Originally Posted by
trueblu
Honestly, the best soup dumplings and certainly the most consistent are at Din Tai Feng -- branches in most major cities. And some of the other dishes (e.g. pea shoots) are excellent too.
tb
There is an unfortunate wide variety in quality and taste among DTF branches worldwide, even within its home city, Taipei in Taiwan.
There are pretty bad locations in LA (Arcadia is good), and even within Taipei you need to choose carefully. Seattle is very iffy, and can be OK or bad or good depending on the day/time....and of course don't bother trying the location in Toronto which is a fake knockoff called 'DinG Tai Fung', which fooled me at first glance and almost swore me off the brand before I figured out they ripped off the real DTF.
For the best XLB, I try to find the under the radar mom and pop shops that locals gravitate to.