台湾春天之旅 2013-鼎王麻辣鍋

Shan Shan Jie had arranged to meet us for dinner tonight and is bringin us to try the famous spicy mala hotpot in Taiwan. Was beri excited as this is the 1st time we are having the authentic mala spicy hot pot in Taiwan.

Front of the shop

Had research before hand to find the nearest MRT station. Its a 10min walk from 中山站. Thus, I planned to leave our hotel by 7pm as our appointment is at 8pm.

In the end, we took a cab down as we were running late as the restaurant had requested us to reach 15min before our booking in order to secure a place. Shan Shan Jie had originally arranged to pick us up but ended up rushing down to secure our booking 1st.

Cab fare to there from hotel is NTD 200 which is not very expensive.

Menu

A long queue was forming when we reached and I am secretly glad that we had a booking. Was ushered in upon reaching.

We were greeted warmly by the staff who all were trained to bow at 90 deg to their customers. Oh my, how back breaking this job is!!

The lightings inside were a little dim and furnishings were all of oriental style. There is a particular staff who is assigned to our table to facilitate our ordering. I am not sure how many tables each waiter/waiteress will be taking care of. But they were pretty attentive in my opinion.

Beri heavy tea pot

We were told that the dining time is limited to 2hrs and Mr Love and I were abit shocked. Where in the heck limit plp's eating time de.. But Shan Shan Jie explained that as this is a very sought after restaurant, thus they have to limit the dining time.

It is so popular that they opening hrs are from 11am to 4am and yet always have a long queue outside. How cool is that?

Light above the hotpot

We leave the ordering to Shan Shan Jie since she is a local and she ordered a medium spicy pot. Along with a medium sour for the non spicy side.

They do not served buffet here and thus everything is ala-carte. Told Shan Shan jie to go easy on the ordering as we are still quite full from our day trip earlier. But being the ever 好客 Taiwanese, she went all out to order what we tot to be 1 of everything on the menu. Haha

The 鸳鸯锅

The soup base are refillable along with duck blood (鸭血) and tofu. We didnt take the duck blood but took alot of the tofu instead. They were yummy, having soaked inside the soup for prolong hours. Hehe. I think they refilled our spicy pot at least 4 times during the 2 hrs we were there.

Some of the stuff we had

Caught up abit with Shan Shan Jie as we eat. Was in a rush due to the time limitations. I loved the soup based here though I did not really try the non spicy 1. Going for it only when the spicy 1 proved too much for me to handle. Haha

When it is near to 2hrs, the staff came and remind us and helped us to da bao whatever we could not finish. They top up the spicy soup for us as well. Told Shan Shan Jie to bring home as we couldnt be bringing it with us to our hotel room.

Bill came up to be NTD 2400 which is ard SGD 100+. Was quite reasonable given the amount of food we ordered but again, the only thing I wasnt so happie is the 2hrs limit. Had it been no limitations, I would feel much happier.

That being said, I will still visit this place again if I come back, maybe I will try the Taichung branch if given a chance. It is said to have originated from Taichung.

Thank you for the wonderful time and treat Shan Shan Jie :)

鼎王麻辣锅

The map