Showing posts with label area- MRT SYS Memorial Hall. Show all posts
Showing posts with label area- MRT SYS Memorial Hall. Show all posts

Friday, July 16, 2021

burger: I strongly recommend EVERYWHERE BURGER CLUB





EVERYWHERE BURGER CLUB 
No. 21號, Lane 420, Guangfu South Road, Da’an District, Taipei 
(02) 2704- 6825

MRT: SYS Memorial Hall

hours: 11:30AM - 3PM; 5PM - 10:30PM 

$$ 

 Visit reviewed: July 2021

Scanning their Instagram, it looks like Everywhere Burger Club has been around for awhile since 2016. Starting out as a food truck, they took their burgers, well, everywhere, around Taipei and so the name is fitting. I had heard about them for awhile, but hadn’t had a chance to try them until our months long lockdown and ordered a few for takeout when I couldn't get my usual spot on the phone. 

Their Classic Pickles comes with a layer of relish which gives the burger a refreshing bite. (I got mine without cheese and a double patty. I was also a little confused when I was ordering on the phone without a menu and when I ordered the hamburger, they said pickles in Chinese "huang gua"). I also had my eye on the Double Smash Burger with melted cheese. I did kind of miss the crunch of lettuce on the burgers, but the burgers look more consistent in photos and photograph really well. Luckily, they did taste as good as they looked. 

They were out of French fries that day (!?) so I just tried the burgers. But they also have mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries on the menu, as well as milkshakes. Can Everywhere Burger Club become a serious contender for best burger in Taipei? Based on the response on Instagram from just one photo, looks like everyone is still looking for burgers. 

Everywhere Burger Club also has a few unusual burger flavors- along with a vegetarian bean and edamame burger, there is also an almond bacon peanut butter (Peanut butter burgers were all the rage in Taipei maybe 10 years ago and now are a consistent option here, but I wonder if the almond is almond slivers or almond butter or where does the almond come in?), grilled garlic sour cream and mushroom, spicy jalapeño salsa, guacamole club (which sounds kind of good as long as they are using Haas avocados) and fried pineapple/grilled pineapple butter. I might have to try a few of those. 

And just to note, looks like their prices are slightly more on Ubereats than if you pick up yourself. 






Monday, July 17, 2017

korean/delivery: i strongly recommend CHEOGAJIP


CHEOGAJIP 起家雞
No. 26, Lane 290, GuangFu S. Road
台北市大安區光復南路290巷26號


MRT: SYS memorial Hall

hours: 11:30AM-10:30PM, Friday and Sat until 11PM

$$ (about NT$300 a person)

website: Cheogajip facebook page 

visit reviewed: 



WHAT TO DO IF YOU'VE JUST come back from a trip to Seoul and had a lot of glorious eating of everything BUT Korean fried chicken (韓國炸雞 )? If you're me, you call Cheogajip for a couple of boxes to go and then dig up photos from your visit last year to finally throw up this post. A few years ago, when Korean soaps started to invade Taipei, I started to see cups of korean fried popcorn chicken pop up on my instagram feed from Chicken in Bok and Beer, Chimac 175, and in real life, at the now closed Mom's Chicken, at ATT4Fun and even oven baked versions from Oven Maru. 

Cheogajip is a two story shop near the SYS Memorial Hall MRT, near the alleys that house Wendel's, Mazendo, Brookhurst Seafood Bar. Most of the seating is upstairs, and suitable for big groups. 




Cheogajip's menu offers over a dozen different types of Korean fried chicken. Sweet, spicy, boneless or whole chicken with bone, it can be difficult to narrow down the options if you have never tried it and only want to order one. If you can only choose one, I would go with the Boneless Spicy Yung Nyeom ($410) which is both sweet and spicy, with some honey to balance out the spiciness. Even if you get the regular Yung Nyeom it still has a tiny tinge of spiciness, so it just depends on your tolerance. If you have zero tolerance for heat, then you can opt for a Half Half box which has plain original fried chicken and your choice for the other half. Be warned though, there isn't much else on the menu besides fried chicken besides side dishes like salad, fries, spicy rice cake and rice with seaweed, so don't come expecting a fuller Korean menu.







For my first visit, I rounded up a group of friends who were excited to have some chicken and beer with me, so we were able to try a variety of flavors. Sticky, spicy, sweet, crispy, crunchy 🍗🍗. If you've never had Korean fried chicken before, Cheogajip is a great place to start. Just make sure to bring enough friends to share. Thank you to Cheogajip for hosting us that first time. 


Cheogajip has four main flavors that you can choose to be spicy or non spicy. Plain fried chicken original, their signature honey "yung nyeom", crispier soy sauce "warak", scallion fried chicken w a sweet sauce, and supreme with a drizzle of mayo. You can order a whole chicken (with bones), boneless or wings, and for the whole chicken you can choose 2 flavors. Sides include seaweed rice, salad, fries or beer. That's pretty much the menu. 
My favorites were the spicy signature honey boneless (this pic) and the non spicy soy, which is the crispiest. I think I might switch it next time and try non spicy honey and the spicy soy.. Lol! Portions are huge and the chicken meat was meaty and tender.


The servers were quite helpful in explaining to us what the differences were. Only the Yung Nyeom comes boneless, all the other are a whole chicken fried, but if you're a wings lover, it's no big deal. The only difference is that you can eat the boneless version with a fork and not get your hands dirty, where the regular kind you ware going to get sticky.


Yung Nyeom - Sweet and mild
Spicy Yung Nyeom- Spicy and sweet
Warak- Soy garlic
Supreme Yung Nyeom- with a drizzle of mayo
Scallion- Scallion

Whole chicken
Boneless chicken
Wings

(top left spicy young nyeom, top right scallion, bottom left warak)

Warak is slightly less sweet than Yung Nyeom since they use soy sauce instead of honey for the marinade. It's slightly crispier as well. If you can't finish a whole chicken, you can order just Warak wings.  Each piece was very juicy and tender and such a guilty pleasure to eat. Everyone gluttoned out on korean fried chicken and left very happy. 

Spicy rice cake (NT$90) 


Korean rice balls (NT$80) - DIY complete with glove to mix up the rice and seaweed and make your own rice balls




Yung Nyeom boneless (NT$360) mildly spicy honey glaze. Sooo hits the spot!


Boneless Scallion (NT$380) 


Warak (NT$430) soy garlic glaze


If you need anything you just press the call button on the table. 


Since my first visit, I've ordered to go from them a number times. It takes about 20-40 minutes for them to get the order ready, depending on how busy they are, so you can't order from them when you are in a rush since they fry to order. Where else have you guys tried chicken and beer in Taipei? 

Friday, June 03, 2016

mexican/ fusion: i recommend TWINKEYZ TACOS



TWINKEYZ TACOS
No. 7-1, Lane 131, Yanji St. 
台灣台北市大安區延吉街131巷7-1號(02) 2778-7707
MRT: SYS Memorial Hall
hours: 6PM - 11PM weekdays 
11:30AM-11PM weekends (although call before you go, this is from their Facebook page but two people told me they tried to go today (Sat lunch) and they were not open)

price: $$ (about NT$500/person)

kid friendliness: lots of non spicy options for kids, there are also fries and corn and chips

website: Twinkeyz Taco's FB page

Visit reviewed: 6/1/2016


I'M ON THE HUNT FOR TACOS IN TAIPEI on a quiet alley near Yanji Street. My phone GPS tells me I'm close and I spot the bright blue neon sign not far away. After attempts to walk in at Mume (packed), Le Blanc (kitchen closed at 9pm), Thai Made (closed at 9pm), Chi Mac (too heavy), I remembered that I wanted to try Twinkeyz and we walked from Yanji/RenAi to Yanji/Zhongxiao. 

Opened just a week ago, Twinkeyz Tacos aims to bring both street and uptown tacos to Taipei in a casual yet cool vibe. Along with tacos, there are nachos, kimchi fries, mexican corn, chicken wings, horchata and beer (although don't expect any burritos or quesadillas here). I know we all get excited everytime there is a new taco place in town, and even though I didn't want to get my hopes up, I can say, I think there's a lot of promise and y'all can get excited too.



In neatly lettered writing on the chalkboard above the counter, there's over a dozen tacos to choose from as well as a handful of munchies. It wasn't until I spied someone else with a paper menu that I asked to see it later for photos, even though I had already ordered. If you're traditional, stick to their street tacos like chicken, carnitas (pork), barbacoa (beef) or baja fish (which can be fried or grilled). If you're adventurous, you can try some fusion flavors like bollywood chicken (indian spiced), korean beef bulgogi (all the rage in LA, 10 years ago), gua bao remix (replacing the bun with tortilla in a Taiwanese pork belly bun), or sous vide Carne Asada. There are also three vegan tacos on the menu with soy chorizo, tofu taco or veggies.

I ordered an assortment to try (although I wish they had told me about the taco flight deal when I ordered) and my favorites surprised me..








It's great that Twinkeyz gives you free chips and salsa which is strangely rare in Asia. That being said, they just opened a week ago and are still in their soft opening, so they are still working everything out- from their pricing to the serving style to QC. The chips in my first round were fine, but the second round of chips were not crispy and not appetizing. 

TACOS! From left to right - Daddy's shrimp shebang (NT$130), Carnitas (NT$95), Carne Asada (NT$150), Barbacoa (NT$95)



When I ordered you can choose between flour or corn tortillas. Of course, corn. 

Let's take a closer look at the tacos. 

Daddy's shrimp shebang taco (NT$130) was hands down my favorite bite of the night. With shrimp marinated in the Shrimp Daddy's shebang sauce, mango salsa and (a bit too much) sour cream, the taco was filled to the brim and the shrimps were fresh and sweet. It was so good, I had to order another one. I haven't been to Shrimp Daddy's yet, but this taco made me want to try it. And if you're wondering why they are offering Shrimp Daddy's sauce, it's because the chef here at Twinkeyz used to make tacos at Shrimp Daddy's on Thursdays and it was so popular, it evolved into Twinkeyz Tacos.


Carnitas pork (NT$90 ) solid


Barbacoa beef (NT$95) solid 


Carne aside with guacamole (NT$150)-  I was a bit disappointed with the carne asade, especially since it was one of the most expensive tacos on the menu. The 48 hours sous vide made the meat quite tender, but the amount of meat in the tacos seemed lacking in proportion to the price and the guacamole though creamy, didn't taste sweet or maybe it wasn't ripe yet. I could get a whole burrito elsewhere for the price of this taco. I wouldn't order this again personally.




Nachos de Twinkeyz (NT$240)
Although there were a lot of chips on the platter, this was overpriced for me with no meat included in this price. (Meat is extra) There wasn't enough cheese, or it was oddly distributed, so that there were clumps on certain chips and zero cheese on many of the pieces. I have to say I'd prefer the nachos at Machos Tacos, 1Bite2Go or even the diner over this version, but it's an easy fix here. I would totally order Korean kimchi bulgogi nachos or even shrimp nachos, so if Twinkeyz could figure out some way to custom the nachos with marinated meats they already have on hand for the right price, it could offer the customers a lot more options. 


Round two 


Daddy's shrimp shebang taco (NT$130) still good as the first round, more mango salsa and less sour cream.


Baja fish taco- grilled mahi mahi. I originally was going to get the fried version, but the server suggested I try the grilled version and I'm glad he did. With purple cabbage and Twinkeyz orange sauce, this might have been my second favorite taco of the bunch.


Gua bao taco remix (NT$120) with braised pork belly, pickled vegetables, peanut powder and onions/cilantro. I've often bemoaned about the fact that many of the Mexican restaurants in Taipei were localized into weird versions of mexican food to suit local tastes (Doritos plus salsa does not equal nachos). But this kind of Tai-Mex fusion is something that I can say YES to. Why not take the heavier bun and swap it out for a tortilla, but keep all the elements of the gua bao? I wonder what locals will think of this, but it doesn't matter. This is totally something I could see happening on a food truck in LA.


The printed menu is fun with directions of "how to eat tacos like a boss" and more descriptions of each taco that I wanted to see when I was initially ordering. But eventually Twinkeyz will have to have either photos of some of their tacos and other dishes or photos of their food out front, if they want to draw in locals passing by. Macho Tacos, Eddy's, the defunct Juanitas and all the Mexican restaurants before them have done a lot of educating Taipei on what and how Mexican food is, but Twinkeyz has a slightly more gourmet vibe with the fusion tacos and higher price points, so they will still have to figure out ways to explain their different tacos quickly, so that if there are lines not everyone is asking a million questions on their first visit (like I was) instead of ordering. 

The prices on the menu are already different than the ones on the chalkboard and the chalkboard was taken down after I ordered and erased, so price points and menu are still being worked out and may not be exactly the same as this visit. That being said, I do think Twinkeyz should offer some sort of soft opening deal for early adopters/supporters who go and try their tacos while they are working everything out and also elicit feedback from customers. It would be great to have taco flight being buy 3 tacos, get 1 free or something along those lines, since it's best to try a variety of tacos and you need at least 3-5 to be full, since they are not that big. That being said, I'm happy there's another taco place in town, there's room for more. I know you guys love tacos too, so let me know if you try it based on this review and what you think, do these pics make you want to try it? Looking forward to my next round of tacos and trying to Twinkeyz into making me some customized nachos with more cheese please. 





:)