In Singapore you can find all types of cuisine and plenty of high-end choices at the Sands and elsewhere. The Chinese cuisine in Singapore is very good but too often it is too heavy and lacks the style and finesse of Hong Kong. In the basement of the Paragon
shopping mall (290 Orchard Road #B1-03 Singapore) you can window shop and stumble across a food court which initially seems boring, until you get past the crowds standing in the corridor all queuing. Looking over people’s heads you see an immaculate kitchen in the open. The cooks are groomed in white with white hats and masks, all working away in sync.

Din Tai Fung’s founder was born in 1927 in China’s, and later moved to Taiwan as a young man in search of better prospects. His first job was as a deliveryman at a store called Heng Tai Fung, which sold cooking oil. Impressed with his hard work, the owner quickly put Bingyi in charge of the oil store’s accounts after just two years of service. But due to other business losses, the oil store was forced to shut down, leaving Bingyi unemployed.

Bingyi decided to start up his own oil shop with wholesale oil purchased from Din Mei Oils. To show his appreciation to his first boss at Heng Tai Fung, he named his new store Din Tai Fung.

However, when tinned oil went on sale around 1980, sales at Din Tai Fung plummeted. Taking advice of a friend, Bingyi and his wife turned half of their shop towards making and selling steamed dumplings. The quality and exceptional taste of Din Tai Fung’s steamed dumplings attracted many customers and the business took off thanks to its strong word-of-mouth. Spurred on, Din Tai Fung stopped selling oil and turned into the full-fledged restaurant it is today.

BreadTalk Group operates the Din Tai Fung brand of restaurants in Singapore and spared no effort in transferring the complete Taiwanese dining experience to its first restaurant at Paragon Shopping Center. As a franchise, in comparison to most it is very good.

The dishes are coming and going past clients sitting, standing and those paying or waiting for a table. No reservations and it is packed. Almost the entire day it is busy as people wait. The cuisine is scrumptious and inexpensive given the quality. I waited 40 minutes to be seated to a clean fresh meal of fantastic chicken dishes, mushrooms, tofu and most all the dumplings filled with a soup broth. They explode flavours into your mouth leaving a warm sensation of ginger and pork.