SYDNEY — Amongst much steam a small army of sars-masked dumpling boffins tend to tower after tower of bamboo steamers. What lies within are arguably the country's finest dumplings.

They come in droves for xiao long bao. Precarious beige nipples of dough that barely support a wee marble of minced pork and the most heavenly of broths. You nibble, it gives, and so it begins.

Then there is the vegetarian delight — a dish much better than semantics would have you believe. A small pile of forest coloured matchsticks — seaweed, bean sprouts, dried bean curd and lengths of chilli are tossed in chilli oil, the result a textural joy that’s much more than the sum of its parts.

Shrimp and pork wantons bob about in a scarlet pool of chilli oil dotted with garlic and rings of spring onion — they demand another slug of Tsingtao.

You’ll probably want some of the finest pork buns in town, fair doughy balls pocketing the stickiest of braises.

There is a creamy, wobbly brick of silken tofu that is buried in pork floss and sits alongside segments of century egg — the curiously inky, gelatinous by product of months spent buried underground. It is a dish that has it all.

Drunken chicken arrives as a pale, satiny strips of breast served at room temperature. Sat in its poaching liquid, the pleasant perfume of the rice wine is both present and welcome.

Finish with greens which are invariably flawless — the likes of morning glory steamed with garlic and showered with golden fried cloves or blistered beans tossed through heady pork mince.

Din Tai Fung shows that regiment can bring rewards.

7 Days a Week
Lunch 11am - 230pm
Dinner 5pm - 10pm