Zhongshan District, Taipei City｜蔚稻食堂

A hidden gem in an alley 💎 The restaurant is not big, can only accommodate up to 14 people. But the environment is very clean, with fancy (golden) spoons and chopsticks. They serve Japanese style fried rice, with various kinds of meat. I ordered the smoked salmon fried rice with pork cutlet 煙燻鮭魚炒飯 炸豬排 which surprised me because the fried rice comes with lots of salmon pieces. The pork cutlet is very good too, thick but still crispy and juicy. Even the signature fried rice with fried chicken 招牌炒飯 炸雞腿which is basically egg fried rice tastes really good. The fried chicken just complements it all. The portion is huge, meat is more than enough, and with that price.. I will definitely come again. For take away, you can call ahead to order for pick up later.

A hidden gem that you need to make some twist and turn to find close to the famous Xingtian Temple in Taipei. You might think its a Japanese restaurant by the look of it, but its not entirely true as they infused some local elements into their dishes, pesto fry rice with fried chicken drumstick, bamboo shoot with chili oil, those are something you wont find in ordinary Japanese eatery. Their pork katsu is one of the dish that blew me away, thick cut juicy pork cutlet fried till crispy brown and drizzle on the tonkatsu Sauce. A delicious meal only costs NT$160. I will definitely revisit this shop again!!

Okay how CAN'T I compliment this place?? An utter gem in the neighborhood. We saw the food on IG, rolled in 30min before closing, and since they don't have an indoor waiting area (pretty small shop) we waited outside in the heat and even past closing - but they took our order in advance and pretty much the moment we got seated the food arrived. The service was so incredible and the FOOD - omg. A fish roe lover's DREAM. Salty, savory and a huge mountain of fish eggs with a jiggly egg that melts out a molten yolk, perfectly coating the shrimp fried rice - my god. Heavenly. Worth the 210nt and probably more. The thick tonkatsu set for 180nt was awesome too - a BIG BOY pork chop with a side egg and veggies, a significant bowl of rice and either black iced tea or miso soup side. The pork chop was so thick but perfectly crispy and moist still. Seriously obsessed!! Need to try next: popular green pesto fried rice, crispy chicken leg and the larger roe salmon fried rice!!