Houston diners who have long envied Din Tai Fung outposts in Los Angeles, Seattle, Las Vegas and New York may finally get their own shot at the famed soup dumplings. A state filing suggests the Taiwanese restaurant chain could be moving into the Houston Galleria, potentially taking over the space currently occupied by Nobu and neighboring suites.
What the State Filing Shows
The signal comes from a project filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, first reported by Axios Houston on Friday. As reported by CultureMap Houston, the filing indicates Din Tai Fung may be moving forward with a location in the Galleria, with the project set to replace Nobu and adjacent suites, per the TDLR filing. The same filing reportedly puts the footprint at almost 16,800 square feet, with construction estimated to run from February 2027 to mid-June 2027 and a projected cost of $1 million, according to the estimated TDLR timeline cited in the report.
CultureMap's reporting cautions that the TDLR filing may not indicate an official lease has been signed, and notes the project timeline may shift significantly before any shovels hit the ground. A separate TDLR project record, registered Oct. 6, 2025 under project number TABS2026002621, appears in the state's permitting database, while an earlier TDLR record separately describes a re-demise and tenant remodel at the Galleria's Rink Level. As of Oct. 23, Nobu Houston remained open and had not announced any plans to close, the report notes.
Nobu's Houston Run
Nobu Houston debuted in 2018, with a grand opening party that drew chef Nobu Matsuhisa, co-founder Meir Teper and actor Robert De Niro, according to the same CultureMap report. The restaurant's potential displacement would mark a notable shakeup for the Galleria's upscale dining lineup, though nothing about its future has been confirmed by any of the parties involved. CultureMap says it contacted representatives for the Galleria, Din Tai Fung and Nobu, and will update its article when those representatives reply.
From a Taipei Oil Shop to a Global Dumpling Empire
Din Tai Fung's own origin story is almost as unlikely as a dumpling chain reshaping a mall's anchor tenants. The company was founded in 1958 as a cooking-oil retail business in Taipei before transitioning to a full-fledged restaurant in 1972, according to CoStar. The chain has grown to more than 165 locations worldwide, per CultureMap's report, though figures vary by source: CoStar puts the global count at 165 restaurants with 18 in North America, while KTLA cites more than 165 locations across 13 countries, and the Brooklyn Paper lists 17 locations across the United States.
The chain is known for xiao long bao, soup dumplings, vegetable plates, noodle dishes and other dim sum-style fare, and its locations hold four Bib Gourmand designations in the Michelin Guide, per CultureMap. CoStar reports Din Tai Fung was the top-grossing U.S. restaurant chain per location last year, averaging $27 million in annual sales. Its New York location reportedly makes more than 10,000 dumplings per day by hand, CultureMap notes.
A Chain on a National Growth Spurt
Houston wouldn't be the only market watching Din Tai Fung's expansion closely. The company opened its first East Coast restaurant in July 2024 at 1633 Broadway in Manhattan, signing a 15-year lease spanning 26,400 square feet, per CoStar's reporting. It's now planning a second New York City location, a 20,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor of The Brook apartment tower in Downtown Brooklyn, slated to open in 2027, according to the Brooklyn Paper.
Out west, where the chain got its American start, Din Tai Fung opened its first U.S. location in 2000 at a strip mall in Arcadia, California, before expanding to Glendale's Americana at Brand in 2013 — its first restaurant outside the San Gabriel Valley, according to the Los Angeles Times. That Glendale restaurant was planned to relocate to the neighboring Galleria mall in fall 2023, into an 11,443-square-foot space with an additional 2,260 square feet of patio area, the Times reported. The chain also opened a 14,000-square-foot restaurant at Brea Mall, with a soft opening in early August and a grand opening Aug. 31 expected to employ more than 400 people, according to KTLA.
Whether Houston joins that growth map remains unconfirmed. For now, the Galleria filing offers the clearest hint yet that one of the country's most talked-about dumpling chains has its eye on Texas, even as the fate of Nobu's current space stays unresolved.
