Overall Review: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Dickson's Fooday food review is back!
This time, I want to introduce a new hot pot restaurant that just opened in the East District, just a little over a month since its grand opening.

It had just opened around the end of June to early July, and according to the staff on that day, this hot pot restaurant is under the same group as Luichi.

But I wonder if anyone has eaten at any of the Luichi series restaurants?
For example, Luichi Electric Company or some laundry companies, along with other barbecue or bistro places.

My previous experiences dining at other restaurants under the same group weren't top-notch; they were just acceptable.

Before going there, I actually didn't know that this new hot pot restaurant was also from the same group.

Back to this new hot pot restaurant, located on Yanji Street, it has a quite decent location surrounded by many competitive restaurants and hot pot spots.

From the outside, the restaurant looks more like an Instagrammable hot pot place, with large transparent glass windows displaying the restaurant's name and a very artistic decor. At first, I thought it would be a great spot for pretty girls to take photos with their hot pot.

However, upon entering, the decor and overall design do give off a stylish vibe, but the tables and chairs seemed a bit plain and simple. They were just basic wooden square tables and simple chairs. I expected to see beautiful tables and sofas, but the stark contrast was a bit shocking. 🤣🤣🤣
Is this restaurant going for a style of unexpected contrasts?

Then, when the hot pot was served, what surprised me more was that they used a regular small hot pot stove instead of the built-in type commonly found at other hot pot restaurants.
This gave off a feeling like dining in a higher-end stinky tofu restaurant with a gas stove.

It's just placing a stove on the table with a pot on top, clashing with my initial expectation of a trendy hot pot restaurant.

With the woven chairs, it felt momentarily like eating a small hot pot by the roadside. 🤣🤣

This hot pot restaurant specializes in fresh beef. Typically, for fresh beef, we might have to go to Tainan or other famous places to enjoy it, so I had to try their so-called signature fresh beef.

Unfortunately, the fresh Taiwanese beef served that day did not meet our expectations.
It might have been due to the cut of meat we received, making it not as delicious as hoped.

Other beef items were decent though; I thought they were pretty satisfactory. The beef was basically okay, and I especially recommend the beef tongue.

However, overall for the price, it felt a little disappointing. The value for money wasn’t high; it seems to be more of a one-time visit for the Instagram hot pot scene.
If you want to try it for the novelty and take some photos, I think it's worth checking out.

But sadly, there wasn't anything particularly special about it. 🤣🤣

Food: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Beverages: 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑
Atmosphere: 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
Service: 🌕🌕🌕🌘🌑
Price: 🌕🌕🌑🌑🌑
Location: 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑

⭐️ Regarding the food
You first choose the soup base here, which comes in two varieties: vegetable soup and miso soup.
I initially thought the miso soup would be more unique, but that day, wanting something healthier, I opted for the vegetable soup.

The soup base came with some basic vegetable platters and hot pot ingredients.

👉 Today's Taiwanese Fresh Beef: $360
They use different cuts of Taiwanese fresh beef daily.
As mentioned earlier, we might have had a less desirable cut, leading to a less satisfying experience.
The fresh beef that day wasn't as tender and didn't taste as good, which was regrettable.
Maybe if we visit on a different day, a better cut might improve the experience!

👉 Dry-aged Premium American Beef Short Ribs: $980
I ordered this out of concern that we might not have enough meat.
This short rib was basically comparable to what you'd find at other hot pot places, decent but not outstanding.
At nearly $1000, it can’t be called terrible, but it’s just average.

👉 Signature Pickled Beef Tongue: $280
This was the best dish of the day. The beef tongue was very well processed, chewy, and very flavorful.
A memorable dish! I recommend ordering this if you visit.

👉 Fresh Beef Meatballs: $220
These beef meatballs were also quite good, with strong beef flavors, tender, and juicy.
They could give you that burst of juice when eaten. A recommended small dish!

👉 Raw Egg Mixed with Beef: $260
This was another excellent choice that day.
Although you can find this at other places, the quality of the beef is what matters. I found their beef to be quite good, fresh, and tender.

👉 Zosui
Once all your hot pot is finished, the restaurant provides ingredients for zosui, which you can handle yourself.
Of course, you can ask the staff for help with the zosui, but there’s an extra charge for that!

The cooking method is quite simple; just put the ingredients into the hot pot in order.
You’ll get something like a porridge in the end!

Overall, the taste was decent, but the flavor of the zosui depends greatly on the hot pot ingredients used before.
However, it's best not to eat too much of this, as too much purine is not good for your body.

On that day, for various reasons, the staff helped us cook.
It's hard to make something like this taste bad. 🤣🤣🤣

Looking back, I realize that the more recommended items here aren’t meant to be cooked in the hot pot.
The raw egg mixed with beef and beef tongue are both served directly as dishes. 🤣🤣
It seems this hot pot restaurant's hot pot might not be very successful. 🥹

As for the soup broth, the vegetable soup is fresh, with not a strong flavor, just a basic light broth.

Overall, I feel there’s nothing particularly outstanding about the food.
It feels more like a home-cooked small hot pot.
If you want something memorable, it might have to come from non-hot pot items.

Moreover, the fresh beef that was supposed to be the star attraction didn't seem particularly recommendable, which is quite a pity.

⭐️ As for beverages
They do have drinks or alcohol available.
That day, I even ordered a small glass of plum wine, but it was just basic bottled plum wine poured out.
So it's hard to judge its quality; it’s just average. 🤣🤣

⭐️ Atmosphere
As mentioned earlier, I think the restaurant aims for a chic, Instagram-friendly vibe with its decor and exterior.
From the design and counter to the exterior, I feel they achieved this standard.

However, as mentioned before, the furnishing inside, including tables, chairs, and the hot pot setup, feels quite jarring.
It creates a bit of confusion.

At the same time, the arrangement of tableware and napkins gives an impression of quality.
This creates a dilemma — dining at a very plain table and chair, yet receiving a high-end feeling from the utensils and napkins.

On that day, points were deducted because we were assigned seats under the air conditioning, where the vent happened to be dripping water.
During the meal, I even got dripped on by the air conditioning water. This part really drew a lot of deductions. 🥹🥹🥹

👉 Service
Perhaps because it’s a new restaurant, I found the staff to be quite polite.
Though there was a staff member training a new hire, the attitude of the staff was rather good.
For instance, with the air conditioning dripping water issue, they were very proactive in solving it and immediately moved chairs to wipe up the water.

Also, for the preparation of ingredients or zosui, they carefully explained the materials to us and even helped us prepare the zosui right away.

👉 Price
I previously mentioned that the prices might be somewhat inflated due to the Instagrammable aspect of the restaurant.
Considering the food and overall dining experience, I don’t think it's worth the price.

After all, in terms of food, I didn't find anything particularly impressive.
The dining utensils were also quite ordinary, just the basic gas stove. 🤣🤣

Thus, I personally feel the pricing here is quite high.

⭐️ Location
I believe this geographical location is a big advantage.
Located on Yanji Street in the East District, it's a popular area for dining.
That day, while eating, I could see many passersby outside curiously looking at this new hot pot restaurant, which appeared quite luxurious and impressive from the outside.

Getting to this place from the East District’s Yanji Street is quite convenient.
It’s basically in between the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and the Zhongxiao Dunhua MRT stations, roughly a 5-10 minute walk.

⭐️ Conclusion
For a newly opened hot pot restaurant, I think right now, it's just another one-time consumption place.
Given the food and soup base, I'd suggest spending this amount elsewhere at other hot pot restaurants.

The experience was not particularly great in terms of the flavor and food texture.
But for those who want to come for photos and explore, I think it’s still worth a try!

Perhaps different visits for the fresh Taiwanese beef might offer varied experiences and feelings!