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一刻又一嗑
LV 31|Bronze Foodie

📍Location: Pingtung, Wanluan
Personal Review: Eating with a group = enjoying many dishes + not too expensive!
Super filling and splitting the bill makes it very cost-effective!
Summary: After eating and drinking to our hearts' content, we also took a portion of pork knuckles home!


When in Wanluan, you definitely have to try the pork knuckles!

This time we visited the famous Xiong Family Wanluan Pork Knuckles, which is well-known but not the most famous place in Wanluan. The most famous is another restaurant, Haihong Hotel (an old establishment that gained fame after being visited by President Chiang Ching-kuo), so the crowd at this restaurant tends to block the little bustling area of Wanluan. Despite Haihong Hotel having three separate establishments and four parking lots, it still gets very crowded. During holidays, more people tend to visit, especially during the Lunar New Year reunion and travel times. Whether or not you eat at Haihong Hotel, you need to mentally prepare for the crowds when you enter the bustling area of Wanluan during holidays or tourist seasons.


The Xiong Family Wanluan Pork Knuckles we dined at was highly recommended by a relative who is a food enthusiast.
👉 Reasons for the relative's recommendation include:

  1. They believe this restaurant's pork knuckles taste better (personal preference).
  2. The environment is clean, and the food is served quickly.
  3. The staff is friendly and polite.

While making the recommendation, my relative praised the staff's friendliness, the cleanliness, and the speed of service, and I experienced firsthand why it received such high recommendations.

🛎️ About the service:
Located in the rural Wanluan, most of the staff are middle-aged to elderly, and you rarely see young people, or if you do, they might be foreign brides.
You can see that even though the staff are older, they are not slow; they don't rush but carry out their tasks methodically. It may seem slower, but they actually complete tasks quickly. They kept track of the number of diners and served the exact amount of dipping sauce for the pork knuckles. Although they serve each dish one at a time, soon all the empty spaces on the table were filled.

In a busy and noisy environment, it's common for staff to become impatient due to fatigue. We dined on the last day of the Lunar New Year, even at a time close to the end of lunch, yet the staff still greeted us with smiles, asking for understanding about their fatigue, while maintaining a good speed of service. They would double-check orders to avoid mistakes, smiling to welcome guests and seeing them off with a smile. It’s no wonder my relative highlighted their service! The seemingly simple rural eatery offers a warmth and quality service that many urban restaurants cannot match, with a perfect touch of enthusiasm.

I once doubted: Is it because this restaurant isn't that famous, leading to less crowd and the staff having the time and energy to be so pleasant? But upon understanding, I found out that this restaurant has its own small fame! From what I gathered, this restaurant assisted with the filming of the drama "Niangjia" (Mother's House) and even opened another branch in Checheng specifically for this collaboration! That branch is the filming location! Indeed, the drama has already finished filming, and the restaurant has continued to operate until now!

🪑 About the environment:
This is not what you would call an elegant restaurant. The front counter is just a preparation area, with round tables inside, and there are seats on the second floor as well. The entire place has an old-fashioned style, with tiled floors. Each round table is covered with pink plastic cloth, reminiscent of traditional banquet setups.
At least when you walk past, the floor doesn’t feel sticky or damp, and the indoor air doesn't have a musty or stale smell. To maintain walkway space, the edges of the round tables are smaller, making it easy to run into others and block paths.
I noticed that some reviews on Google Maps expressed discontent about "flies in the restaurant." During our meal, we only encountered one fly, which appeared towards the end of our meal (when most of us were already full and chatting while drinking tea and soup), so it didn’t affect our dining experience significantly.

As for the dishes, I’ll leave that to the photos to explain!

🅿️ About parking:
There are many parking lots nearby, mostly belonging to Haihong Hotel. In the southern region, it's common to park along the roadside, in places marked with white lines and without red lines. If you see others parked, there’s usually no significant issue. 👌
However, one must be cautious of ditches! In rural areas, roads often lack guardrails, so if you inadvertently park too close to the edge, you might end up in a ditch, which would be a hassle!

A large bowl of pig's feet is placed right at the entrance. This is the pig's feet area. Whether dining in with some points, asking for takeout after getting full, or having someone take it out on-site, the staff quickly grabs a piece and slices it into chunks. I'm not quite sure what issues some comments mentioned regarding weighing? However, the pig's feet here only come in large and small portions. Later, I took a small portion to-go, and it indeed had a big bone inside. The meat felt quite limited, but the bag was quite large, and it was indeed the amount of one foot (they cut it for you to see on-site). During our dine-in this time, we also ordered the small portion of pig's feet along with other side dishes, so the amount of meat each person received might not be much. But when I took home a small portion of pig's feet for myself, I enjoyed about 4-5 meals, with each meal containing 4-5 pieces of meat (some big, some small). The experience felt that the meat was already well-braised and shrunk, with not much fat, mostly lean meat, so it was solid and not greasy. (Of course, the skin might be a bit oily, but overall it has a chewy texture.)
The dine-in pig's trotters (small portion) $350 The bones are very cleanly shaved, and you basically can't taste any small bones. It's delicious with the dipping sauce. $350 is the price after the increase.
Upon close inspection, it can be seen that the meat ratio is very high, with not much fat, and the skin is flavorful and quite chewy. It feels more like eating cold marinated food rather than warm pig's trotter. The dipping sauce is abundant, served in a large plate, and everyone gets their own plate, so there’s no need to worry about fighting over it with others.
The staff here look just like regular customers; they have employee uniforms, but not everyone wears them, so it's a bit difficult to recognize them. This one can actually be considered at the grandma level! But she quickly asked for the number of people, and soon after, the dipping sauces arrived.
Pig Tail (Small Portion) $200 Braised Duo (Tofu and Black Wheel) $80 Relatives recommend trying the pig tail, but of course, some people hesitate because of the cut of meat. Personally, I think it’s not inferior to pig feet! If you feel that pig feet is a bit too expensive to accept, and you are willing to try pig tail, it’s definitely worth a try! Braised tofu and braised black wheel are more like home-style dishes; they are tasty but not as special as pig feet and pig tail.
The pig's tail has only one tail bone in the middle, and the proportion of skin is higher than that of eating pig's feet (compared to pig's feet, there is more skin and less meat). It has a chewy texture and a fragrant flavor from braising, but of course, there is less meat.
Mushroom and Sugar Cane Sprout $260 A very special dish that includes 2-3 types of mushrooms, along with carrots and peas, stir-fried with sugar cane sprouts. The sugar cane sprouts are crunchy and have a texture reminiscent of stir-fried bamboo shoots. The sauce is smooth and thick, making it a dish that goes very well with rice.
Crispy bamboo shoots $280 The portion of bamboo shoots is generous, making it a versatile dish. It’s neither spicy nor overly salty, and it's one of those homestyle but delicious meals.
Golden Fried Tofu $180 I personally think it's a fairly average fried tofu, with a standard crispy exterior paired with garlic sauce. Perhaps due to the weather, it cooled down quickly and the exterior became hard.
Close-up of fried tofu
Garlic Sweet Spinach $180 The stir-fried spinach is really delicious; the restaurant puts in plenty of garlic, which gives it a strong garlic aroma. It's also one of the tasty home-cooked dishes.
Sakura shrimp with cabbage $200 I mainly wanted to eat fresh cabbage, but it seems the restaurant only offers one cooking option, which is stir-fried with sakura shrimp. It's just a regular stir-fried cabbage dish.
Oil Onion Ban Noodles $70*2 (I am a bit unsure about the name of this dish.) Because when ordering, everyone was calling out "Fried Noodles, Fried Noodles," but the menu only has the option for Ban Noodles, so I'm not sure if it's a hidden menu or if they are actually the same thing. This portion is very delicious! It has a strong wok aroma, the noodles are chewy, and the flavors are well-infused; you could finish it all by itself without any sides. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too small; the plate in the photo is already two servings, and we still felt it wasn't enough. But personally, I think it’s a must-order! It’s really fragrant.
Sakura shrimp fried rice $120 Perhaps the stir-fried rice noodles are so delicious that the sakura shrimp fried rice seems a bit ordinary. Actually, it's quite fragrant too, but I would still vote for the stir-fried rice noodles.
Golden Kimchi $80 The portion is quite substantial, but it's slightly pricey for the price. The flavor is strong, and it's definitely meant to be eaten with side dishes and rice. Personally, I think it's optional to order; the main dish itself is delicious. If you want to balance out the richness, you can order it, but it won’t add any extra flair to the meal. Not ordering it also won't leave you feeling like you're missing out on anything.
Private crispy radish $80 It's slightly on the expensive side, but the flavor is strong, and it definitely needs to be paired with vegetables and rice. In this dish, we also found a piece of hidden pineapple (probably scooped up together while serving), so even though the portion might seem large, be careful as there might be a few pieces that are pineapple instead of radish...
Sour Cabbage and Pork Slice Soup (Small Size) $200 To avoid leaving out those who do not eat intestines, we didn't order the tripe soup, but the tripe soup is actually highly recommended. If you don't order kimchi, I also highly recommend this sour cabbage-flavored soup to help cleanse your palate! The Sour Cabbage and Pork Slice Soup is quite hearty, and there’s a lot of meat included; however, we ordered a lot of dishes, so this time we felt a bit full and couldn’t finish it, which was a bit of a pity.
Group photo of the dishes Tried to take a photo of them all, but some were taken away after being finished or combined into one plate.
The clerk at the entrance is specialized in processing pig trotters on an assembly line. Frozen pig trotters are also available for purchase, but personally, I feel that frozen ones lose some flavor; it's better to buy them fresh and eat them quickly at home.
There are actually similar products for sale nearby, such as pickled cabbage and grass rice cakes, but not all of them have prices displayed.
The inscriptions and paintings in the store.
The store also has a second floor, and this time we are sitting on the second floor.
It's already 1:00 PM, and there are still a lot of people, perhaps partly due to the Spring Festival.
The sign in the upper right corner specifically states, "My family's place" comes here for filming (but it is going to another branch).
After eating and drinking to our heart's content, let's take home a portion of pig trotters to continue enjoying!
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熊家萬巒豬腳923屏東縣萬巒鄉褒忠路156號
Taiwanese restaurantNT$330
1 review
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