本燔寿喜烧·涮涮鍋

The origin of Benfan:
"Ben" means primitive or fundamental.
"Fan" refers to cooking or burning with fire.
"Benfan" prepares the chosen ingredients in the most fundamental way to bring out their original deliciousness.
Thus, Benfan Sukiyaki adopts the Kanto-style sukiyaki flavor, using Taiwan as a vast farm, carefully selecting local farmers to provide the freshest and most diverse vegetables as the source of ingredients. We expect every gourmet to enjoy a natural balance between meat and vegetables while savoring the ultimate fresh taste of Kanto-style sukiyaki, and to experience the most natural and fundamental emotional connection.
——— Extracted from the official website of Benfan Sukiyaki Shabu-Shabu.

For dinner, my friend wanted to eat sukiyaki. We had been here twice before, and didn't realize it had been revamped—they no longer have staff assist with the food; it's now a self-service bar, and it has also become slightly more expensive.
Originally, the restaurant was on the 2nd and 3rd floors, with a semi-open space on the 3rd floor. Now it is on the 6th and 7th floors.

It was funny that we were unaware of this change, and when we walked up the stairs to the 2nd floor and could not push the door open, we realized it had moved to the 6th and 7th floors. After taking the elevator to the 7th floor to check in, a staff member led us down the stairs, and my friend joked about whether we were being taken to the 2nd floor again 🤣.

We noticed that there seemed to be drinks available in the waiting area.

The dining area is on the 6th floor, and we made a reservation for dinner at 8 PM for 90 minutes with a 10% cleaning fee. For regular meat, children under 90 cm eat for free, 91-110 cm is 100 TWD, 111-130 cm is 160 TWD, and 131-150 cm half price.
For children who order Wagyu, it's free for those under 90 cm, 100 TWD for 91-110 cm, 200 TWD for 111-130 cm, and half price for 131-150 cm.

⭐️Birthday celebrants showing ID receive a 30% discount on the day and 10% discount in that month, but friends accompanying the celebrant cannot enjoy the discount 🙅.
⭐️Cannot be combined with other discount vouchers or used to offset the cleaning fee 🙅.
With 10 people, 1 person is free; with 20 people, 2 people are free, and so on.
⭐️No preferential treatment on cleaning fees, and cannot be combined with other discount vouchers.

If dining alone or with 2 people, there is an extra charge of 50 TWD on weekdays and 100 TWD on weekends.

Upon seating, there are six types of broth to choose from; previously, it was not a dual-flavor pot. My sister and I chose the spicy milk broth + Hokkaido kelp. The sukiyaki, kelp broth, and miso broth don’t require an extra charge, while the spicy milk broth costs 88 TWD, and the pig stomach broth is 58 TWD. The chef's special spicy hot pot is also 58 TWD (tofu and duck blood in the spicy pot can be replenished for free). CAS eggs are provided too~

The beverage bar has a Coca-Cola soda machine, slushie machine, Starbucks Americano machine, hot black tea, genmaicha, lavender milk tea, and for alcohol, Gold Medal 600ML/bottle (cold) for 120 TWD, Asahi beer/can (draft) (cold) for 80 TWD, and Japanese sake 200ML (cold) for 150 TWD.

The self-service bar offers squid paste, shrimp paste, enoki mushrooms, shimeji mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, squid balls, meatballs, Xin Xin sausage, taro, mochi, rice cake, tofu skin, cabbage, choy sum, bok choy, bean sprouts, and more. These will change with the seasons.
The sauce area offers sesame sauce, special soy sauce, radish puree, chopped green onions, chili, and more.

The rice cakes can be boiled and dipped in brown sugar powder as a dessert after the meal ~

There are also silver ear dessert, tofu pudding, and panna cotta, which can be topped with pearls and brown sugar syrup. The pearls are a bit hard.

It's an all-you-can-eat format; if you want meat, make sure to order it from the staff without forgetting how much you can order 🥺. Initially, a basic meat platter will be served, along with three types of beef sukiyaki rolls, and a DIY seaweed rice ball, accompanied by gloves to mold your portions. The cheesy instant noodles are a bit spicy. Side dishes can also be ordered from the staff for all-you-can-eat.

Since our dinner reservation was at 8 PM and they close at 9:30 PM, we ordered the last side dishes and desserts around 8:50 PM. Each person gets a serving of matcha sundae, vanilla sundae, and warm red bean soup with three small rice balls. After we ordered desserts, the staff mentioned that the self-service bar would start closing down, meaning after 9 PM we likely wouldn’t be able to grab anything from the self-service bar. The last call for meat orders is at 9 PM.

They took away the broth at 9:10 PM, but there is a service bell on the table that allows you to call staff for soup or food orders, which wasn’t mentioned before.
By 9:25 PM, they said they were closing, so we hurriedly finished what we could and left at 9:27 PM. We ate in a rush and couldn't really savor the flavors 😢.
We only ordered beef 🥩 and selected items without Wagyu; the beef seemed similar to me 🤣, I really couldn't tell the difference. The staff didn’t introduce anything; I could only recognize the marbled beef, which has more fat.

Compared to before, it’s quite similar, but now there’s shrimp paste, squid paste, silver ear dessert, tofu pudding, and panna cotta; I don't think the spicy milk broth was there before.

Dining during weekday lunch is more cost-effective, and the decor is quite beautiful, featuring a Japanese wooden ambiance. Parking for cars is available in the underground lot across the street, along with roadside paid parking spaces. Motorcycles can also park in the lot or roadside spots. It’s about a 10-minute walk from Zhongli Train Station.

Since I have only tried two sukiyaki places, I’m not sure how high the cost-performance ratio is for this one, but everyone can come and give it a try, and Benfan is located only in Zhongli!

Thank you all for reading this far 🙏, an unprofessional sharing 🌟.