"I'm hungry, I'm hungry! I heard a colleague say they wanted to eat sauerkraut fish, which reminded me of all the sauerkraut fish I saw on my phone earlier, so I decided to give it a try."
<About the meal🥣>
I ordered a spicy sauerkraut fish. The soup was very salty, but the spiciness wasn’t painful; instead, it gave a numbing sensation to my tongue as soon as I swallowed the soup. The fish was very tender, making me want to order another serving of fish to continue enjoying it. If you can’t or don’t dare to eat spicy food, I personally recommend the tomato-flavored sauerkraut fish.
<About the staff👨🍳>
The staff on site were very busy; I could even see their dishwashing area... but it was relatively clean.
<About the environment🐾>
The dining area was quite cramped, but it’s a paradise for food lovers. The white rice and drinks available were all delicious and enough to fill you up. The lighting and decor were very nice, making the dining experience very enjoyable. However, it’s a self-service ordering and payment restaurant, so if you come to eat, do pay attention to their ordering process.
On Friday evening, come to draw a number after work. I personally think on average you wait about three minutes for a group—there were actually quite a few number skips in between.
This was my first time trying the "Diao Min" sour fish with pickled vegetables. I can’t eat spicy, but I can eat sour, and this time both soup bases had a bit, but mainly I had the tomato base.
Personally, I highly recommend the shrimp paste, their meatballs, and the fish skin! Especially the fish skin—make sure to eat it right when it comes to the table while the soup base is still hot; it’s really delicious!
As for the tomato soup, I think it’s pretty standard—not too special, but not disappointing either.
What surprised me the most was the fish skin paired with the tomato soup base. The fish skin has a part that’s tender and a part that’s slightly crispy, which I really liked!
Also, their duck blood is actually quite good, but you really have to eat it while it's hot—once it cools down, the texture decreases quite a bit.
This time, my total spent was about 450 per person, which was significantly lower than expected. I originally thought it would be close to a thousand, but in reality, I wasn’t too full. Compared to other spicy hot pot places, it’s relatively budget-friendly.
Overall, I would still consider returning, as long as there aren’t too many people waiting for too long, I am willing to accept.
The sauerkraut fish with a little spiciness is quite spicy and very fragrant, but it is a bit salty, so it needs to be paired with white rice. The dining environment in the restaurant is spacious, and the drinks are pretty good. However, during dinner service on a weekday like today, there are fewer staff, so I'm not sure if my order was placed after I ordered. I could only confirm it when the food was delivered. It’s great that you can use the group discount vouchers, and takeout is very considerate, so if you can’t finish your meal, you can take it home. The clams are just okay.
📍 Xinyi District, Taipei City (near the MRT Xiangshan Station)
Recently popular restaurant | Modestly adjusted sour fish to fit Taiwanese tastes 🐟
Diao Min has two locations in Xinyi District, with the later opening Xinyi Songren store being relatively hidden, located on B1 of ATT Valley.
On weekdays, there is usually no need to queue; you can go directly to the counter to get a menu, and after ordering, you can enter the restaurant directly.
🥘
Order items:
🍲 Secret Pot Sour Fish (NT$ 898) Large size
Add wide vermicelli, deep-fried dough sticks, and pork belly (NT$ 49 each):
Before the pandemic, when sour fish wasn't popular in Taiwan, I had eaten it at a chain restaurant in Shanghai. The oiliness, spiciness, and sourness there were at a level that I felt was hard for an average Taiwanese person to accept.
When I first tried Diao Min, I was worried, but luckily, I found it to be very mild sour fish 🤣 Although it was still quite oily, the sourness and spiciness were reduced significantly, similar to the sourness found in sour cabbage with pork dishes.
The soup was barely drinkable, but you could add pork bone white soup to mellow out the spiciness, and the texture of the fish was also quite good. It's a taste that I would miss after not having it for a while 🫶🏻
🪆 Muthang Cabbage (NT$ 90):
Vegetable dish cooked in broth, this time I felt the vegetable stems were still quite hard and not cooked until soft, so I wouldn't recommend it!
The portion is super large! A bowl of pot rice is definitely too much for an average girl to finish 😂. Usually, someone who doesn't feel full after a bowl of rice will be satisfied with just this bowl! The price and portion don’t make sense at all! It’s super generous in size! The flavor is also very strong! It's very authentic Sichuan, and you can have it as spicy as you want! The owner is very... straightforward 😂, no beating around the bush!
Located on the basement level 1 of the NanFang Shopping Center, Kaifan Sichuan Restaurant is a chain that specializes in Sichuan cuisine. I have visited different branches in Tainan and Kaohsiung, and the quality has been consistently good, making it hard to have a disappointing experience. Because it's delicious, this restaurant frequently makes it onto our dinner lists.
Recommended dishes:
Chili Pepper Century Egg Tofu: It looks greasy and has a lot of chili, but it tastes very refreshing with a hint of numbness. Importantly, this is one of the relatively inexpensive dishes on the menu and is very appetizing.
Mapo Tofu: The numbing and spicy flavor is delightful, making it a killer dish for white rice. It's very hot, so be careful not to burn yourself while eating. The seasoning is much better than the "Taiwanese-style" mapo tofu found in other restaurants.
Tear-Jerker Egg: We didn’t order this dish this time, but it’s incredibly tasty. It features a fried egg stir-fried with Sichuan peppercorns. It looks simple but tastes amazing, so I still recommend it.
Stir-fried Lotus Root with Matsusaka Pork: Delicious! The lotus root is bright green and has great texture, paired with the also very textured Matsusaka pork. Stir-fried and served fresh, it is rich in sweetness and aroma. The only downside is that I’m not sure if it’s because the air conditioning is too cold, but the outer layer of the lotus root felt warm when served, which doesn’t quite give the impression of being freshly stir-fried.
Crispy Pork Belly: I hadn’t seen this dish before, perhaps it’s a recent addition. The pork belly is battered, deep-fried, and then stir-fried. The calories are off the charts, and the dish contains a lot of dried chili and some crispy rice crusts, making it both fragrant and crispy with a hint of sesame oil and spiciness. The downside is that it’s a bit too spicy, and the portion of meat is somewhat small, giving it a low value for money in comparison.
Inside the Shangqing Twilight Market, the stalls are not particularly prominent, and the food displayed on the tables is not overly abundant, making it quite easy to miss.
This vendor sells Sichuan-style dishes, each portion is sold individually and the prices aren't too high. However, there's something that strikes me as quite strange: despite selling Sichuan cuisine, they don’t offer plain rice. It’s hard to understand what kind of clientele they are catering to. If someone is cooking at home, they are unlikely to just make plain rice and then come buy Sichuan dishes to go with it. And if someone doesn’t want to cook, how can they enjoy dishes like stir-fried minced pork or chopped chili fish without rice to go with them?
Among the dishes they serve, I would recommend their "ants climbing a tree," which is fried vermicelli! It’s not too spicy but has a nice texture and a salty flavor.
I also ordered a portion of chopped chili fish. I'm not sure what type of fish it is, but there were a lot of fish bones, which was quite frustrating. The seasoning is already a bit spicy and sour, making you want to quickly shovel rice to eat it. Instead, you have to keep the fish in your mouth and slowly pick out the bones 😆.
Overall, it's a passable little Sichuan eatery. Also, their dishes don’t have prices listed, so you’ll need to ask the owner!
📌 No service charge
🔹 Environment
Indoor seating with air conditioning, available tables for two or four.
🔹 Service
The owner has a warm attitude and is eager to introduce things, but when I responded, I was often interrupted as the owner really wants to talk...
🔹 Ordering
As the skewers for self-service are behind a glass refrigerator, I couldn't take clear photos, please forgive me.
There are many types of self-service skewers, I took pictures of a few to help everyone assess the portion sizes; the prices vary for each type of skewer.
Whether you order the Bu Bu Ji hot pot base or a personal set (sour and spicy noodles, Mao Cai), you can tell the owner if you want to buy extra skewers.
🔹 Meals
Beef set $190
Available in spicy, prickly ash, and tomato flavors.
I ordered the prickly ash flavor.
You can choose one bowl of rice, half a bowl, or no rice.
Location and Transportation: Located on Yanji Street in the eastern district of Taipei, close to Section 4 of Ren'ai Road and near the MRT Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Station, public transportation is convenient. There are paid motorcycle and car parking spaces at the shop entrance, but it's usually hard to find an available spot.
Space: The shop is clean and tidy inside, with about 28 seats. It quickly fills up during lunch hours, and if it's full, you'll need to wait outside the shop or take out your food.
Ordering and Payment: After marking your order on the menu, you can pay at the counter using cash or street payment. The layout for checkout and food delivery overlaps, so you need to be cautious of safety when it's busy.
Meal: The first dish is served about 15 minutes after ordering, and the rest of the dishes arrive after 20 minutes. The food is piping hot when served, so be careful as it may splash on your clothes. I ordered a seafood and pork hot pot with ramen, which included 2 shrimp, 5 slices of squid, 2 pieces of wood ear mushrooms, pork slices, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, and 1 piece of sweet and spicy fish cake. The ramen is on the thicker side, more like udon? Overall, it tastes sweet and has ample ingredients, making it a satisfying meal. I won't comment on my dining companions' dishes since I didn't taste them, but they said the slight spiciness indeed had some heat, so those who are sensitive to spice might want to consider it. Some dishes can be made non-spicy or mildly spicy, so there's no need to worry.
Overall Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑
Dickson's Fooday food review is here!
Today, I will introduce a Sichuan-style fish restaurant in Shulin District. Who would have thought you could find sour fish in such a remote place?
Finding this restaurant is not an easy task. It’s quite a challenge just to locate it in the forest. How would anyone even know there’s a restaurant here?
Moreover, it is tucked away in a small alley, and there isn’t any particularly obvious sign outside. It seems like a local delicacy that only the locals would know about!
In fact, the dishes here are all very delicious. I think their Sichuan-style fish is great too. The main menu focuses on dishes that are a bit spicy. Although the owner claims that the food here is very spicy, in reality, it’s not as spicy as I imagined!
It seems the owner's idea of spicy isn’t really spicy? 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I think the Sichuan dishes and sour fish here taste quite good.
On top of that, the portions are huge, enough for everyone, and the prices are reasonable. Who knew there was such a big price difference between Taipei and Shulin in New Taipei 🤣🤣🤣
The lower score here is primarily because it’s truly too remote. It gives off a bit of a factory dormitory vibe—it’s the kind of place where workers from the area would come to eat after work. It resembles a worker’s canteen, with no special decor or arrangement, just a few simple tables. A traditional owner cooks in the kitchen and serves the food.
But if we’re talking solely about the food, I think it’s excellent. So if you are looking for impressive Sichuan cuisine or sour fish, definitely come here to give it a try!
Food: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌘
Drinks: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Atmosphere: 🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑
Service: 🌕🌕🌕🌑🌑
Price: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
Location: 🌕🌕🌘🌑🌑
⭐️ Food
On that day, I came with many friends and we booked two tables. We ordered dishes that included sour fish, spicy boiled fish, boiled beef, and egg pancakes.
I can only say that the sour fish and spicy boiled fish here are very good. If you like to eat spicy food, you will probably love this place too. Of course, you may think that the dishes are very spicy from what’s written, but when they arrive, we feel that the owner’s idea of spicy isn’t really spicy. So if you love spicy food, remember to tell the owner to add a bit more spice 🤣🤣🤣
The boiled beef here is also quite generous. The cooking method is somewhat similar to curry, but overall the flavor is quite rich and not spicy at all. The beef portion is also very generous.
With about six or seven people at our table, we couldn't finish everything. In the end, we had to take some leftovers home.
Compared to Taipei, this place offers very substantial portions and reasonable quantities. When the dishes arrived, I was a bit surprised because the plates were huge. So if you’re coming here to eat, you might want to consider whether you can finish the portions 🤣
⭐️ Drinks
The drinks here are just basic sodas or tea, so I’m not going to comment much here. They are the typical drinks you would see in a shared meal restaurant.
⭐️ Atmosphere
The atmosphere here is essentially non-existent. It feels more like eating in an outdoor restaurant in the wilderness. The inside space is relatively spacious; you can see from the pictures that it’s a metal shed with four or five tables. Other than that, there’s basically no decor or special ambience. From outside the restaurant, you wouldn’t even know this is a restaurant.
So, I can only say this place is likely known to locals or people from the area.
⭐️ Service
There wasn’t anything particularly special about the service, but the owner is very warmhearted. When serving the food, he would ask if we could handle the level of spiciness, and we felt awkward telling him it wasn’t really spicy 🤣🤣
The owner is genuinely a very enthusiastic person cooking in the kitchen.
⭐️ Price
Given that so many of us ate and still had leftovers, the cost per person was only about 600 or 700. You could say the value for money is very high, and the portions are very generous, along with good flavor. Personally, I think it’s fantastic.
⭐️ Location
This restaurant is actually not located in the urban area, so if you want to come, you definitely need to drive here and know this location well. There isn’t really much in the way of parking nearby.
So you basically park on the roadside. Although this place isn’t too far from Taipei, you have to drive here, and if you’re not familiar, it may take some time to walk to get there.
⭐️ Conclusion
Though this place feels like a rural small restaurant, the food is really delicious and the portions are large. If you have a chance to be around Shulin and don’t mind eating sour fish or Sichuan cuisine, I highly recommend trying this restaurant.
And since not many people know about it, it likely won’t be crowded.
But I still suggest giving them a call first to ask, as some dishes do require reservations.