The spring rain season has started and it was pouring outside. Thankfully uncled offered us a ride home from work plus a nice meal out. Turned out to be a guys' night with cousin and I plus uncle and his friend. The restaurant is located near the Far Eastern and you can tell that the place caters to the business crowd from the nearby office towers. The teppan table is perfect for an office get-together, whether out in the main dining area or in individual rooms. The food goes well with the usual Asian-biz binge-drinking, and there are flowery couches to lounge for an after-meal drink&smoke.
We shall be Manly Men tonight, eschewing wimpy set meals and going with the all-beef plan, accompanied by a couple bottles of fine Bordeaux reds. Arf-arf-arf. There was a cup of carrot cucumber, and celery sticks plus a squishy multi-grain roll for starters, but it's hardly worthwhile to say anything more about that.
Our chef showed soon after the wine was poured and he began to warm up the teppan for the preliminaries. First he sauteed a big pile of sliced garlic until golden brown. Even with the massive fume hood, the smell of the frying garlic soon permeated the room and perked up the appetite. He distributed the cooked garlic to our plates, then ground fresh pepper on the plate for meat-dipping. Plus we each had a dish of diced onion in soy-sesame dressing. The chef simply salted the beef, cook it quickly on the hot teppan (medium rare, please), cut it into bite-size pieces, and put it on our plate. We could then choose to accompany the meat with garlic, onions, pepper, or any combination of the above. Offers a variety of tasty, clean flavors without overwhelming the meat, unlike the typical goopy smothering sauces served by the cheap-o Taiwan steakhouses.
The meat itself was unlike the typical protein matter found in the cheap-o steakhouses, too. Both the thinly sliced ribeye and the thick filets were richly marbled and barely took any time to cook to perfect doneness. Not as much fun to have the meat cut into bite-sized pieces by the chef, as opposed to hacking through a big piece of steak yourself, but it does make for a smooth and pleasant dining experience. Wasn't cheap, but it was certainly the most carnivorously satisfying meal I've had in Taiwan.
圓桌鐵板燒
台北市大安區敦化南路2段128號B1樓
02-27008699