Though an exact opening date has yet to be announced, the word’s out: World-class xialongbao purveyor Din Tai Fung is coming to Santa Monica Place, the multi-level mall at the end of the Third Street Promenade. For Angelenos living on the Westside, this puts the globe-spanning restaurant chain’s astonishingly consistent, ultra-delicious soup dumplings within even closer driving distance than Century City or Torrance—the latter currently being the chain’s only location west of the 405.
Soon, Los Angeles (or to be more specific, Santa Monica) will have world-class soup dumplings with beachside views, courtesy of an enormous, indoor-outdoor restaurant space on the third level of the mall. The new outpost will be the brand’s second location at a property controlled by Macerich, a commercial real estate trust; the first, a location situated inside Portland’s Washington Square shopping center, is the only Din Tai Fung in the state of Oregon.
The new location isn’t the only local shake-up for the Taiwanese dumpling giant; later this year, Din Tai Fung is set to move from the Americana at Brand to the much-older Glendale Galleria directly across the street. (Singapore’s Paradise Dynasty, known for its multi-colored soup dumplings, is set to take its original place.) And that’s in addition to a location bound for the Downtown Disney shopping district in Anaheim.