尬鍋 台式潮鍋 台北西門店

Foodholic Nakoko @ Taipei

“Gagou Taiwanese Chao Hotpot” is a personal hotpot brand under the Wang Ping Group, and I eat here quite often because I can choose the vegetables I want to eat by myself, which lets me skip the hotpot ingredients and just pick vegetables. I used to go to the Taipei Nanjing East Store near Zhongshan Station more often, but this is the first time dining at the Taipei Ximen Store near Ximen Station.

The space inside the restaurant is relatively large, but I find the tables a bit too close together. For instance, today we shared a table with customers next to us, separated only by one of those panels used for pandemic prevention, making the table feel quite small. We had to fit the pot, the meat platter, the vegetable platter, along with our individual small plates and bowls, which made everything feel very crowded and not convenient for dining.

We ordered a pork and chicken combo for $349 + gold and silver garlic clam chicken soup for $69, and fresh fish from the treasure island for $289 + stone chicken soup for $0.

Additionally, we used a meat coupon recently given away in a Gagou LINE promotion to get an extra platter of snowflake beef for free. So we ended up having beef, pork, chicken, fish, and clams—all of it! What a perfect plan!

As for the soup bases, the stone chicken soup is actually not oily and is quite light, a basic option. The garlic clam chicken soup has a strong garlic flavor; I felt it was pretty good just on its own.

In terms of the meat, overall I’d rate it about 70 points. The chicken initially had a slight gamey taste, but it was fine once dipped in the sauce. The pork and fish were decent, while the beef had a fair amount of marbling, which was quite tasty, but it wasn’t anything top-tier since it is an affordable hotpot and expectations weren’t too high.

I think the variety of vegetables offered by Gagou is quite plentiful. There were cabbage, bok choy, Napa cabbage, Chinese spinach, and more, along with cucumbers, carrots, tofu, and taro. They also have hotpot ingredients available, providing a lot of options!

For drinks, my favorite is the winter melon lemonade, which is sweet and tangy, super refreshing!

As for desserts, there is free ice cream. I always recommend the soy milk ice cream, which is Gagou’s signature item. It’s not too sweet and has a light soy milk flavor. Regardless of what the other flavor is every time, I still find the soy milk one the best! (Today's other flavor was peanut, which is also quite good~~~)