There is a Din Tai Fung promotion for children through November 2, 2025 that awards them some special patches for trying a variety of dumplings.

We’re a week away from our standard First Friday Feast programming, but thought it would be fair to call out of our children’s favorite restaurants. (This isn’t a sponsored post, we’re just a family who thoroughly enjoys dining at Din Tai Fung.)

Take a look at where you can find Din Tai Fung (mostly on the west coast of North America aside from New York City and the international destinations). However, this Din Tai Fung promotion is just for the US-based locations. Reservations are encouraged but difficult to get.

The menu

Go figure that I don’t have a picture of the menu at Din Tai Fung. That’s because we know exactly what we want each time we go, and so order it immediately. If you want to check out their menu, head over to their website that describes the menu.

The thing to know is that Din Tai Fung specializes in xiao long bao. For the uninitiated, that’s the dumplings that have very hot soup inside. If you haven’t eaten them before, you might want to poke a hole in the dumplings to cool them down before eating. Or, take it from our kids and pour the soup into a soup spoon first, then eat the dumpling, and finally drink the soup.

If you’re not into the xiao long bao, there are plenty of other options, including noodles, rice cakes, and other dumplings.

The limited-time Din Tai Fung promotion

Now through November 2, 2025, you can stop by Din Tai Fung and pick up Bao Bao’s Passport. This Din Tai Fung promotion is available to children both dining in-restaurant and for take-out.

The premise is quite simple: the idea is for children to get a wide variety of flavors and to try things they might not normally consider. There are five different categories of dumplings to choose from:

• Xiao long bao
  • Kurobuta pork xiao long bao
  • Crab & kurobuta pork xiao long bao
  • Chicken xiao long bao
  • Truffle & kurobuta pork xiao long bao
• Dumplings
  • Chicken dumplings
  • Cod dumplings
  • Vegan dumplings
  • Shrimp & kurobuta pork dumplings
  • Kimchi & kurobuta pork dumplings
• Pot stickers
  • Shrimp & kurobuta pork pot stickers
• Wontons
  • Shrimp & kurobuta pork spicy wontons
  • Chicken spicy wontons
  • Vegetable & kurobuta pork spicy wontons
  • Vegan spicy wontons
  • Shrimp & kurobuta pork wonton soup
  • Chicken wonton soup
  • Vegetable & kurobuta pork wonton soup
  • Vegan wonton soup
• Shao mai
  • Shrimp & kurobuta pork shao mai
  • Sticky rice shao mai with kurobuta pork & mushroom

As you order each item, your waiter will check off your child’s passport. Our waiter mentioned he is relatively forgiving if not every category is ordered. You do not need to order everything in the same meal.

The back of the booklet describes the instructions, but there’s not much more to it than just trying the different items.

After completing your passport, just turn it in to receive your prize. In our case, since we ordered everything all at once, our waiter just redeemed it for us. Each of our kids received a pack of three patches.

These little patches are incredibly cute and should be able to be ironed onto whatever you want to attach them to. Pretty neat!

The food

Let’s start with the main choice when going to Din Tai Fung: the xiao long bao. By far, this is the kids’ favorite dish and has been since they learned how to eat. We just go with the simple kurobuta pork version, but you can choose crab or chicken if you want variety. The dumplings are best described as perfection. The wrapper is cooked perfectly and serves as a pristine vessel to serve you the delicious combination of flavors in the dumpling and the soup contained within. We always buy one for each of our children because they love it so much.

More than anything else, this has to be eaten fresh. If you order this as a to-go item, it’s never going to be as good.

Jenn and I always like opting for the shrimp and kurobuta pork spicy wontons. It’s one of the choices that the kids need to satisfy for their limited-time promotion, but they find it too spicy. Us adults don’t find it too spicy and, really, the flavors in the sauce are what brings us back. We’re not opposed to using the spicy sauce to flavor the rest of our food. It’s that good.

This has to be nine-year-old Alex’s favorite soup-based dish. The beef is oh-so-tender and the noodles are cooked to perfection. The menu lists the dish as spicy, but it’s not heavy in heat. It tastes a lot better on the ground than it does in the air.

The good thing about the limited-time promotion is that it forces us to choose items that we might not normally order. One such item is the shrimp and kurobuta pork dumplings. They’re not bad and the wrapper is very similar to the xiao long bao wrapper. But, we feel that if we’re ordering dumplings, we should just stick to the xiao long bao. The kids seem to agree as they weren’t as thrilled to eat these.

One more dumpling that comes in a slightly different form. We ordered the shrimp and kurobuta pork shao mai to try. There’s a little shrimp that effectively serves as a plug to protect the pork inside. Again, this isn’t an item we typically order, but it’s similar to other dumplings they serve.

The last item to check off the list for the kids is the potstickers. The kids like this because there is plenty of crispiness to the dumplings. It comes as a rectangle, which is unique, with five dumplings hanging off the underside. They’re good and flavorful. While they’re listed as more of an appetizer on the menu, we’ve found there is inconsistency on whether they come first or last.

Other items the kids love include the Shanghai rice cakes with chicken. The tenderness of the rice cakes is what makes this dish as delicious as it is. They make this with the perfect amount of give that makes it very addicting. The combination of flavors is also so good that it makes us always order this dish.

In the mood for vegetables? We always feel the need to order some string beans with garlic. They make the dish so much more flavorful than we could ever figure out how to cook it at home. They have plenty of crisp that makes even the kids want to eat them.

Are you planning to take advantage?

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