Impatient Din Tai Fung Fans Tank Restaurant’s Rating With One-Star Reviews
The first New York location of Din Tai Fung is opening in July.
Din Tai Fung could be the lowest-rated restaurant that hasn’t even opened.
Since 2022, when Din Tai Fung announced it was opening its first New York location, the Taiwanese restaurant chain has been “coming soon.” It was supposed to happen in 2023. Then, the opening was bumped to the following year. According to Yelp, the opening this summer is in July.
As the wait drags on, the restaurant’s Google page has become a battlefield between impatient fans and ardent supporters: They’re leaving one-star reviews with fake complaints about food and service — and five-star ratings to negate them. As of Friday, Din Tai Fung had 3.9 stars on Google with 18 reviews.
“No one served us and I don’t know about the atmosphere because it isn’t open yet,” reads a one-star review from June. “Food is great always, service is meh and atmosphere can be cheerful but the problem is this place isn’t open yet,” another reviewer wrote.
The reviews, which date back to May, have not been removed by Google. And while the rating will likely be balanced out when Din Tai Fung opens this summer, fans have already stepped in.
“Super mean and useless that people give low star reviews to a location that isn’t even open,” says one user, who claims to have visited Din Tai Fung in Costa Mesa, California. “I wonder how a bunch of people who haven’t tried it are giving one-star negative reviews,” another reviewer asked. “Are they jealous of Taiwanese food?”
Din Tai Fung is one of the most anticipated restaurant openings of the year. The Taiwanese chain, which started in Taipei in 1958, took over the world with its signature soup dumplings made with exacting specifications. Din Tai Fung has more than 170 locations worldwide.
The restaurant in New York, at 1633 Broadway, between West 50th and 51st streets, is its first location on the East Coast. The 26,400-square-foot space is designed by David Rockwell, the architecture firm behind Coqodaq and Daily Provisions.