Xiang La Spicy Hotpot Taipei Ximen Branch — Restaurant in Wanhua District

I had the most expensive but also most invaluable meal ever, Japanese A5 Extravagant Wagyu Set ($1580 + $158 = $1738 in total), which included Japanese A5 Extravagant Wagyu, Japanese F1 Beef, Australian Full Blood Wagyu, and Gold Grade American Wagyu.

I chose Spicy Soup with Wagyu Butter (Mala hot pot) and Fragrant Garlic Chicken Soup (choose 2 out of 5). All the sets included side dishes, vegetables, hot pot ingredients, condiments, beverages, and soft serve DIY BAR.

At the beginning, they would serve you a heart shaped Wagyu Beef Fat to be added to the spicy hot pot and a Surf and Turf Tower (Top: Japanese F1, Middle: Australia Full Blood Wagyu, Bottom: bunch of seafoods).

Most importantly, Mala soup here had perfect level of spiciness and really made the succulent Wagyu beef even tastier and eating them with the rice was absolutely the best of the best.

A5 Wagyu tasted relatively luscious and had thinner, finest and tenderest texture instead of being fat.

In comparison, Japanese F1 beef actually stand out better than A5 in the spicy pot. F1 tasted fatter and also got one of the juiciest texture. Their special Sichuan Spicy Sauce and the satay sauce also complemented so well with the Wagyu Beef.

In conclusion, I ended up ordering 6 plates of A5 Wagyu beef, which were mostly cooked in the spicy hot pot and few in the chicken one.

In terms of the drink bar, I highly recommend taking the Hokkaido milk tea and adding some spoons of the pearls with dark molasses. The soft serve had 6 different flavours and 3 mixed flavours. The flavours were Milk & Chocolate, Mango & Guava, Thai milk tea & Brûlée.

Furthermore, there was a timer on the side of the table that you could calculate how long you need to cook your food, which was around 3 minutes.

In my experience, I went to the Songjiang branch and had a $798 (+10%=$878) Shabu Shabu Set about 2 months ago, which was an outstanding experience. The service and efficiency are good as always. The prices are reasonable for Wagyu all-you-can-eat meals and definitely worth the price to eat. Its location is about 250 metres from the MRT station exit 6. Overall, it’s a 10 out of 10!

FYI, the maximum dining time and ordering time via the tablet are 120 minutes and 90 minutes, respectively. The 10% service charge will be included in your bill additionally. Moreover, there is English menu even Korean menu...

Amazing hotpot with great selection at a very reasonable price point.

Decided to try Xiang La after seeing the 4.9 rating across many reviews and it really didn't disappoint. Showed up on a Saturday night around 7 and was told to come back at 8 since I didn't have a reservation, so do make a reservation to guarantee a table.

Ordered the second course (798nt) which includes Wagyu and premium Angus beef. The more expensive courses offer higher grades of Wagyu with better marbling. Decided to order the chicken broth and beef broth, both were excellent and not very greasy compared to other hotpot I've had.

The Wagyu was amazing, perfectly marbled. Although you're limited to 3 plates per order and the Wagyu is more thinly cut, you can just keep placing multiple orders. I really enjoyed the thicker beef with onion as it was tender and retained sauce well. Everything else was great, pork and lamb were high quality, but can't speak on the chicken since I didn't order any.

With your selected course, you get access to an a variety of vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, gluten, and meatballs that are at the self service bar. Additionally, you can get unlimited refills on soft drinks and there is soft serve ice cream with toppings.

Overall,...

We got the premium beef and seafood set. 798 twd. You can order two soup bases; we had the spicy beef as well as the mushroom broth (for the seafood.) They gave us an English menu, as well as a cheat chart (picture of ingredient and English name to make it easier to order ingredients from the table side menu). Shout out to Jyujia for his help figuring out the ordering screens, explaining the menu choices in English, his patience and the great service. The wagyu, Angus beef and lamb were delicious. The spicy broth had some heat but did not overwhelm. For seafood, the scallops, shrimp and squid were good. We added a lot of vegetables, some fish balls, and a noodle package from the center island. Also got some of their dipping sauces. The grated daikon (with soy and 5 spice powder? black tea?) was my favorite. For dessert (included) they had waffles with black sugar inside, hagen daz ice cream and several flavors of soft serve, creme caramel (my favorite), and black coffee gelatin. A very tasty enjoyable meal for lunar...