肉肉餐桌 — Restaurant in Hualien City

Usually I don't write reviews, but this time I felt I must. First the short version.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY YOU CAN BUY BETTER STEAK AT THE NIGHT MARKET! (Or carrefour)

Owner was condescending and insulting!

If you are interested in the details and complete accounting of what took place I've attached a long version:

The pictures I added of the steaks are as we left them at the table they were not suitable to eat!

I've never been more offended or had a worse steak! The STEAK QUALITY WAS EXTREMELY POOR and rather than admit that the meat quality was poor the owner was condescending and attempted to say that I'd never tasted a piece of steak from New Zealand. And, basically that my wife was too low class to understand what his steak is. My wife was born and raised in Taipei in a business class family. She's eaten a decent steak once or twice.

My wife had a New Zealand filet (10oz) my son the same and I had ordered an American ribeye (12oz). All three steaks had an extremely strong overpowering taste and we're extremely chewy. Anyone who's ever eaten a high quality filet knows you should be practically able to be cut with your fork and it should melt in your mouth! Even my 10-year-old son who loves steak refused to eat his filet after chewing on a single piece for several minutes basically like chewing gum.

In the end I paid $2,400 NT for three plates of salad and three bowls of soup. Because the condescending owner refused to admit that he'd purchased low quality meat and was attempting to pass it off as high quality steak! The chefs did an excellent job of cooking the steaks to the perfect temperature just as we had ordered them and it was certainly no fault of the chefs. The quality of the meat was absolutely terrible! The owner continued to insult my family by saying that we didn't know what high quality steak was and we obviously never had good steak before. We refused to eat the steak! Even though the owner insisted that I must pay for 80% of the meals we ordered. I would have happily paid double this for the quality of steak I was expecting and that were listed on the menu.

The owner then realizing that I was willing to pay the money started trying to explain away the situation and even handed me free meal vouchers for a future visit with my receipt. I refused the meal vouchers as I will NEVER return to this restaurant or any other associated with this owner. In the car my wife suggested this may be a supplier issue in Hualien. So, I immediately drove to Carrefour (in Hualien) and purchased the exact same cut of meat that I ordered at this restaurant an American ribeye for 655 NT. Went back to my house in Hualien and used a frying pan with nothing but salt and pepper this steak from Carrefour was very reasonable and far far far better quality than the meat at the restaurant. It just exemplified how offensive and disgusting my experience was at this restaurant.

For the record I'm Canadian and I've eaten steak in several countries. I used to work in logistics and have traveled broadly. I have eaten steak in Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Costa Rica, Panama, Germany, not to mention several cities in Taiwan! The best steak I've eaten in Taiwan was an Yilan.

THIS WAS BY FAR MY WORST EXPERIENCE EVER EATING STEAK IN TAIWAN DON'T THROW...

“You think this is a restaurant? Just eat what I gave you,” was a common phrase from my mother when I complained about her cooking as a child. Tonight at 肉肉餐桌, I was given the same comment.

I love steak. I’ll talk to anyone and everyone about steak. Been talking about some Wagyu I had last week for 7 days straight. We go to Lawry's in Taipei for our anniversary, and then Texas Roadhouse before Ikea on the following day. I love steak. I buy 750 gram (26 oz) T-bones from the butcher in Hualien, and tomahawk ribeyes from Costco. So when I saw this new restaurant 肉肉餐桌 just down the road from my butcher, I was excited because I love steak.

I ordered a 12 oz rib eye, the most expensive item on the menu, but it’s ok I love eating well; hopefully it’d be good. My wife ordered a filet, also not cheap. We planned to share with my 7 year daughter, who is not a big eater. The server told us my daughter had to order at least $200 worth of food. Would have almost been okay if the menu had more than one item for children. There was just a pork set for $230, which she didn’t want.

We decided to give 肉肉餐桌 a chance, and we did not leave....but we should have.

Since I felt forced to order the kid’s set, it made me re-evaluate my choice of steak. I was in no mood to give 肉肉餐桌 $980+10% for a not-so-big rib eye. We changed our order to a chicken chop rice bowl and filet rice bowl. Mistake number 2.

Then the soup came. Nothing worth having. Basic corn soup. I told the waiter to give mine to my daughter; I didn’t want it. He said it was ok, she would have her own. So I took it and swallowed a spoonful. Well, after waiting too long for her soup to arrive, I gave her mine. Hers eventually showed up with her meal. No one ate it.

When the first rice bowl showed, we noticed a very raw poached egg on it. Asked if it could be fully cooked; there was no way my daughter was going to eat it. Even I had no desire for that runny blob. The waitress said no, it is only served this way. Fine, said we will keep it, but we begged her to ask the cook to just leave off the eggs on the next two bowls. She said, “No!” By the way, our first mistake was thinking 肉肉餐棹 was a restaurant.

How pretentious. So that is their “cuisine” and we must enjoy their masterpiece whether we like it or not was the feeling I was getting. Any restaurant serving up the same old corn soup and passing off chuck roll (one of the cheapest cuts of beef commonly used for stews, pot roast, and ground beef) as steak is not serving cuisine. Ridiculous.

So we scraped off the eggs and dropped them in a soup bowl that was still half full, and tried to make the best if this ridiculous situation. The filet was ok. Under seasoned but ok. The chicken was ok. Under seasoned but ok. The pork was tough and dry. My daughter couldn’t even chew a piece well enough to swallow.

Not Child Friendly! One option for children. No way to omit an almost raw egg. Unable to share a meal with a child.

Instead of spending what would have been close to $2000 on our original order, we were offended and treated poorly for exactly $1111, which is still too much. I believe there are restaurants that can give the same low quality of service and...

This is definitely the best place when you are looking for steaks in Hualien. The food quality and the way they get everything ready for you are just perfect for a nice lunch/dinner with family or friends. Everything on the menu are not just copies of what you normally expect or find in other restaurants. The best original tastes and flavors of the food are well-retained with the owners' creativity and...