Goodbeitao — Restaurant in Zhongzheng District

Came here at my gf’s recommendation - she told me it’s popular and she never managed to get a reservation. I must have been lucky, because after not finding space for lunch, I managed to snag a place for myself for an early dinner.

Got the classic xiaolongbao (5 piece), the Sichuan noodles - both recommended items in the menu - and a bottle of Oolong tea.

I’ll start with what I “disliked”, just to get it out of the way: when ordering the tea, I was under the impression it was going to be freshly made tea, rather than bottled; the sichuan noodles had a VERY faint fishy taste, which I couldn’t identify as just an ingredient, or some cross contamination from the kitchen. In case it was the latter, do follow through with the advice on the menu, and alert the kitchen for any allergies - the menu did not mention any seafood in the dish.

With that being said…

I LOVED everything I got. Even with that slight aftertaste, the noodles were majestic. Velvety smooth, slightly spicy, as you’d expect, but I’d recommend it to anybody, even people who don’t eat spicy. Flavourful, and very fulfilling, bite after bite. I mentioned that hint of fish for the only reason that, generally, I don’t like fish/seafood, and that’s why I noticed it; if you do, you might not even notice. Once I mixed everything (the presentation is very pretty), the soup came together in a way I’d eat again and again anyways. Thoroughly enjoyable, easily recommended.

The xiaolongbao were outstanding. Understated plating, in the standard steaming basket. The dough is perfect, very solid (first time I could handle xiaolongbao without a single worry about them tearing apart), yet somehow they melt in the mouth. They’re served warm, but not scalding hot like most places, so you can enjoy them basically right away. The broth was surprisingly thick, and the meat filling also melts into an extremely pleasing texture - and a lovely flavour, obviously. They tasted like a chef did a lot of homework to make sure they could get as many people as possible to love them. Balanced, savoury. I’m sure locals will have a more nuanced understanding of what can vary based on family recipes; as a foreigner, these are as good as I’ve been able to eat in Taipei.

The bottled tea is good, and the bottle is very peculiar in that it contains a tea bag! I would’ve still preferred freshly made tea, but it was good regardless, and have no complaint given the price. Speaking of which…

… all of this was just 363NTD, including the 10% service charge. My bank tells me it’s €10.68. You can’t get a plateful of half decent pasta for that price back in Italy, let alone a meal at a popular location in central Rome. There are items in the menu that will make your bill run quite a bit higher, but in general I’d say - awesome deal.

Staff was very friendly and welcoming. The cooks saw me looking through the window into the kitchen as I left, and gestured a rather friendly goodbye! Felt like seeing people hard at work, but doing something they’re quite into.

Hope to be back soon (if I can get a table,...

If you're going to go because of the high review, I would suggest not waste your money, Go to other places that have a lot of people waiting line to get in. At least their dishes will be fresh.

I had high expectation because they require reservations in order to gain access to dining. I think beginning they hire internet celebrity to go and taste the dishes and give rave review with a five Star rating. After eating, I realize that their 小籠包 or anything with meat and no seafood. It tastes acceptable with exceptional truffle小籠包. It does have truffle taste. We had few dish with seafood in it and it tastes terrible because the seafood is not fresh at all they all have Fishy smell, seafood should have seafood unami flavor.

I think part of the reason for seafood to go bad is because they stick to their reservation only. It limits their turn over of their seafood and over all ingredients.

I think they should do like what other restaurants do, which have no reservation system. Just first come first serve, If they are truly good, they still can pack the restaurant, on top of it their food is pretty expensive...

I came here after reading a few reviews that claimed this place to be better than Din Tai Fung (DTF). I liked the food here, but I won't go as far as saying that they are better than DTF. Depending on your preference, both restaurants have their unique selling points. For example, dumplings in this place are creamy and flavourful whereas DTF's dumplings are cleaner-tasting and smaller. The fried rice here has the "wok hei" (flavour from the wok) and therefore is more oily than the fried rice in DTF.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal here. Between the two of us, we ordered dumplings (small - 5 pieces), mushroom vegetable fried rice, kung pao chicken, and a cup of hot and sour soup. I found the food here to lean toward the sweet side of things. So I balanced it off with vinegar (for the soup) or chili (for fried rice).

We did a walk-in on a Thursday evening and we were seated on the first floor. Service was prompt...