Da’an District, Taipei City｜Saboten Guangfu

Oct 2022 I want to mention that I only understand English and I got taken here by my Chinese-speaking relatives. This is a Japanese-style place specializing in (delicious!) pork katsu. The place is well lit, clean, and relatively quiet with booths and combo chair/booth tables. The staff are polite in a formal, unobtrusive way. To order, you can tell a waitstaff or use the tablet they give. Note the tablet can be switched to English (it's not perfect, but enough for me to understand what I'm ordering). They also offer a drink & dessert combo to your entree for an additional NT$79 (an excellent deal). We both got a Tonkatsu set, which comes with a salad, miso soup, rice, 3 veggies (black beans, burdock, leafy green), and a small cup of plum vinegar. You can get free refills on the salad, veggies, and rice. They offer 2 types of rice: white and something else. They also give you sesame seeds in a mortar with a pestle. I'm not completely sure what it's for, but according to my relatives, you grind up the sesame seeds and then mix it with the katsu sauce to use for the meat. The katsu sauce is already on the table in a jar with a wooden lid and ladle. For dessert, we got Matcha ice cream with red bean and sweet Red Bean soup/paste with sticky rice balls. Both were very good and I seriously recommend getting the combo deal. Very good price and very filling. I would definitely come again!

I personally recommend pork chops in the loin, which are less oily and gluten-free compared to the inner meat. It is suitable for people who like to eat meat without chewing. The chicken chop is very tender, so tender that it doesn't look like chicken chop, it's a bit hard to explain. Fried oysters felt average, the skin was too thick and seasoned too much, you have to be careful to taste the most important oyster. I like lettuce very much, and I have to refill it several times each time. The white rice is delicious, the cooking skills are very good, and the dessert drinks are also of a certain standard. Have been here many times and would love to revisit.

First time, we went in about an hour before closing, and we were the last ones in, so service was a little bit on the slow side, the cabbage, side dishes and sauce was nothing special, but the tenderloin tonkatu was by far the best I have had in Taiwan. Second visit confirmed that this location is a cut above the typical Saboten. Cabbage was done with care - thinly sliced with no big chunks, cutlet was done well, not a lot of extra panko and the meat was juicy and soft.