocktails that almost have like a classic presentation
either with this sphere ice or a round or a you know a square ice cube well let's give
these a shot because the smell of these are rich in aroma I'm dying to try this cheers
oh okay three words that's my jam oh that's so good I love like the lychee it's not super strong
the lychee is rich and fresh spot on delicious I like this now this is uh for this cocktail
it's $16 for this drink yeah and this is $16 as well and you know it's funny it's very smooth
and not too sweet there's a sweetness to it with the syrup but it's still it's really good yeah
I love it this is already going to be feeling beginning of a great night absolutely cheers
I tell you
that looks great so as you can see we started with a cucumber salad before we jump into the
soup dumplings right the dumplings are definitely the highlight here but this looks great looking
forward to that exactly and we figured you know we're going to go with some of more of
their popular dumplings here to give them a shot so I'm just going to read off the menu
what we're getting so when they come we're going to dive right into them so we're going
with what we talked about earlier was the kurobuta pork xiao long bao a crab kurobuta pork
xlb vegetable pork dumplings we're going to basically go with the shrimp and pork dumplings
we're going with the chicken dumplings shrimp pork shao mai and of course the sticky rice pork shao
mai which those two are limited right so they do run out of those which are very very popular so
I think this is really affordable no it seems really affordable and they do say you want to
eat them right when they come out fresh yes right so that's a challenge yeah kind of come
out and just dive right in yeah you only got a couple seconds before they cool off so right
get to chowing here we go so this should be fun now I can use chopsticks to some degree oh yeah
Tanya's good at it I know Dave David is not really a chopsticks person but he's going to give it
a shot tonight you guys I'll give it a shot for about 10 seconds here we go I'll let you take the
top one since it might might be a little easier to grab yeah good luck not working okay it's
not working oh I'm going to back to the fork all right oh go for it you got it I think you got it
that is delicious delicious the cucumbers I feel like they're using are the the ones we usually
get the long skinny very thin ones like seedless seedless sweet and I think the dressing around it
is really refreshing there's a nice spice in it too nice spice you have a little kick of a spice
I feel the heat in my which I like it's good I agree it's nice and it was the the piece I
picked up that was on top I think you dropped it off that was actually garlic I was just shaving
of garlic I dropped off I dropped it off for you you've dropped it off for me but let me tell you
it dropped in my mouth and boy don't come near me with that garlic because there's a lot of garlic
in that bite and what's in this what's that that looks like it's probably just a red pepper okay
try that one can you try the red pepper one I'll see if I can get that without like let's see if
you can get that you guys here we go you ready here we go all right give him a round of applause
so first up is
the the pork dumplings pork xiao long bao yes pork xiao long bao and they look wonderful here we go
you ready to try this we might just dive into them while they're hot I'm afraid I'm gonna break it I
know oh I did it you gotta drop that in the sauce like so put that right in the sauce thank you
sauce in there all right stick it on my spoon right like so you're gonna poke a little hole
in all of that soak the up there she goes there it goes there it goes
like me you ready you ready yeah here we go I'm gonna try it left-handed okay here we
that is wonderful wow wonderful the soup really does the flavors in that just really kind of hit
your mouth it's almost like a surprise it's like like explosion of pow surprise amazing delicious
right everything just tastes so fresh the pork is incredible and the soup inside the dumpling
wow and how about that dumpling that something almost melts in your mouth there's nothing
heavy about that I can understand the hype this is really good yeah and and what you do
again with the sauce you get up basically you take the dumpling you put it into the sauce for
those that didn't know how to do this we learned as well um and in this sauce which is ginger
they basically have three parts of the vinegar and one part of the soy
and then you drop that dumpling right on top of there to soak up a little bit of that flavor
you put it on the spoon yeah pop a little hole in there yes you got it dynamite you see there's
a little crab in there to let you know it's the crap yes i love it that is so cute there you go
I think it's really good I thought I like the pork better I'm but you know I'm not as much
into crab right it definitely tastes a lot of the crab in there very strong crab flavor I agree with
that I think in this case the crab does have a little bit more of an overpowering sensation
right um you think you want to get that balance of pork and crab in there but I feel in this case
the uh pork is not as potent right a little bit more in there and I can't get over how delicate
the dumplings are and how they just melt in your mouth like yourself I know right so you know what
I'm gonna do right now what are you gonna do I'm gonna let it go melt right in my mouth
I thought that was really good really really good there's a nice balance between the shrimp
nice the crunch and the pork on the bottom so it's got a good well-rounded well-roundedness of
flavors in there as well it's really nice and the sauce is really great on top i agree completely
it's I think well-rounded the balance the perfect balance between the shrimp and the pork
for the crab I felt the crab overpowered the pork like you said but in this one
they're really you taste both equally equally it's really nice spot on delicious shrimp come on
oh okay so I have an idea okay so I think
we've had quite a few dumplings I think we have one or two more coming yeah
but maybe we should kind of talk about or just mention which is our least favorite and
which one is our favorite yeah I definitely have some contenders right now yeah for sure
exactly uh we need to kind of try the remaining few and then we'll let you know all right
I know you're gonna like it it's um it's that nice blend of the pork
and the shrimp nice balance really good and plus the the broth the soup that's in there
it's really hot and just kind of explodes in your mouth underneath the dumpling
all right so what is up next I will tell you first and foremost I think I'm turning into a dumpling
yes we've had so many dumplings tonight I think I'm thankful this is the last of the dumplings
for the evening so it looks amazing again you have another shao mai presentation and this is a sticky
rice and pork shao mai it looks good looks like a little tower from like a super mario game oh man
I know I'm getting those dumpling sweats
I think it was a twist if you will like I thought I'd have like a rice you know pork kind
of combination it didn't taste like it at all I feel like it's mostly rice and I'm missing the pork
tastes like a lot of rice also tasted dryer yes I didn't taste that soup broth in there
I think it all I think the rice absorbed all that yes good point right
so it did surprise me a bit and I agree I thought it'd be a little bit less
rice more pork combo with a soup but it was very much like a rice dumpling yes right so this is
when i feel you might want to put a little bit extra sauce on there for sure and that may not
be all of them but the first two obviously the ones that we had had a little bit of a little
drier taste to that yeah but I'm still going to dig in let's wrap this up you ready I'm ready so
what's better than having dumplings for dinner I don't know what is dumplings for dessert
let's just dive right into this sure, sounds good, they came out steaming hot
all right here we go I think by the time I finish I'm going to turn into a dumpling y'all
you're a dumpling all right cheers here we go cheers there's no spoon this time just gotta pop it right in
oh that's some amazing chocolate chocolate like bursts in your mouth really good
I wasn't sure about that because it was like wrapped in a dumpling right
but that was amazing bam okay I will tell you this I am stuffed oh I am so stuffed well let
me ask you sure so what'd you think of this place well what do you think
overall I'll have to say hmm what was your least favorite my least favorite
yeah I would have to say the vegetable first of all there was no real I expected kind of that
soup broth in there but I think the vegetables soaked it all up if you didn't get that it tastes
a little dry and plus it just tasted really the vegetable the greens really overpowered anything
else in there yeah so that I'd have to say that's my least favorite I'm with you on that one and if
you were to ask me what was the best yeah what is it what is your favorite I would say it's a tie
it's a tie between the the first one which is the pork xiaolongbao yeah sure and I would say
the shrimp and pork shao mai oh yeah both of those are excellent yes absolutely excellent now what
would you say you know pretty similar I'd probably just go with the pork yes because I kind of like
simple things you know very simple it was kind of I liked how they were small and delicate yes and
it was also the first ones we had so they kind of we were taken my surprise yeah it's so good
flavors were so good absolutely and if you made it this far thank you so much really
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as always thanks for joining us world travelers and we look forward to seeing y'all . . . in Las Vegas