Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet — Restaurant in New Taipei

After browsing through the menu, we realised that the front page of the menu at Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet (黑殿飯店) Tamsui covers the main signatures of

冠军越光米 (loosely translated to “Champion Rice Dishes that one will clean up completely to the very last morsel”)

顶级牛肉面 (Premium Beef Noodles)

黑殿秘制炒饭 (Dark Palace Secret Fried Rice)

顶级干拉面 (Premium Dry Ramen)

顶级汤拉面 (Premium Soup Ramen)

Over on the second page of the Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet Cuisine Menu，you’ll find the side dishes and a vast selection of braised items that you can choose from – including pig’s ears, pig’s skin, tofu, mushroom, beancurd skin, seaweed, onsen egg and of course the usual meats like chicken, beef and pork.

After contemplating and browsing through the menu for some time, we decided on

带骨猪排高丽菜炒饭 (Pork rib cabbage fried rice – 185NT) 秘制双酱拌面 (Dry ramen with 2 secret sauces – 麻酱 + 炸酱 – 135NT) 香卤鸡腿排 (Braised chicken drum stick – 120NT) 豪华红烧牛肉拉面 (Premium Braised Beef Noodles – 299NT)

But before we get to the food itself (which WAS SO SO GOOD!), let’s talk a little bit about the restaurant itself as well as the ordering process.

Upon entering into Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet (黑殿飯店) Tamsui, we noticed that the business was brisk. Although the restaurant was quite big, we still had to walk a little to find seats. We also noticed that after we finished eating, the crowd had ballooned and people were waiting for our seats as well. This is of course, a good sign that the food quality here must be pretty good to bring in the crowds consistently.

The ordering process is relatively simple. Once you’re seated, one of the staff will pass you a menu and a crayon which you’ll use to indicate your order by ticking or indicating the quantity that you’d like to have. Remember to indicate your table number at the top of the menu. Once done, bring it to the cashier to make payment and thereafter, your food will be served at your table. Easy peasy.

For our full review of Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet, visit...

As other reviewers have noted, they watch over your shoulder for a 5 star review before giving you a free drink. And I am but a simple, skint tourist...

However, the food was excellent and I've kept the 5 stars. We had the beef noodles (thin noodle), which was actually slightly spicy with Sichuan pepper in the broth and comes with a small dish of Northern chinese style pickled cabbage. We also had radish with yuzu, century egg tofu, golden goose rice and taiwanese style pork chop noodle. For 3 people, this was plenty of food, and it was all great. The fusion of spicy, sour Northern style Chinese food and clean, refreshing Japanese food was really fascinating, in terms of Taiwan's history and if thinking about food origins is your thing. The free drink was lemon and winter melon iced tea and it was also good, maybe a touch sweet, dilute with water if so.

The service was bare bones, but the food came quickly and without fuss. There was an English menu, but they probably do not update it regularly, so its worth still trying to order food they say they have sold out of - they did have the yuzu radish after all. They also might have waiting times of 15min-ish at peak times, but people eat quickly and leave, so it is not too bad of a wait, just walk along the river for a bit which is...

Ventured out to Tamsui to check out the old street and found this highly rated Taiwanese restaurant. more of a sit down place but they had tons of people doing Takeaway as well. Most of the tables were upstairs where you order separately on a paper menu and they deliver food to your table. We got the package deal where you get a staple item (main dish) non staple item (appetizer) and dessert (drinks or ice cream). We got century egg tofu, beef noodles, and combination ice cream. The century egg was a new experience and certainly interesting! The beef noodles were pretty good, not as tender as some other places, but still good quality and enough for 2 people to share. The ice cream ended up being soft serve but they took forever to make it and give it to us. This place was a bit on the pricier end of things, perhaps because they’re more of a sit down place but the quality of food was good. Only 1 person spoke a bit of English though so have your translator app ready. They do accept...