Din Tai Fung (DTF) is a well established Taiwanese restaurant with locations all over the world. They are known for their Xiao Long Bao. Some locations have even been awarded a Michelin Star. I have had DTF in a few cities around the world. The quality has always been high. I especially like the thin wrappers and 18 folds in each dumpling. Would Vegas live up to this standard? Sadly, not when I went.
This location is inside the Aria. You check in (make a reservation advance), and are then told to go inside to wait to be shown your table. While waiting, you can check out the people making the XLBs. We were eventually seated and ordered the original version and a truffle version for $42. BOTH, were highly disappointing. First, there was a lack of soup as you will see in the vids below. Second, both types we ordered were tasteless.
Overall, service was ok, but a bit slow. The main problem is with the food. The restaurant is pretty big so I think they may be having trouble maintaining their standards with such high production, or they were having an off day. My wife had previously gone and she said it was good. As regular readers know, I rarely comment on price, but in this case, for $42, the XLBs should be mind blowing, not tasteless. Even the truffle did not come through! Anyway, with a growing choice for alternatives in Chinatown, I would recommend someone to venture off strip for great XLB. There are two choices that I recently had that are better than this experience: 1. ShangHai Taste and 2. Xiao Long Dumplings (post coming soon).