📍Taipei Ximen Station

The new brand from the Zhu Jian Group takes a more upscale approach, located above the troublesome pickled fish restaurant. Initially, I thought opening Zhu Jian would be a good idea, but after trying it, my conclusion is that the cost-performance ratio is not high. The set meal for two costs 1880 NTD, and you also need to pay for two broth bases at 130 NTD each, plus a 10% service charge, making the total price 2400 NTD, which should offer more choices.

Unlike Zhu Jian Hot Pot, the Zhu Jian Spicy Hot Pot only has sauces and white rice available for self-service, and there are no self-service drinks! Desserts and drinks need to be ordered separately.

The decor in the store is nice, and during lunchtime on a weekday, there aren't many customers, with only four tables occupied. There are three servers, one for seating, one for delivering meals, and one for service. The server did not introduce the dishes after delivering them, which really didn’t give a high-end hot pot restaurant feel.

Dishes 🥘

• Classic Sichuan Set Meal / 1880 NTD:
  I initially wanted to order à la carte, but after some consideration, I realized that ordering the set meal allows for a greater variety of items. In the end, I chose the set meal. Looking back, if I had ordered à la carte, my dissatisfaction might have been less. The items in the set meal are shown in the picture below.

📍Located on Zhonghua Road in the Ximen shopping district, above the Diao Min Sour Cabbage Fish restaurant.

To get straight to the point, if you have some spare money and want to try it out, you can come here; otherwise, at the same price point, I think you'll have a better experience at other restaurants.

🍽️ Environment
There are quite a few tables for dining in, with a decent amount of space between them. The air conditioning is quite strong, but you need to walk outside to find the restroom.
They offer a variety of seasonings and even provide a few suggested combinations, which taste pretty good, so that's commendable.
I visited during lunch hours, and there were about three staff members for about 5-6 tables, but the service staff were still proactive in asking if we wanted extra soup or broth. However, it would have been better if the servers had mentioned the dishes they were serving each time. 😅

🥘 Dishes
▪️ Classic Sichuan Set Meal $1880
This time I ordered a set meal suitable for 2-3 people, which included most of the recommended items on the menu, so I decided not to order additional dishes.
Also, each person is charged a $130 fee for the broth.
Overall, the meat quality was average and not particularly impressive. The seafood was below average, the spiciness of the mala soup was moderate, and the aroma was ordinary. It did improve a bit after adding more chili.
While I didn't order an additional broth, they still provided the basic pork bone broth and mushroom broth, which were decent for cooking vegetables.
For drinks, I ordered cold brew tea and dried plum juice, both of which were quite good.

In the end, there were no desserts, which felt like something was missing.

To summarize, spending 2400 TWD for this meal in terms of content and quality fell far below expectations. Eating at a place like Ximending Malatang might be a better option; at least it has a certain standard and you can enjoy Haagen-Dazs. 🙄