July 2015 – Eat, Drink, Laugh

Source: https://pacejmiller.wordpress.com/2010/01/29/raohe-night-market-in-taipei/

Raohe Night Market is one of the better night markets for food. The streets were lined with your Ye Shi foods of all kinds. We were trying to find a place where most locals queued up at. We stumbled past Cow Boss, which claims to have a “Boss Level” of deliciousness. It had a long line of Taiwanese locals. This piqued our interest and before long, we were in the restaurant.

Cow Boss is a very clean restaurant, a juxtaposition from the street stalls outside with its modern look.

The menu (http://cowboss.tw/menu/) showcased the many dishes that Cow Boss has, all at phenomenal value. For 150TWD(~S$6.60), I can get a steak with an egg and noodles with a starter dish of bread, with soup and drinks! I decided to go for the Signature Steak (260TWD/~S$11.35) while my friend went for their Grilled Fish Steak (180TWD/~S$7.80).

We were served their starter which was the Dinner Rolls. It was a surprising treat. The butter rolls were warm and filled with warm butter, that kept dripping, causing us to slurp it all up. It was a great palate-opener and I kept craving for more (which can be purchased at 20TWD) but decided to save my stomach space for the main dish.

Dinner Rolls, complimentary. Just looking at this makes me salivate.

There’s also free flow cream of mushroom soup and free dispensed drinks available for you to take. Paid glass-bottled drinks are also available.

The default done-ness of the beef was medium, but you can choose to have it your way by simply letting the waiter know. There were 5 sauce options: Black Pepper, Mushroom, Secret Grill, Garlic or Cheese Sauce. I went with the mushroom sauce. You also had the option of adding prawns or oysters with your meal.

I was very excited when my food came shortly after we finished the dinner rolls. It came sizzling on a hot plate with noodles, an egg and some veggies.

The steak came coupled with noodles and egg, this portion was a very filling one.

The other order, Grilled Fish Steak. It also came with a dinner roll, an egg and veggies.

The kitchen had an open concept, located outside where the queue was. You can see your food being made in front of you!

Cow Boss was also featured on the newspapers, as seen by this on their wall.

If you’re looking for toilets, they also have a very clean toilet in here. I guess it’s important to have a clean toilet if you’re in Taiwan because in some places, it’s not easy to find a toilet hahaha.

Overall, Cow Boss is one of the most value-for-money places in Taiwan to have steak. It’s not exactly a steakhouse, but it fulfills any cravings you have. At a phenomenally low price point, it’s a place I would definitely visit again when I’m bored of eating street food in Taiwan.

Contact:
Raohe Branch
台北市松山區饒河街229號
17:00 pm ~ 1:00 am
(02) 2747-9333
Other Branches: http://cowboss.tw/location/
Website: http://cowboss.tw/location/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cowboss888

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Looking for a Steamboat restaurant in Taipei with fresh, delicious beef, pork and lamb, as well as free flow bottled drinks and Haagan Dazs/Movenpick ice cream in a comfortable environment with clean toilets? Look no further. 辛殿火锅 (Xindian Hotpot) hits nail on the head as a steamboat restaurant which truly knows what a customer wants.

One of my most anticipated meals of this trip to Taipei was to Xindian Hot Pot. I visited 2 years ago and it left a deep impression on me as The Best Steamboat in Taipei, Taiwan, which is one of my most popular blog posts. I visited Xindian Pot twice in my 2 weeks in Taiwan.

I went there at 7:40PM on a Tuesday with 2 others. We made a reservation 2 days in advance. I highly recommend making a reservation at least a day in advance to avoid any disappointment. It was fully booked when we tried to make a reservation in the morning. They accept walk-ins if you are willing to wait.

Electronic pot — Electronic Pot on their Marble Table

As we approached the place, there was a long queue outside and the restaurant was crowded. It was even more crowded than I previously remembered. As a big group left, the entire staff cleaned and prepared the tables for the next group of customers very quickly.

I was excited to be back in here and was luckily given the table with the sofas! Just by having sofas, it makes the entire experience so much more comfortable, which makes you not want to leave.

The sauce station is the same as before. One of my favourite sauces is the XO sauce.

Free flow Haagen Dazs and Movenpick ice cream, as well as bottled drinks! There is also drink dispenser machines and a hot drinks machine.

A bottle opener is placed at the left of the fridge to open the bottles.

Within 2 years, the restaurant has not changed much. The area is still clean, and everything is the same as I’ve remembered. The menu has changed to offer more than before.

When you get seated, the staff will ask if you’ve been here before, and will bring the standard pot of soup to your table, a Yin Yang pot of Mala (Spicy) Soup and Chicken Soup. The Mala Soup comes with Blood Cake inside which you can eat or throw away if you don’t like it. It does not affect the soup taste. I came with a Taiwanese who thoroughly enjoyed the blood cake. This is one of my favourite mala soups around in steamboat establishments.

The chicken soup that came with dates and wolfberry inside, and was delicious from the start up til the meal ended.

We started by ordering all the meats available. They have various types of beef, pork and lamb.

The top choice of the night was their 美国五花牛 (American 5-flower beef), which we ordered non-stop. It was not frozen. It’s easily cooked shabu-shabu style and dipping it with their XO sauce makes it easily the top dish of the night. It was impossible to be bored of it, even when we were full.

Another worthy mention was the 黑毛花猪 (Pork) which went well with both soups.

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There was also a few unique dishes like the fish wonton, cheese ball and duck meat balls. It felt like a premium selection, and were all tastier than expected.

Some must-have dishes are the Wang Zi Mian/Prince Noodles (Taiwan’s instant noodles) and the 卤肠(Braised Intestine). 卤味can be seen everywhere in Taiwan with long queues, and it’s one of Taiwan’s iconic dishes. I was amazed at the 卤肠’s flavour while being mixed with the mala soup, making it spicy while retaining the 卤 taste.

The Wang Zi Mian tastes different from instant noodles you usually have, and is somehow extremely tasty with the mala soup. We ordered a few packets of it and stuffed ourselves.

There was also an impressive selection of seafood with Baby Squid, Scallops, fresh Lala(蛤蜊/clams) and Oysters. Yes, free flow oysters!! It was much bigger before cooking, like the size of raw oysters in international buffets.

The Lala was fresh and plump(!!) prompting us to order it non stop.

We ended the meal by ordering cake. There were 6 different varieties of desserts, and since we didn’t really know how to read Chinese, we ordered one of everything.

We spammed the Mango Milk pudding. It was creamy with a nice milky smell as you put it in your mouth, with mango infused in the entire solution. Oh-so-good. There is also a Hokkaido Milk cake, Tiramisu etc. All free flow.

From this post, I believe you can tell that we basically ordered everything non-stop haha but with 3 hungry guys in Taiwan, we were already trained to eat more than usual with the nightly Ye Shi visits.

Directions:
Exit 7 of Songjiang Nanjing MRT, on the yellow line. Walk straight towards the building in the picture.

Exit 7 of Songjiang Nanjing MRT. Walk straight towards here.

Keep walking straight. You’ll pass a Toyota Dealer.

Walk til you see a Haagen Dazs and Movenpick standee outside. There should be a queue if you go around dinner.

The crowd outside.

One thing I’d like to note about Xindian Pot is that there is no wait time for your dishes. From my own experience, all dishes ordered are delivered within a minute. The staff is attentive and clears empty plates and bottles immediately.

Price:

It’s very easy to walk to Xindian pot, and even easier to fall in love with their food. Even 2 years later, to me, this is still the Best Steamboat in Taipei, Taiwan.