Fuhong Beef Noodles — Restaurant in Wanhua District

this review has a long rant, but if its TL;DR, most important thing is, good food, but horrible service to foreigners that makes the whole experience here really not worth it. I ate here earlier with my friend and the staff was so rude to us. when we sat down, the waiter came up to us and asked us where we were from, and I clearly told him in mandarin "美國 (the US)" but then he asked in a mocking voice "so 墨西哥 (mexico)?" like my effort in speaking mandarin just wasn't good enough for him... (btw, I have already been taking a few years of mandarin classes and have been able successfully communicate in basic mandarin to other taiwanese locals, so I'm fairly certain my mandarin is decent enough).

when he brought the menu, I asked if we could get the dumplings (in mandarin) but he just said "no." so I just clarified by asking "所以你們沒有水餃嗎? (so you don't have any dumplings?)" and then he just repeatedly kept saying "no. no. no." rudely in english. so we just ordered two bowls of the 牛肉麵 (beef noodle soup) and I specified the medium size (again, in mandarin "中"). but when an older woman working there brought a bowl to our table she asked "small?" and I said "中" (medium), where after she proceeded to place the bowl she was holding on the table, and another bowl of the same size. but this made me unsure if she was actually bringing us the small or medium size bowls, since she asked us "small"..?

and then she said something that wasn't clear to me at first, so I asked her to say it again, and only then could I tell she was asking for the "money" in english so I reacted by saying "ah" in an understanding kind of way and then reached for my wallet. but she then responded back with an annoyed expression and a "yes" (as if she thought I was confused I had to pay??). and when I first got two hundred bills out (our total was NT$220), she just grabbed it quickly from my hand and gestured with her hand to give her the rest of the money quicker. and once I handed her the coins, she turned around sharply without saying so much as one word.

needless to say, I won't be coming back here. the noodles here were actually really good, but out of all my times dining/ordering food in taipei, this was the only bad service I've ever actually experienced, and I'm very sure I can find another restaurant with better service and better beef...

EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED! 🥴😭😡

Yesterday, I had a great simple bowl 紅燒牛肉麵 (Braised Beef Noodles) at a stall right at the rear end of 饒河夜市 (Rao He Night Market). However, at an already 34°C 8.30am, the beef noodles at Fu Hong is less than average.

Somewhere I read that Fu Hong is listed in the Michelin Gourmand. Nope, Fu Hong is not, because the only two listed for Taipei in 2024 are Muji and Halal Chinese. In the past perhaps... 🤔

I had the Combination Beef Noodle 綜合牛肉面, which contained 4 small cubes of braised beef and a handful of tripe. No tendon. Hmm... 😤

According to the stall owner, Fu Hong's broth is braised, but personally, their broth is 180° opposite compared with the ones that I am familiar with, worldwide. Fu Hong's version is just a clear and extremely beefy-less broth, with at least the star anise and cinnamon playing in the background. 😏. No depth. No Umami. Almost tasteless.

So, like everyone else, I dropped a teaspoon of tallon, the so-called beef butter, which did add a level of beefiness to the broth, but itself did not make the beef noodles mindblowing. Then, I spooned two tablespoons of pickled salted cabbage, which didn't do much either. Lastly, I dumped about two tablespoons of their chilli paste. The chilli paste is the typical Taiwan bean-paste version, extremely salty and slightly spicy, so be very mindful of how much you add it to your noodles. Still, the broth was invigorating and uninviting. 😕😕😕

Despite being asked and told that I wanted 細麵 thin noodles, the noodles still came as round and thick like Udon. Despite it being chewy, the noodles did nothing to lift the already heavily corrupted beef broth.

Service was good though. The attendant and the owner took their time to explain the Chinese writings on the wall, a.k.a., the menu written in Chinese to me, and they was courteous.

Nope, I will never return. Tomorrow, I'll head to Yong Kang Beef Noodles to see if their beef noodles offering doesn't fail me like this...

Would not come back - mostly because of the food and service. Atmosphere is what it is and I usually don’t mind but the service and attitude of the servers who work here are absolutely the worst I have ever experienced. The young-ish guy who took our order was so sullen and I gave it a pass bc - maybe he’s having a rough day and I don’t need him to smile or make conversation so I brushed it off. What annoyed me was when my 5 year old son went to get water and I had him bring 2 small Dixie cups of water back to the table. He’s 5 and normally perfectly capable of carrying water however I think he was startled and spilled a tiny bit out (mostly onto himself) and a small enough amount onto the floor that they didn’t even bother wiping. The guy who took our order went “AAARRRGGH” so loudly and then the older lady snatched the cups of water out of my son’s hands and marched it to the table while loudly saying “What kind of mother allows this”? I’m sorry. It’s WATER and again the amount was so minor they didn’t bother wiping it. I was so taken aback as it’s our first night back in Taiwan and my memories of summers here were always so pleasant with the kindness of the people here. Food wise - it was meh as well. Soup tasted mostly of soy sauce and nothing else. Meat wasn’t tough but very little flavor. The wide noodles were not good in my opinion - too overwhelming for the dish but to be fair - I didn’t get to try the thinner noodles. Century egg and tofu side dish was good but again - I would not go back again. Extremely...