After years of anticipation, beloved Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung is opening its New York City location on Thursday — and for some fans, it can’t happen soon enough.

The global chain has dozens of outposts across four continents, including seven in California. The 25,000-square-foot Midtown location is its first on the East Coast and its largest.

“I personally am fueled a lot by soup dumplings and also by vengeance,” said podcaster Kara Berry, who scored a reservation in New York after hearing about Din Tai Fung from her friends in Los Angeles.

Berry said she disliked the idea of Los Angeles having any culinary advantage over the Big Apple.

“In terms of the New York versus L.A. of it all, New York should always have the better cuisine,” she said. “So this is the perfect way to restore the natural order of things.”

As of this writing, all tables in the monthlong availability window were booked on Yelp, which the restaurant is using to manage reservations.

Although Din Tai Fung is praised for its ribs, wontons, long beans, noodles and pot stickers, it’s best known for its soup dumplings, or xiao long bao.

In a city replete with dozens of restaurants serving soup dumplings, why has Din Tai Fung inspired such a frenzy of anticipation — and even retribution when its opening was delayed?

Familiarity and brand recognition may be part of the hype. Din Tai Fung has been building a fan base on the West Coast for more than two decades, and its Hong Kong location has been awarded a Michelin star.

The fanfare is akin to Chick-fil-A’s arrival in the city nearly a decade ago, but with the added star power of critical acclaim and social media sizzle.

But many fans say it’s just great food.

New York artist Jason Freeny first ate at one of Din Tai Fung’s Los Angeles locations about 10 years ago and now calls the chain his favorite restaurant.

“I travel all throughout Asia and every country we go to, we’ll stop in at Din Tai Fung,” he said. “Singapore, Bangkok, Tokyo … they’re all consistently great.”

Some hardcore fans say the food is objectively good — and have brought in data science to prove it.

Soup dumpling enthusiast Alan Liang grew up in Shanghai, where xiao long bao are said to have originated. The 25-year-old data scientist, who lives in Elmhurst, recently took an analytical approach to exploring New York City’s offerings of his hometown specialty.

Liang spent his weekends trying different soup dumplings. He ultimately visited more than 20 restaurants and compiled a detailed ranking and exploration on Medium.

To assess technique, he used three criteria: thinness of the dumpling wrapper, or skin; how much soup the dumpling contains; and how much filling there is. He also used subjective measures, like the dumpling’s deliciousness.

“I did not pioneer this particular research,” Liang said, pointing to the Shanghai-based food writer Christopher St. Cavish, who told the Los Angeles Times that he pioneered the system in order to land on a “data-based defense” of Din Tai Fung’s soup dumplings.

St. Cavish visited restaurants with a digital scale and calipers in tow, ordering multiple baskets of xiao long bao to smooth out any variance and devised a formula to score the quality of the dumplings’ structural engineering (filling weight + soup weight / thickness of skin * 100).

“I wasn’t as technical,” said Liang. “I just used my mouth, I guess, to determine how thin the skin was and how much soup there was.”

Liang has visited Din Tai Fung’s locations on the West Coast and in Taipei. His take?

“Ultimately, they’re very good dumplings,” he said. “I think they’d be worth a visit in New York.”

He said he would rank them among his top five in the city – below his top-ranked picks, including Deluxe Green Bo in Manhattan’s Chinatown and Steam in Greenwich Village. In Flushing, he highlighted Taste of Shanghai as a standout.

As for St. Cavish, the food writer who pioneered the system? Din Tai Fung came in seventh in his ranking.

Berry, the podcaster, said she’s excited to have Din Tai Fung in Midtown. Its location at the top of Times Square, near the M&M Store and Ellen’s Stardust Diner, is lacking in non-touristy options, she said.

“Restaurants there are suburban, they cater to the Broadway audience,” she said. “I’m hoping Din Tai Fung provides a little more cool factor to the area.”