Xinyi Din Tai Fung

So, I had a few friends (about 25) from my church in California visit me here in Taipei for a few days. The first thing on they're agenda, as with most ABC foreigners, was Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐). They made reservations at the Xinyi location (信義區). Restaurant-wise, everything's the same, so I'll keep this short. I'm only going to comment on the environment of the Xinyi 101 location as I heard concerns from other people about the mall location of Din Tai Fung. Yes, it's true, the front of the Xinyi location looks like another cheap restaurant in a mall. But some of the dining areas sit deep enough into the restaurant that you can't see the front entrance. So once seated, it feels like a normal restaurant outside of a mall. In contrary, I think it has the advantage of being more roomy. Definitely more roomy than the original location and the Zhongxiao Dunhua location. So definitely don't be turned off by the mall location, it's still worth it. And some pre/post dinner shopping is very convenient.