Kitayama

好像回到台灣一樣，師博講台語好親切，菜的味道和菜市場超像的

2nd (and will be the last) visit, wasn’t impressed on our first, but decided collectively to give it one last chance, was ultimately disappointed. Held back on posting this until I discovered a fragment of a steel dish scrubber in my soup ( as shown in pic) Called to order for pick up, was told 20 min eta. Arrived at 20 mins, order not ready and waited another 15 minutes (total time ~35 mins), there was 1 table with 2 customers, food already served. I failed to see why my order took significantly longer than the eta provided I had 2 soups + oyster tapioca pancakes (they had “tapioca” in the name for unknown reason), as the lady carried out the much delayed order in one single plastic bag, I could see my soups have already spilled leaving us with just 70% of the soup remaining in the bowl( checked when I got home), lady brought the spilled bag back into the kitchen which took another 5 minutes minimum. Came back out with my soups STILL in one big bag, but this time soups were individually bagged, failing to comprehend that the culprit is putting both soups in a single big bag that tilts as you lift the handle. At the end of the day, more soup was visibility spilled as she carried it out again, as I simply didn’t have the luxury to wait for another failed attempt to fix the downward spiraling situation, I grabbed my order and walked out frustrated, only to have their strong-springged door hit me in the behind on my way out. Frustrations were real, total time spent upon arrival = 45mins (2.25x the initially communicated via phone), received 70% soup for consumption, had a mess to clean up at home as bowls were soaked in soup, food wasn’t anything to be remembered for, until I found the steel fragment which could’ve ended badly had I not notice it. Will NOT return, I miss the Japanese restaurant from before.

Amazing. I love their bentos bc It gives me a Lil bit of everything. And if you don't like the main dish, the sides fill you up too (side note, bone-in fish ain't fun). I also LOVE to grab some of the discounted grocery goods and just see how to cook with them back home. (Update 6/27: there's none of the old bentos OR the grocer anymore, their other half got overtaken by a bakery! And the only veggies there are sad boiled cabbage.)

Authentic Taiwanese foods

Ordered lamb pot. It is pretty good. Lamb is soft. Soup has some herbal taste

My wife ordered togo and waited for one hour! There were only two tables eating and no line. The food is mediocre at best. Not recommended.

Today, I went out for dinner with a group of friends. We know this place used to be a Japanese supermarket, and now is a Taiwanese cuisine restaurant. As soon as we walked in, we noticed the wallpaper of Ximending （西門町）on the wall, indicating it’s a Taiwanese I’m restaurant. We were immensely impressed with the food during our first visit. All of us, being Taiwanese, absolutely loved it. The stinky tofu （臭豆腐）had a strong fermented flavor and tasted delightful, especially when paired with the house-made pickled vegetables. The popcorn chicken （鹽酥雞）was tender, quite large, and paired with basil, making it a Taiwanese classic dish. Additionally, we ordered Taiwanese stir-fried noodles （台式炒麵）and pork intestine and pig blood stew（五更腸旺). These are dishes we often eat back in Taiwan. The stir-fried noodles tasted just right, with the perfect noodle texture, accompanied by strips of meat and cabbage which added to a great flavor. The stew with pork intestines and pig’s blood paired with pickled cabbage reminded me of the taste I had experienced back in Taipei. We also ordered cabbage with bacon (高麗菜炒培根）where is a great combination of this two dishes, as well as veggie eggs (菜脯蛋) which gave us a great taste and last order was Hakka stir-fry (客家小炒）where the pairing of dried tofu, celery, pork strips, and squid was spot-on and felt light and refreshing to the palate. We highly recommend everyone to come and give it a try.