Xiao Long Bao, known more familiarly as soup dumplings, have catapulted Taiwan-based Din Tai Fung into a global restaurant chain with 165 locations in 13 countries. There are now 17 units in the U.S., the newest an expansive 10,615-square-foot indoor-outdoor dining space that opened in Santa Monica, California in 2025. The 450-seat New York City location opened the year before.
“Chocolate dumplings are the No. 1 order in New York,” said James Fu, corporate chef and director of culinary for Din Tai Fung North America. “Everywhere else, our savory soup dumplings are the top order.”
Chocolate bao are the top seller at the NYC location of Din Tai Fung.
The menu is the same at every location, with those savory bao a signature. They are characterized by a thin fresh dough wrapper, made in-house and filled with marinated Kurobuta pork blended with seasonings and a gelatinous cube that turns into a hot, flavorful broth when steamed. “We make a fresh batch of soup dumplings every two hours, which adds up to 10 to 12 batches a day,” said Fu. The menu description boasts that “the bao is carefully weighed and folded by hand to achieve our Golden Ratio of 18 folds.”
In Taiwan, traditional soup dumplings are always made with a savory filling, but Americans’ collective sweet tooth influenced the brand to create a sweet version. Those were the beginning of an expanded dessert section on the menu.
Moving to the sweet side
The best-selling Chocolate & Mochi Xiao Long Bao use the same wrappers as the soup dumplings, wrapped with 18 folds around a chocolate truffle filling enveloped in a thin layer of mochi. Like the savory Xiao Long Bao, when diners bite into the dumpling, they get a burst of hot liquid—in this, case, molten chocolate.
“Quality ingredients are one of our goals in developing menu items,” said Fu. Toward that end, he upgraded the filling recipe recently to source chocolate that is made in America, he added.
Another R&D pillar is authenticity, and a fan-favorite dessert on the menu is rooted in Taiwanese cuisine. Sesame & Mochi Xiao Long Bao are filled with black sesame paste, an ingredient often used in Taiwanese cookies and candies, said Fu. Black sesame is also a flavor on the rise in 2026, according to several industry predictions, including Yelp’s 2026 Food & Drink Trend Forecast.
Black sesame paste blended with sugar is the bao filling for these dessert dumplings.
For this bao variation, Fu blends the black sesame paste with sugar to sweeten it, then wraps the filling in mochi enclosed in the same hand-folded dumpling skin. The dessert is served warm and comes to the table in a bamboo steamer basket like all of Din Tai Fung’s bao.
From hot to cold
“All the desserts on our menu were served hot, but I wanted to offer something cold, too,” said Fu. So he developed Shaved Snow with Fresh Mango, a milk-based dessert topped with diced fresh mango, a drizzle of sweet-tart mango sauce and condensed milk.
“It’s the first cold dessert added to the menu and has proven to be very popular,” said Fu. “Unlike Hawaiian shave ice, it’s creamy, and that’s why it’s called snow.” It’s also rooted in Taiwanese culture, he added.
All the desserts at Din Tai Fung are on the core menu, and the ingredients have to be available year-round, Fu explained. Plus, he only specs fresh fruit. The mangoes are sourced whole, then peeled and diced in-house. “I love the flavor and fragrance of Asian strawberries and would like to try the Shaved Snow with those, but they are not always available,” he said. Consistency is also a key menu pillar, and U.S.-grown strawberries are not always consistent in flavor and quality, Fu believes.
What’s next
Like diners everywhere, Din Tai Fung’s guests are asking for more protein-focused dishes. Dumplings, noodles and rice dominate the menu, and while several of these options include pork, chicken and shrimp, there’s strong demand for larger portions of protein.
“We’ll soon be testing a premium steak option in LA,” said Fu. “Expect to see more protein in the future.”