尬鍋 台式潮鍋 台北南京東店
【Foodholic Nako @ Taipei】
"Gogog鍋台式潮鍋" is a hot pot brand under the Wang Group, which can be considered as personal hot pot where each person orders their own main dish and broth. The branch we dined at today is the "Taipei Nanjing East Branch," located near Zhongshan Station, about a 4-minute walk from exit 2. The restaurant environment is quite clean, and it doesn't feel crowded or uncomfortable.
The ordering method is online, starting with selecting the main dish, then the broth, and finally the sides. If you want to purchase other individual items or cooked food, you can do so; as for vegetables, hot pot ingredients, drinks, and desserts, they are available at a self-service bar where you can take as much as you want.
Gogog鍋's broth focuses on chicken soup, with only a few broths available without additional charge, such as stone chicken soup. Most of the broths require an extra charge ranging from $39 to $69, including spicy chicken soup, peeled chili chicken soup, garlic chicken soup, and so on.
Broth
We chose stone chicken soup and spicy chicken soup, both of which were quite good. The plain stone chicken soup has a sweet flavor that is enjoyable to drink on its own, while the spicy chicken soup isn’t very spicy at first but becomes spicier the longer it cooks. One small drawback is that no matter which broth you choose, the refill will only be plain chicken broth, which may dilute the spiciness for guests who want to maintain the heat.
Main Dish
We both chose plum blossom pork. Personally, I think the pork slices at Gogog鍋 are quite generous; there were about 15 slices, which is more than enough for women. The meat quality is pretty good as well, not falling apart easily, so it's likely not restructured meat.
Sides
The self-service bar offers free white rice with no additional charge. If you want to choose scrambled eggs, Prince noodles, scallion noodles, or chicken rice, there’s an extra charge of $15 to $30.
Self-Service Bar
The vegetable selection includes cabbage, baby bok choy, baby vegetables, water spinach, etc. There are also whole foods like white radish, taro, carrot, tofu, corn, as well as signature fish cakes, black wheels, sausages, and dumplings for hot pot ingredients. A little disappointing is that I feel the proportion of hot pot ingredients is a bit high; I hope there are more whole food options.
Drinks and Desserts
The self-service bar also has a soda machine, red tea, and winter melon lemonade available. The winter melon lemonade is quite refreshing, which I like, but it’s a pity that the only unsweetened drink is tea bags, so you can only prepare hot drinks. Gogog鍋 offers two flavors of soft serve ice cream: peanut and soy milk. As far as I remember, soy milk flavor is available every time, and I really enjoy it with meal tea powder; I eat it this way every time!
Additional items that need to be purchased (but I exchanged with coupons, so they were free):
- Boneless salty crispy chicken $109, the portion is quite small, with only about 6-7 pieces. The flavor is quite Taiwanese-style crispy chicken—on the salty side, which is not bad but due to the small portion, it seems a bit pricey, and I probably won't order it again.
- Fried egg $30, with options for soft or hard. If you're having rice, ordering a semi-soft one to mix with rice is great. This time I didn’t plan on having rice, so I ordered it hard, and the edges were really crispy, served with a little pepper; it was still quite good!
- Sugar-fried clouds $59, which is essentially sugar cake, served with peanut sugar powder. It conveniently comes with a paper bag, and you can shake it all together before eating; it's similar to the way you eat shaking fries. Each piece is small enough to fit in your mouth, sweet and chewy, quite tasty, but I’d suggest enjoying it hot. Once it cools down, it feels a bit oily.
I personally highly recommend Gogog鍋; you can eat quite satisfactorily for about $400 to $500 per person. The food quality is pretty good, and I suggest adding Gogog鍋 as a friend on LINE, as they often provide vouchers for free food exchanges or discounts. You can receive vouchers by filling out a questionnaire after the meal, which makes it a very generous restaurant.