DIN TAI FUNG Esuparusendai

A friend recommended the Taiwan branch, so I gave this one a try and have to conclude that this was pure disappointment from what I read before. The Sendai-branch, located on the 3rd floor in the Eastern S-Pal-Buiding looked nice and clean and not much crowded at around 6 pm, but this place is neith...er foreigner- nor vegetarian-friendly. To say that there were little communication problems is excessively understated. Even with simple beginner-level Japanese there were so many misunderstandings, my partner's noodle soup was cancelled even though we ordered 一つ, staff was unable to recommend vegetarian food and served the vegetarian the rice cabbage cake which contained shrimps. As someone who does not eat neither meat nor fish, there are no savoury main dishes available, only deserts, sweet shao long bao dumplings and steamed buns (bao zi) (they were out of black sesame buns that day as well, which can happen, but was unfortunate). The red bean bun was nice and warm, but smaller in size compared to what you can get at a convenience store and, judging as a westerner, not very much better or different in taste, even though double in price. Staff served lukewarm tea with not noticable jasmine taste and never refilled, very unusual for Japanese gastronomic standards. The only thing that saved that evening was the mango anko shao long bao.

Visited January 2019