明水然無菜單鐵板燒 慶城店 — Restaurant in Songshan District

My two sisters and their husbands came back to Hong Kong from the US last month. We decided that the three families would go for a short vacation. This would be our first vacation together since we graduated from high school some 40 years ago. As I travelled to Taipei on a monthly basis before I retired so I was volunteered to be the trip organizer and tourist guide in Taipei.

On the second night we went to this restaurant 明水然無菜單鐵板燒 on Qing Sheng Street. The restaurant is next to Hooters which has a very bright sign that can been seen miles away.

The restaurant is clean and tidy and the atmosphere is cozy. Once we walked in and gave our name, we were shown immediately to our table. Since there were 7 of us so we were given a room to ourselves. The waiter then started to serve us water and introduced the menu to us. Since my sisters and their husbands went to universities in the UK after high school so none of them have the chance to learn Mandarin. English and Cantonese are the only languages they speak. The young boy (黃仁宗) who served us spoke very little English. However, he tried his very best to speak to my sisters and entertain their various questions. Only when he was absolutely impossible to understand them would he then turned to my daughter for her help to do the translation. We really admired and appreciate his effort and attitude.

All but one of us selected the basic set dinner A which costs NT$1,378 that includes a Japanese style salad as appetizer, a choice of soup (1 from 3), one half of a Boston live lobster, fish (we had a large piece of black cod that night), a choice of 5 different meat as the main course (with a little bit of extra cost, there are 3 more choices to select from), then followed by a bowl of fried rice topped with lots of dried Sakura shrimp. To finish off, there is a choice of dessert and drinks. My brother-in-law paid an additional NT$200 to select menu B which is basically same as dinner A plus an oyster, scallop and an abalone. All the dishes were delicious and the portions were of reasonable sizes. We were all full after the main course and could barely finish the fried rice and yet we had to strive to finish the dessert. The three choices of dessert were banana fritter, chocolate lava cake plus ice cream and fried taro mash cake. We ordered all three and shared them out. Each of them was so good that we finished the last bit of them all.

The bill came to NT$12,313 for 7. For this amount and the kind of food and service we had, we would consider it as money well spent. We would have to pay at least 50% more for a similar dinner in Hong Kong. This is a restaurant we have book marked in our must go list and we all look forward to our next...

Coming in for dinner during Mother's day with my relatives we all ordered the 2000NTD course per person.

As someone who appreciates simplicity and indulging in high quality ingredients this is the place to go.

The course consisted of many interchangeable proteins for halal and non-beef options. The price is Definitely not cheap but is justified for this experience as we were served with high quality proteins such as a lobster, abalone, shrimp, scallop, grouper and lastly high quality pork.

I would like to also mention the staff for their service as they were very attentive, they would refill our drinks and change utensils almost immediately after every...

This place is the only teppanyaki I will recommend to go in Taipei but only if you have the craving. I’ve tried several including Ben, Hana, Hunghwa, Robin and everything in between. Food is comparable with the rest and service is decent but not spectacular, hence the 4 stars. We enjoyed lobster and abolone on certain occasions besides fine cuts of meat. Overall it’s an enjoyable dinner unlike the other places I...