Kikanbo Taipei Main Shop — Restaurant in Zhongshan District

I wanted to like this place but I didn’t like it all that much. The decor and ambiance really resembled a ramen shop in Japan. They have the vending machine to order your ramen. The store is quiet with customers not afraid to slurp their ramen.

Food: 3 stars Environment: 4 stars Service: 3 stars Value: 4 stars Overall: 3.25 stars

On my visit I ordered the signature Mala dipping ramen. The amount of food you get is quite substantial and is a good value for 300 NTD. My ramen came with a substantial slice of pork char siu and a piece of braised pork belly. The standard noodle portion is 270 grams which is a lot more than average.

The ramen base I found too salty for my liking and all the components of the dish didn’t seem to pair well together. The pork belly was a sweet soy braise and seemed out of place with the spicy dipping soup. Since this is the signature and I didn’t like it too much not sure if I would want to come back to try...

I believe this restaurant has two separate locations next door to each other, which was extremely confusing!

When I arrived at 11.45 there was already a queue for the "right shop" (ramen) so I lined up thinking both doors were for the same place. At 12.00 the "left shop" (tsukemen) opened. There was no line there because everyone was lining up for the other door. Some people started to change line now since they realized it wasn't the same place. I moved there as well because that was actually where I wanted to go. So confusing...

Overall the tsukemen was decent. I ordered the regular tsukemen (top left button on the vending machine). I selected not spicy and little peppercorn.

The soup was fine. Personally I felt it lacked salt and was too watery. The taste was a little basic. The noodles were good. The pork and other toppings were all very tasty.

Overall it was good but I definitely wouldn't...

Nice implementation of prickly ash/花椒 (all ground up). so i did NOT bite into seeds (the feel like tiny sand particles), like how usually all mala cuisines are. Soup was mind blowing, and as you can see from the photo i shared, they're generous with their protein. Meat was cooked just right and compliments the soup and noodles very well.

I ordered 2nd spiciest and 2nd numbing. I finished everything, including the soup. Gave me a good sweat but didn't burn the living heck out of my mouth.

Think i'll try the spiciest one next time, but need to at 30nt for spice and numbing individually.

230nt for that bowl in the pic, heck yea i'm coming again!

oh fyi, there usually is a line, and the seats are limited so you'll be waiting for a little more than a little bit (depending on the...