{Review} ‘Ding Tai Fung’ is the dumpling king of Markham

Website: n/a, Yelp reviews
Address:  3235 Highway 7 East, Suite 18 B, Markham ON
When I visited: June 2014, brunch, 2 adults and 2 babies
Rating: $$, 4
Baby info: Has high chairs

Ding Tai Fung should be known to all food lovers in Toronto loving Shanghai or northern style Chinese food because of their fresh dumplings made in-house.

The restaurant is in the First Markham Place plaza, where parking is a nightmare. The restaurant can also be hard to find if you are not familiar with the plaza. I’ve been to Ding Tai Fung on many occasions and the restaurant is always rammed, even on a weekday. My friend and I went without reservations on a Friday and waited about 30 minutes to be seated.

Once we were seated, I was pleasantly surprised that the restaurant provided plastic bowls and spoons for our babies. That was extremely thoughtful and a first I’ve seen at a Chinese restaurant.

The décor is light and there is plenty of space between tables. There is a large window at the back restaurant overseeing the kitchen where the cooks make the fresh dumplings.

I don’t recall the exact names of the dishes, but essentially we ordered soup dumplings with pork, steam dumplings with pork, crispy chicken on rice and a beef pancake wrap.

I’ve eaten soup dumplings where the bottoms broke upon picking them up and the base was soggy. Instead, the ones at Ding Tai Fung were still intact and after biting into them, the juicy broth remains hot (this is based on me devouring them as soon as they arrive to the table!). The fillings for each dumpling or bun were proportionate to the bun and flavourful.

Overall:

I have been visiting the restaurant for many years now and Ding Tai Fung has consistently delivered delicious baos and dumplings at every visit. Their other northern Chinese food is pretty standard to other restaurants but their dumplings are a standout. The prices are a bit more than the small dumpling houses but it is worth it. I highly recommend the restaurant for brunch but do expect to wait in line alongside other eager customers.