Shan Bin Restaurant — Restaurant in Alishan Township

I would give this place a 0 star if there's an option for that. I was there trying to get dinner and an older man (assuming the owner) asked for my phone number so i said i am from out of town no number so he got my name down and also wrote down foreigner next to my name on his list and said come back 30 minutes later. We didn't go anywhere but stood there waiting in the cold for 45 minutes and 3 groups of people were behind us got seated before us. So I went and asked if we are going to be next. That older man without even look at me and said one more party before you. So I continued to wait patiently and one hour has gone by and everyone was seated except us so I went and asked him again if we are going to be next he then said again one more party before you. Clearly there was no one before us but only one party that came much later than us. We wasted over one hour waiting and was ignored without giving a seat. His attitude was absolutely rude and was very biased to foreigners I supposed. The food didn't look that great and pricing was way higher than Taipei. I don't think as a business owner he should treat foreign customers any differently than the locals. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone. You would be treated poorly and without any respect. They don't know what the word "Customer...

We came in for the 880 NT$ 5-dish hotpot. Staff kept trying to upsell us to get the 1,380 version, saying "quality better. Different cooking method" but could not tell us the difference.

Service was terrible; the person who took our order (am assuming the owner) was rude and became condescending when we did not understand her (I'm sorry - Mandarin is my third language)

She did not try explaining the different dishes / veges in the more expensive version, only takeaway was "we use a better soup. Google it, everyone says it's better".

She is right. The food is pretty terrible. The dishes (I'll save you the hassle and name all five here: fried cabbage, fried bamboo, some pork with preserved vegetables, 麻辣 tofu, and the actual hot pot) all had the same bland, base taste that you find in American Chinese restaurants. I take that back. I've had dome great Chinese food in the US. This food was just spectacularly mediocre and forgettable.

Not once did they check on us... and here's the worst part. ALL UTENSILS, INCLUDING BOWLS, SPOONS, CHOPSTICKS ARE OF THE DISPOSABLE KIND.

Ironic that here we are, in a national park, and they are in the business of creating even more...

Not a good place to eat. Queue management and service is poor, and food tasteless. Nothing here justifies any wait. In fact I’d put the food down as the worst I’ve had in two weeks so far here.

We queued up, and waited for our name to be called. However others who walked in and got added to the queue after us, managed to get in sooner. A family who came before us were left waiting long after. And no, it’s not only matching table sizes. A similar group who came and listed after us, were served way before. They seemed to nag and talked to staff and got in. That’s not the way to go.

Also,if you’re unlucky enough to sit in front, strangers in the mismanaged queue would likely be breathing down your neck.

Nearly an hour later we got a seat. Food came another while later. Two out of the four dishes were awful, tasteless, lukewarm, and had very little pork. The same dishes elsewhere were bigger and better. Other two were tolerable not because of cooking but because the greens and cashew naturally taste good.

Do yourselves a favor, look elsewhere! Don’t waste your money and time, and go somewhere where you can enjoy a decent meal...