Zhongzheng District, Taipei City｜好記刀削麵（第一三週的週一&每週二公休）

I often pass by and it's always crowded. Occasionally I see people queuing up and are seated immediately. I'm too lazy to get something to eat at night, and I don't want to crowd around or queue up. I made a call and ordered fried rice with sakura shrimp, eggplant with side dish sauce, and asked them to fry two half-boiled eggs, plus a scallion pancake, for a total of only 170 yuan. I started eating it as soon as I got home. The aroma of the cherry blossom shrimp is rich, the rice grains are clear, and the portion is large. It is delicious. The eggplant sauce is great, it's fragrant and glutinous, not salty at all. There is really no stomach capacity for scallion pancakes. I can only take two helpless bites of the crispy pancakes and make the rest for tomorrow's breakfast. I was very satisfied with the meal for 170 yuan, no wonder it was full every day.

This was my third time eating here and I cannot say I've been disappointed. The tomato beef noodle soup (蕃茄牛肉麵) is fantastic. I'd have to say that this is one of the best places to eat a bowl of beef noodle soup in all of Taipei. It's significantly more delicious and cheaper than what you will get at Din Tai Fung. This place is also a local favorite so you may have to wait a little if you'd like to dine in. Nevertheless, this is a must place restaurant to try if you're in the area. If you cannot speak Mandarin, be sure to save the characters for beef noodle soup (牛肉麵) on your phone.

Great beef noodles (significantly better than Din Tai Fung, for example). Also super cheap. Here's how we found this place: we went to a few other noodle shops in the area asking (in Chinese) if they had Taiwanese-style beef noodles. They didn't have any, so we continued searching. About ten minutes and a few blocks later, a random local came riding up on a scooter saying (in Chinese) "Hey, I heard you're looking for Taiwnese beef noodles! There's this place down the street..." So, there you have it: when locals are looking for Taiwanese beef noodles, they come here. The proprietors speak no English as far as I could tell, so if you're not traveling with a Chinese speaker, you'll have to figure out some other way to make yourself understood. Maybe prepare ahead of time by saving the Chinese characters for Taiwanese beef noodles on your phone: 台灣牛肉面.