朱記餡餅粥店 Zhu Ji - (Taipei)

 Taiwanese shops and addresses are hard to navigate around if you don’t command the chinese language.  In this sense,  Hong Kong does have an advantage as there are more English users and the addresses aren’t as confusing to me.   Zhu ji 朱記餡餅 is quite famous for being one of the shops in Taipei which sell a juicy beef-patty filled pancake.  You can find a similar version in Kowloon City in Hong Kong,  but that would be more spiced and halal based than this cleaner tasting version.  The Taipei alternative is more about natural beef sweetness but with an equal abundance of soup within,  and their soup noodles are also one of the best I have tried too and are better than many other well known beef noodle shops.  

 

They have a few outlets in Taipei alone -
I have been here before and loved it.  I stumbled upon one again so there weren’t really any excuse to not revisit here.  Let’s see if it is still carrying the same standards!

 

 

牛肉餡餅 – Beef Pancake
The signature dish here and the shop is named after this.  This visit was as good as my last visit,  it was juicy within but well crispened up on the outside containing shell.   It has more spring onion than the Halal versions served in HK and is less spicier.  I appreciate the natural beef jus and sweetness here as a comparison,  so adorable.   ~ 8/10

 

 

Minced Pork and Vinegar with Hand Cut Noodles - 醋醬刀削麵  NTD 90
The noodles here have always been my favourite and after this revisit I still stand by that statement.  They are bouncy but not too gluten chewy nor under-cooked or over-cooked,  about just right.   The minced meat on top was more on the savoury side than I’d imagined for the vinegared menu description.  Overall with the cucumber shreds,  this was still very enjoyable.  ~  8/10

 

 

Red Braised Beef in Hand Cut Noodles –  牛肉刀削麵 NTD 140
Served with pickles and vegetables.  Their version here is not meant to be famous apart from their pancakes above – but guess what?  This was so good once again on a revisit and the soup had depth,  the noodles well cooked,  the beef flavourful and tender.   A lot of beef noodles in Taiwan are decent,  but not necessarily amazing!   This version still belonged to the latter to me especially having tried or re-tried some of the best ones in town.  Very addictive and I can’t really think of a better version of Red Braised Beef noodle right now..  Kind of surprising from a pancake shop  ~  9/10

 

 

 

Price:   TWD $300
Food:  ♕♕♕♕♕
Ease of Access:  5/5

Opening Hours:
Mon to Sun 11:00am to 21:00pm

Address:  http://www.zhuji.com.tw/store.php  (Many outlets)