Restaurant #26: Emperor Foods, Taipei

Sorry guys. I was away from my blog for a while… It was just because I had been busy for my struggling life in Taipei. Now I am on a New Year vacation and have more time, so let me tell you about 君悅排骨 (Emperor Foods), the fried pork restaurant near by my house. 排骨 (paigu) originally means pork ribs, but as I know, or at least in Japan, 排骨 is a Chinese style deep fried pork. I wrote an article about Ramen that I ate at Yokohama. That was paigu ramen. Paigu has a special taste; it comes from Chinese powder called 五香粉 (Wu3xiang1fen3). So if you are not familiar with Chinese food, you may feel strange in the beginning, but don’t worry, once you eat this delicious paigu, you would love it!

This restaurant, 君悅排骨, is a chain restaurant in Taiwan. There is one branch near by my house, so I tried back in November. (Oops! Sorry about my laziness.) Their menu is quite simple. Besides their signature menu, 排骨, they also have chicken, beef and fish as well. One menu, curry pork rice, was known as Japanese style in here, but their pork is not Japanese Katsu, so it is quite different. Most of rice items can be replaced with noodle. We tried their signature item, 排骨酸菜飯 (pork rib rice) (TWD 145) and 鶏腿酸菜飯 (fried chicken rice) (TWD 160).

The décor of the restaurant was very simple and boring, but at least it looked clean, which is rare in Taiwanese restaurant. Their service was decent, but I was expected a bit friendlier service since the items were not cheap.

Fried Pork Rib Rice

Items were served quickly, expect Paigu. It took some extra minutes to serve pork ribs. Rice with some veggies and small soup were served with pork/chicken. Veggies were cooked cabbage, sour cabbage, Chinese nappa, Chinese style tofu, and cooked grinded beef. I liked the veggies, but it was oily. Next time I may ask them to serve those separately. Paigu was served while we were tasting veggie rice. It is simple, but was quite tasty and fresh. The meat was tender enough, so that you don’t need to use knives.

Fried Chicken Rice

Chicken was my choice. To be honest, I liked this chicken better than the pork. In this picture, you may feel it was overcooked, but actually it was perfectly crispy, and fresh pepper was plus. Outside was deliciously browned, and inside was juicy and tender. This chicken was quite good.

Most of their branches are located in near by subway station. Therefore the price is pretty expensive. If they want to charge like this, then I expect more special menus and a little better service. However, overall I enjoyed their food. I would like to go back there one more time and try fried fish rice next time. (Report: Nov. 2009)

Total: 305 TWD (for 2 people)

君悅排骨: Emperor Foods
No.135, Section 5, ZhongXiao Rd. Xinyi Dist.
Taipei City, TAIWAN
02-8787-0918 or 02-2751-9783
10:30-21:00