🔅Actual visit date: 2024/11/13
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I've always wanted to eat here since it opened in Ximen Town, but there are always a lot of people passing by, and it’s hard to make reservations online during peak times. This time, I happened to find another location with available time, so I finally visited. Here’s what I ordered:

▪️Broth: Garlic Clam Chicken Soup + $69
Classic Stone Chicken Soup + $0
▪️Pork and Chicken Duo $349 (Pork + Tender Chicken Thigh) Two servings
▫️Add-on: Soulful Chicken Rice $35
▪️Clams (8 pieces) $79
▪️A-Ming Sugar Fried Cloud (Survey Gift) Original price $59
▪️Combo Bomb (Membership Gift) Original price $30

In terms of meat, the chicken is very tender, and the pork has a nice chew but is not dry. The clams ordered separately are fresh, and the chicken rice is very tasty and well-cooked, but the chicken itself could've been a bit more tender, which is a small disappointment.

I think the broth is the most distinctive aspect; it's a delicious chicken soup that is slightly oily but not overly so. The garlic chicken I ordered has a mild chicken flavor but a nice acceptable acidity, and it's good for cooking vegetables and meats. For spicy food lovers, I recommend dipping the chicken in the chili oil sauce, which is quite tasty.

The self-service bar offers a good variety, but I find the dessert a bit ordinary. I thought the ice cream would be impressive, but what stands out is their delicious noodle tea powder. Ultimately, I piled it all on. There aren’t many drink options, but there’s unlimited crispy scallion rice. The fried dessert included as a survey gift is quite substantial, with a crispy exterior and soft interior. The peanut powder they use is more refined than the usual kind, although the peanut flavor isn't very strong. One downside is that it's quite oily and should be eaten while hot. Also, the bomb is actually an egg, but I must say their pepper salt is very tasty!

Overall, I really liked it. The decor is very unique, and the broth is good. Eating here made me very happy, but it is somewhat heavy (since I kept drinking the chicken broth). I hope the ice cream is tastier or has cookies for a more perfect experience. Just for reference.

P.S. My overall impression is above 3.5, but not quite 4, so I’ll settle for 3.7 😂

Comments from a braces user:

This hot pot place near Zhongshan MRT Station is where I dined for the first time, and it has quite a high popularity. It is a restaurant under the Wang Steak Group, and currently has branches only in Ximen and Nanjing East Road in Taipei. I recommend making a reservation in advance because online bookings are usually full during peak hours. This time, we dined in a party of two and ordered the following dishes.

The soup base options are abundant and notably flavorful. We chose the classic stone chicken soup (+0 NTD) and the golden and silver garlic clam chicken soup (+69 NTD). The soup was rich and had a strong garlic flavor, especially suited for guests who enjoy bold tastes.

For the main course, we ordered two servings of the pork and chicken double hot pot ($349), which included plum pork and tender chicken thigh meat. The chicken thigh was prepared well, with no off-putting smells, and the pork tasted good as well. Additionally, we added 8 clams ($79) to enhance the savory flavor of the soup base. The restaurant also offers ah Ming's sugar-fried clouds, which can be enjoyed for free by filling out a survey; the original price is $59, but they are a bit greasy. The overall meal cost incurs an additional 10% service charge, and we placed our orders through a mobile device.

This restaurant also provides a rich variety of vegetable hot pot ingredients at a self-service bar, as well as a drink area, and the ice cream flavors include peanut and soy milk. Personally, I prefer the soy milk flavor, as I found it quite delightful.

【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.

First time eating hotpot!
We ordered a meal for two to share that day.
It is really recommended to have an empty stomach before eating🤣
The portions are huge!

This special one is fried first and then put in the soup.
Quite special

But the reason for giving three stars is that the taste of the soup is not to my liking.
We ordered fried chicken with peeled chili pepper and fried chicken with gold and silver garlic clams
These two soups will have a very strong chicken essence flavor at the end.
I can't stand this taste😭
It will make me feel nauseated.
But if you really love it, you can order it ~

The main dishes we chose include seafood, snowflake beef, and plum blossom pig.
The portion is so big that I almost vomited it after eating it

It is highly recommended to order chicken rice at an extra price for side dishes!
Otherwise, plain rice would be quite boring.

Shared meal for two with cooked food and fried eggs
As the name suggests, the eggs are fried to a crispy texture.
There is also pepper and salt on the side
It’s great to eat with dip!

Dessert is fried clouds with white sugar!
I have to say it’s really super delicious!
It is highly recommended that if you don’t order a meal for two, you can order a single meal.