上海灘茶餐廳

🚩 Nostalgic Hong Kong-Style Tea Restaurant in Taipei's East District

Shanghai Beach Hong Kong-Style Tea Restaurant is located in Taipei's East District, with the nearest MRT station being Zhongxiao Dunhua Station, Exit 5, about a 3-minute walk away. It opened in 2007 and has been operating for quite a while. The interior decor of the restaurant has a tea house atmosphere, with green, yellow, and brown color themes, complemented by flashy wallpaper. The ceiling is relatively low, giving a slightly oppressive feeling. The seating consists of high-back sofa chairs that are not too cramped.

Ordering is done tableside with the staff, and payment is made after dining. Payment methods include cash, credit card, and Jiekou Pay, with traditional receipts available.

Today, all three of us ordered the Business Special Meal for $160 (includes a soup or drink).
Soup: Served very hot, containing chicken feet, yam, and goji berries. The ingredients were stewed to be very tender, and while the broth was slightly bland, it was quite good.
Drink: The iced lemon honey drink had a lot of crushed ice and tasted very bland, not impressive.
The main dish consisted of white rice, fried tofu, and edamame. The rice was rather dry, the fried tofu had a good texture but was in a disappointing quantity, and the edamame was not strongly flavored but okay.
Kung Pao Chicken Balls: The spiciness was moderate, and the chicken was a bit dry but very flavorful, with plenty of onions and peppers.
Special Sauce Chicken: The portion was somewhat small, with a soft texture but not very flavorful, not recommended.
Braised Tofu and Meat Slices with Rice: Very large portion! Besides mushrooms and meat slices, it also included mixed vegetables. I don't dislike mixed vegetables, but seeing them was a bit surprising. 😂

I checked and found that over the past decade, the special meal's price has only increased by 10 yuan, but the portion size has become somewhat subtle. Overall, the dining experience was mediocre, not highly recommended.

It's worth mentioning that the back of the menu lists the restaurant's rules, including common ones like minimum spending which won't be elaborated on here. Two unique rules are: no card games allowed; no use of nail polish remover or nail polish. There's a saying that every announcement has a story, and I'm quite curious to know the story behind this rule. 😂