Din Tai Fung is one of my favorite places to get XLBs in Taipei, Taiwan. It has gotten quite popular since the first time I had it in 2005 in Taipei, and now they have a couple branches in North America including one Bellevue near Seattle.

The Bellevue branch has been open for quite some time now, and I finally made it there to get some infamous XLBs.

For starters we got some very expensive cucumbers in chili sauce. These cucumber cubes were almost $5, and an item you can skip. The cucumbers lost their crisp, and they were way too salty. It was definitely a modified version of the (much cheaper) cucumber dish you’d get in Din Tai Fung, Taipei.

We got 3 different kinds of steamed dumplings including XLB, shrimp and pork, and shrimp and pork shao mai.

The Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai was a new item to me. It was XLB filly with a shrimp on top, and it looked better than it tasted. The shrimp didn’t add much flavor.

The shrimp and pork dumping was much better as it was juicy and fresh.

As for the XLB, the item that the restaurant is all about, was quite disappointing to me. For one reason, they came really late into our meal and I was quite full by the time I got to them. As the rest of the dumplings were the first to arrive at our table. They most likely forgot our order. Taste wise, it’s not nearly as magical as the ones I remembered in Taipei. It’s not nearly as magical as the ones we would find locally at Shanghai River.

For the ‘side’ dishes, we got hot and sour soup, daily vegetables, shanghai rice cakes and dan dan noodles.

My favorite was the shanghai rice cakes; pan frie d rice cake in soy sauce with spinach, and bok choy. The rice cakes had the perfect texture, and the vegetables weren’t over cooked.

For dessert we got some black sesame and taro steamed buns. Black sesame dessert is one of my favorites, and the steamed buns were pretty good here, but again, pricy for what you get.

I was quite under whelmed. I know I can’t compare it to Taiwan, but I expected it to at least remind me a bit of it. And with the price tag, there are a lot better options out there for the same kinds of food.

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Din Tai Fung
700 Bellevue Way NE Ste 280
Bellevue, WA 98004

Bellevue

I went to Peking Chinese Restaurant for a quick lunch today. When I got to the restaurant, I was a little confused because Wheel had told us that we were going to a Korean place for some Korean noodles.

When I saw the menu, I was even more confused. There’s Korean writings and dishes everywhere. There’s also a section on the menu where it was only written in Korean and Traditional Chinese for these Korean dishes. And before our main dishes came, the waiter gave us Kimchi, and 2 other appetizer dishes that Korean restaurants always give you. Now I think know why Wheel called it a ‘Korean’ place.

I got the Fried Sauce Noodles (#23) in the non-English-friendly section of the menu, because Wheel recommended it. It was Korean hand made noodles with black Korean sauce. I was not impressed with it. It tasted bland. The portion was big, the noodles itself was alright, but it was bland for me. We were giving red pepper powder to eat with it, but it was still bland when I had it with the red pepper powder. I’ve had way better Fried Sauce Noodles at other restaurants.

The Kimchi and Korean appetizers they gave us was rather sad too. The kimchi was OK, but not authentic. The other 2 appetizers were yellow pickled daikon and raw onions with seaweed paste. There were a lot of yellow pickled daikon, if that made any difference at all.

This place do have OK review ratings on yelp. So, if I’m ever coming back to here, I’d stick to the Chinese dishes.

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Peking Chinese Restaurant
14150 NE 20th St Ste C
Bellevue, WA 98007
(425) 643-5030
bellevuepeking.com/

Bellevue

Today I went to Facing East Taiwanese in Bellevue, Washington for lunch. This place is fantastic.

I was there with the entire MePlusFood team, and our feast included:
Taiwanese burgers, Salt and peppery chicken, Beef noodles, Fry Oyster, shrimp pancakes, pork pottage, Sticky rice sausages, Stew pork on rice, and Seafood udon

I purposely ordered these items (except for the udon) for the team because these were amongst the most traditional Taiwanese dishes. These were also the dishes that will help me determine the restaurant’s authenticity. To my very surprise, they were all really good! Also to my relief, everyone else really enjoyed the food too. The food looked and tasted 95% like the ones you would find in Taiwan. So good, so fantastic.

For dessert we ordered the Citrus fruit tea, and a hot Pumpkin tapioca. I really recommend the citrus fruit tea, it was sweet and has chunks of oranges and apples in it. It was a very nice drink to end the meal. The pumpkin tapioca to me was OK, it didn’t really taste like a dessert to me, but the others enjoyed it.

The staff was friendly and our waiter was pretty awesome. He took our orders without writing anything down, and we probably took 10mins to order everything + allergy warnings in both English and Mandarin. He didn’t make any mistakes. Very impressive. Ambiance wise, I appreciate that they used long stool chairs and wood tables (old school Taiwanese dining furniture), that reminded me of my grandparents’ home in Taiwan. The restaurant was clean, and the rest room passed the test too.

I would definitely come back to this restaurant. Having its location in Bellevue, it beats all the Taiwanese restaurants in Vancouver by a mile. No joke. It’s no wonder this place is ALWAYS full with line ups outside. We got there as they just opened today, and the restaurant filled up within 15 minutes! The pricing was reasonable, for $12 dollars per person, we all had a really satisfying and fantastic meal.

Tip: Best time to go is when they just open at 11:30AM everyday. You will be guaranteed with seats right away.

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Facing East Taiwanese
1075 Bellevue Way NE
B-2
Bellevue, WA 98009
(425) 688-2986