Taipei City - 朱記

Value for money: 8/10

Cleanliness: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Quality of food: 8/10

Overall: 8/10

This place is ideal if you are wanting somewhere where you can sit with a group of friends and have some good, clean, Taiwanese food.

Whilst this location is fairly new for 朱記, they have been around a while in many other locations.

Clean and accommodating inside.

At lunch, it can get busy, but you shouldn't have to wait too long.

peanuts with tiny fish and chilli to the left, then taro and also seaweed far right.

They have a good assortment of 小菜 small plates, I'd probably take one of each quite happily.

Bitter melon to the left, edamame beans to the right

This little area is for your sauces. However, they just have one pot of spicy chilli oil, a bowl of sugar (for the congee) and a flask filled with water.

Not quite the Korean idea of kimchi, more a Taiwanese version with less chilli,sweeter and with more vinegar.

We took these two small plates - pickled cabbage 泡菜 Pàocài and Lotus root 蓮藕 lián'ǒu. The lotus root was great. Although the flavour is quite mild, it has an enjoyable texture and an earthy sweetness to it that cleanses the palate nicely.

Spicy pork wontons

鮮肉餛飩炒手

Xiānròu húntún chǎo shǒu

$110

These were solid. In fact, I could've done with two portions of these just for myself. We asked for them with just a little spice, as they gave us the option - 小辣 xiǎo là. They were slightly sweet and nicely spiced (I will go for spicier next time, though - spicier 中辣 zhōng là, hell sauce 大辣 dà là) and inside there is a good amount of pork without it being heavy.

Noodles in soy bean sauce

炸醬麵

Zhá jiàng miàn

$95

These were the biggest let down of the meal. Whilst they looked incredible when they arrived and smelled amazing when mixed, the flavour was really boring. Usually there is a nice meat sauce with some tofu or some sesame with cucumber, carrots and/or beansprouts. Here, the flavour lacked on all fronts. It's a shame, because the noodles were really quite good.


Beef pancake roll牛肉捲餅
Niúròu juàn bǐng
$130

It's been a while since I've had one of these. This was a good one to enter back into the game with. The beef was nicely cooked so it wasn't too dry, the cucumber and scallion helped to keep the roll fresh and crispy, too. The spicy chilli sauce complemented it all very nicely.

Fried beef pocket

牛肉餡餅

Niúròu xiàn bǐng

$45

Not bad, but I won't be ordering it again. I can't help but feel like the meat inside was a bit greasy. Be careful when biting into this hot pocket as the meat juices will squirt out in all directions and they are damn hot! The flavour of the beef was good, but the whole thing just tasted a bit greasy, really.

Opening Times:
Monday - Sunday
11:00 - 21:30

Tel:
02 3322 2156


台北市大安區永康街6巷10號

No. 10, Lane 6, YongKang Street, DaAn District, Taipei City

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - Taiwan Bistro

Value for money: 7/10

Cleanliness: 8/10

Service: 6/10

Quality of food: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

If you're hungry after going up Elephant mountain and don't just want to dive into the nearest 7-11 you find, you'll probably stumble across this first, anyway. It's worth a try.

Unfortunately it was raining a lot when we visited, so pictures of the outside are out, sorry.

There's plenty of space inside.

We sat at the bar.

I like to take a look at what you can order, first. It's all clean and all looks (and smells) delicious.

Chef combination for 2 people

滷味拼盤 - 兩人份

Lǔwèi pīnpán - liǎng rén fèn
$360

We shared this between 3, accompanied by a few other dishes, too. It was plenty, to be fair. If you're really hungry, then I would suggest share this between 2 and get a bowl of rice/noodles, too.

On the plate is an assortment of different types of tofu, salad leaves and some intestine, too. It's pretty good, to be fair!

This is my pick of the bunch, though. The intestines have a chewy and soft texture with plenty of flavour. Paired with the slightly sweet, almost smoked spicy sauce it works nicely - especially washed down with a beer!

Cherry smoked duck
煙熏櫻桃鴨
Yān xūn yīngtáo yā
$200

I am always in search of smoked duck, of any kind. I really enjoy smoked meats. This duck was great. Shared between 3, the portion size is obviously too small. But, shared between 2 with the sharing plate as well, and you've got plenty of food.

The flavour of the duck was great, it tasted really fresh. I always enjoy some salad leaves accompanying it, too.

Bean sprout salad

涼拌豆芽

Liángbàn dòuyá

$60

It's not bad, but I won't rave about it, either. It's a fresh bean sprout salad.

Sweet potato congee

地瓜稀飯

Dìguā xīfàn

$30

It took them around 30-40mins to get this to us, and it was more like soup than congee.

Too watery, not much flavour, no seasoning and barely any rice inside. I won't be getting it again, that's for sure.

Taiwan beer

台灣啤酒

Táiwān píjiǔ

$120

Taiwan beer is alright, but next time I will spend only around $50 more and get a nicer beer. They serve a lot of the Taiwan Tea Ales here, so I will be going for them, next time.

Opening Times:

Monday - Sunday

17:30 - 01:30

Tel:

02 2720 9820

台北市信義區信義路5段150巷315弄12號

No. 12, Alley 315, Lane 150, XinYi Road, Section 5, XinYi District, Taipei City

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - 小飯館兒 GongGuan Korean

Value for money: 8/10

Cleanliness: 6/10

Service: 8/10

Quality of food: 8/10

Overall: 7/10

This place isn't going to win any awards for its cleanliness or its presentation, nor will it win any design awards for the outside. However, if you're looking for an inexpensive Korean fix and you live in the GongGuan area, then you should consider this place.

It does get pretty busy, so I would suggest arriving before 17:30 on weekdays and maybe 17:00 on weekends if you do not wish to line up.

Left to right: pickled cucumber, seaweed, kimchi, noodles 

Refill on these as many times as you want. I personally recommend the kimchi as it is pretty good, however, the rest are just OK.

Left to right: cold noodles, cold tempura and kimchi.

Seafood Pancake
海鮮煎餅
hǎi xiān jiān bǐng
$160

The sauce is a salty-sweet combo. It works well with the fried aspect of the pancake.

This was a solid offering. The pancake wasn't too thick but still had plenty of seafood inside. It was crispy around the edges and went down a real treat.



Belly Pork
五花肉一份
wǔ huā ròu yī fèn
$300 

Great idea on the use of tin foil - saves on some washing up!

I really enjoy cooking at the table side sometimes, it's a lot of fun. I also put some of the chopped garlic that came with the pork on here, too. It helped give a little flavour and aroma.

The sauce was a salty-spicy combo and was ok. But, it could have been spicier for my liking.

The sauce could have been spicier, but was still alright, especially mixed with the salad leaves and kimchi!


Salad Leaves
生菜
shēng cài
$30

Best way to eat this pork!

Topoki 
(small portion)
辣炒年糕
là chǎo nián gāo
$60 (small) 
$100 (big)

Longer than most I have seen, they seem pretty authentic.

The topoki were actually really good. They were soft, but retained their shape and flavour. The sauce wasn't too spicy but still packed a kick, too. They were enough to keep me coming back, that's for sure!

Opening Times
Monday - Friday 
11:00-15:00 and 17:00 - 22:00

Saturday and Sunday
11:00 - 22:00

Tel:
02 2369 8800
台北市中正區汀洲路3段202號

No. 202, 

Taipei City - 霸味薑母鴨 (木新店) - Ginger Duck, MuXin branch

Value for money: 7/10

Cleanliness: 5/10

Service: 8/10

Quality of food: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

As we were in MaoKong over the long weekend of 2/28 and getting cold, we decided to go and get some ginger duck to warm us up.

This chain ginger duck restaurant has branches everywhere, so we were just hoping it would be as good as what I hear the original store in SanChong is.

The pot you can see to the side of the massive pan with ginger in it, is one of the pots they serve up at your table.

What we ordered:

As we had ordered the Duck in ginger broth - 薑母鴨 jiāng mǔ yā (small pot $280), the coals were served and put on our table before the pot arrived.

Before the broth arrived, we were served up with our rice noodles 麵線 miàn xiàn. They were alright. They weren't about to change the way I think about Taiwanese food, but they provided the necessary carbohydrates for my meal.

The Duck intestines 鴨腸 yā cháng arrived cold, ready to be plunged into the molten ginger soup when it arrived. 

As the soup arrived, we prepared ourselves with two sauces provided for the table: The lighter coloured one is this salty sauce with no particular over-riding flavour. At first, I didn't particularly like it, but it grew on me as the meal progressed. It was fine, but I don't think necessary.

The other was just a spicy soy sauce, which I actually enjoyed more.

Packed full of duck, duck blood 鴨血, tofu skin 豆皮, frozen bean curd凍豆腐, hand made fish dumplings 手工魚餃 and duck meatballs 鴨肉丸, this soup was bursting with ingredients and aroma.

It seemed like every time the spoon came up, you could fish out something different.

The duck intestines went down to almost nothing if left too long. Not known for their flavour, particularly, but more for the slightly chewy texture.

We counted no more than 6 pieces of meat inside the pot, so it's a good job we had plenty of other things from the menu to eat. The meat itself was quite chewy, and not particularly flavourful. It had clearly been bubbling away for a while, otherwise it should have just fallen off the bone...

This is something I just cannot get used to in Taiwan. I know some people love chicken feet, so I presume duck feet are the same? However, the scales on the skin and the webbed feet on this duck foot was enough to make me shudder to look at it. And, really, it has no meat on it. If you are a regular foot eater, I'd love to know your thoughts on why you eat these things.

After we had only a little broth left and no more edible morsels to choose from, the pot was removed and the burning embers remained.

I have heard that the original store in SanChong is very good, so maybe I will try that next time. I feel that the chain stores can sometimes let standards slip and I don't want to decide that the SanChong one will be different, but I hope it will. 

Really, I expect the broth to have a deeper ginger flavour, I expect the meat to be cooked slower and for longer, and I expect there to be more meat. Afterall, it is called ginger DUCK.

Opening Times:
Monday - Sunday
16:30 - 02:00

Tel:
02 8661 3491


台北市文山區母新路2段233號

No. 233, MuXin Road, Section 2, WenShan District, Taipei City

Happy Eating!