Da wan was recently awarded a Michelin star and I had to see what all the hype was about. I reserved a spot a month in advance and was extremely excited to come here.

The restaurant was extremely accommodating and had high-quality service. I was coming here for a friend’s birthday and brought the cake an hour before our reservation. The manager was more than happy to help me keep the cake in their refrigerator and told me they’ll take it out at the end of our meal.

The restaurant is relatively small, with 20-25 bar-style seats and one 4-6 person table in the corner. There are lockers for your bags and stuff near the entrance.

After seating us, our waiter introduced us to the specials and what they would recommend for the day. My Chinese isn’t so great so I had a hard time understanding certain things but there are pictures in the menu with an English description. We ended up going with the salad and salt & green onion beef tongue for appetizers and the chef’s recommendation for the main course. We were going to order more but they recommended that we wait until after the meal to decide.

They cook everything on a charcoal stove and change the stovetop for each meat that you have. There is one person next to our waiter/cook who’s preparing all of the food and you can tell they have it down to a science. All of the meats are seasoned to perfection and cut to just the right width and dimensions.

The salad was prepared relatively fast and in the back of the restaurant. Next, they started cooking our salt & green onion beef tongue. They recommended that we squeeze some lime juice into a small bowl and dipping the meat into the juice for some extra flavor.

The next couple of dishes were amazing and passed as a delicious, meat-filled blur. All of the meats were extremely tender, seasoned to perfection, and cooked to just the right temperature and wellness.

After our meal, the waiter came over and told me that after we were done with our meal, they’ll bring out our cake. As they brought it up from downstairs, the entire staff stopped and began singing happy birthday to my friend. I honestly didn’t expect that when I brought the cake but was extremely grateful.

I agree with the Michelin star awarded here and would definitely be back here in the future. If anyone ever asks me where the best place is for yakiniku in Taiwan, I would recommend Da-wan.

I also want to thank Ah Xiang for serving us and making the night special for my friend. Thanks a lot!