Shi Yan Shi — Restaurant in Zhongzheng District

It was okay overall, but pricey. It was quite difficult to find the restaurant. From the main station, follow signs for the Caesars hotel, but DO NOT GO UP THEIR ELEVATORS. Instead, go out the exit (exit 6 I think?), and when you have the option to go up a half flight of stairs to go outside, or go straight through a sliding glass door, do that.

When we ordered, there was no English menu. A waiter helped us through ordering because it was above our whole groups reading level, and I guess it was taking too long to translate on our other phone.

There were 5 of us, and we were strongly pushed to order the meat plate for three and the seafood plate for two. We had three hungry young men and we had trouble finishing this in the 90 minute time limit, and ended up having to leave some behind. This included us barely touching any vegetables (which are all you can eat) and no noodles. This is one reason I am not sure it deserves 5 stars, as it really felt like we were pushed to order too much meat.

!!!!!! Things to note: !!!!!! There is a 90 minute limit. Even if you still have meat you paid for, you will be asked to leave. Vegetables, noodles, broth, and drinks (limited) are all you can eat. Don't order enough combos to cover the number of people in your group. Aim for a meat combo for 3 if you have 5 like us, and then order more meat if you need to later! Or just order a la carte, which is what locals said we should have done after.

We also were told we 'had to order the seafood for two' when we asked if we could do something else. This may have been an error in translation, but it really got us something we didn't want. We were a little stressed from trying to find the place in time for our reservation so we agreed, but it really wasn't what we wanted. (One person in our group did not like seafood, two more didn't really prefer it). The lesson here is be strong willed and don't be afraid to order a la carte!

The quality of the meat seemed good. The quality of the vegetables seemed very good, though we weren't able to try many of them as we wanted because we ordered so much meat. The broth was fine. I wouldn't say it was bad or anything, but not really worth what we paid. The drinks were fine, the tea was good but the soy milk was not my favorite, but that's not the reason you go to hot pot anyway. (Though I was unlimited. The sauce station was good! It had a variety of ingredients and we were able to mix a sauce we enjoyed quickly. (The trick for newbies is to make sure to add enough vinegar and pepper sauce)

Overall it was a fine way to spend a Monday night. Definitely come hungry and ready to speak/read Chinese fluently, and be wary of over-ordering (unlimited vegetables and noodles, and a 90 minute limit!). The value for the money seemed not great, and I don't think I would recommend this place, only because there is so much excellent food in the city, especially at this price point. If you are in the area, very hungry, and really want hot pot, by all...

Revisited in December 2024. We were a bit late and right during dinner time with no reservation. Hence, had to wait in queue. The gentleman who was managing the counter was kind enough to help us in getting the queue up and setting up the app for alerting us when table was ready. He suggested for us to go do some shopping while waiting which we did. Within 30mins, the call came. This gentleman assisted us in ordering and was checking up on us constantly to ensure we had a good meal. Indeed we did. No regrets coming back to this place and had increased the stars to a deserving 5. Food quality was good and similar to what we had last year. For this price, can't complain. ++++++++++++++++++ 90 mins of hotpot. One needs to order a meat or dish and it comes with a claypot of soup. With additional cost, you can opt for other soup base e.g. mala etc. But I found that the normal soup is food enough.

Apart from the meat that is ordered, the veggie, meat ball, taufu etc is a buffet. There is self serve of lu rou fan as well. Drinks has option for sweetened chinese tea or soya milk both are cold. There is also tau wha with sugar syrup for dessert. Everything is self serve (incl. adding soup) apart from the noodles which you need to order from the crew.

Economical hotpot. Service by the crew was...

2019/12/9 店家人手嚴重不足。七點半入座，等到八點都沒東西吃，甚至連菜盤都沒看到影子，只好請店家先上白飯跟飲料。 結果加價10塊升級的滷肉飯一上桌，就看到上面的滷肉少到笑。雖然吃火鍋選白飯的人多少都是拿火鍋肉來配飯，但也不能抱著這種想法淋上一小匙搞笑的肉燥來污辱人吧，簡直廢到笑。

再說白飯吧，一上桌就是常溫偏冷，濕糊無味。愛吃的人都知道白飯就是要在米飯不糊爛的前提下盡量讓米粒充滿水分。但是這點對於一般營業店家來說實在太過困難，也就暫不強求。但至少煮到不糊爛是基本要求吧？諸如燴飯或配火鍋等湯湯水水類的米飯，中間偏微硬的口感比較合適，就這點來說基本上隨便一家三媽臭臭鍋都比你們了解。

來看飲料，你們特別設計過的杯子很酷，有LOGO，偏偏你的LOGO上頭就卡著一個髒東西，甚是可笑。要髒也請你髒別的地方去，就讓一個明顯的汙點沾在你的LOGO上，連你們自己人都不在乎自己的品牌形象了嗎？

說回火鍋，其他人的餐點都來了（至少都炒過，在等高湯滾主食熟），就我的油蔥雞腿和一位朋友的伊比利豬肋條還要等。我望著眼前空空如也的石鍋，花了近四百塊買的一餐，竟然過了四十分鐘還是景色依舊，我已經不知道此刻的我到底是來餐廳消費用餐的客人，還是在寒風中托缽化緣的修行者了。再加上這個靠近結帳台的位置與另外半塊用餐區分開，在這個位置根本看不到任何服務生或店家人員，除了天冷與飢餓之外，還多了一絲無助與絕望。

此時的我和朋友說，不如我們先去拿醬料吧，說不定拿完之後餐點就來了呢。來到醬料台，發現寫著醬料碟的抽屜裡早已空空如也，還要其他客人提醒我們另一側還有醬料台，這是我今天在這家店消費享受到的極少數服務（提供服務的人不是店員先不說，而且我們走到另一個醬料台，抽屜也依然是空的）。

決定直接拿小湯碗來裝醬料的我們，看到牆壁上精美的配方圖，但卻發現說明文與下方配料名稱有近乎半數不一致，寫著蒜泥，但台上只見一碗蒜末；寫著甜醬油，但是望眼欲穿只有一般的醬油；寫著花生粉，全部人找來找去都找不到花生粉，腦中只疑問這家店到底花生什麼事？說明做得這麼精美，至少跟你們的調味料名牌對上，不是一件困難的事情吧？

回到座位，依然沒見到我們的餐點。我與朋友面面相覷，想說應該是雞腿排在煎，需要比較久時間吧。此時雞腿上桌，就是一支生雞腿排，跟一盤切成骰子狀的豬肋條。既然先前不是在料理，那為什麼可以拖了近四十分鐘才上桌？

接著雞腿下鍋，只見我的雞腿皮和石鍋藕斷絲連地糾纏不清，通俗點講叫做黏鍋。黏鍋就算了，至少鍋也是漸漸熱了，不管那些沾黏處，煎個酥脆的雞皮出來也是一番好滋味。但在雞皮還很軟爛的時候，服務生就將高湯下鍋了。

於是我等了四十幾分鐘，拿到的是一鍋只剩油蔥味、雞皮軟爛的無味雞腿、久煮難軟又不甘甜的高麗菜、還有朋友那下鍋後縮到比夜市的骰子牛還迷你的肋條塊。油蔥雞腿排的湯整鍋只剩下油蔥跟油的味道，下鍋的高麗菜還沒沾醬料，就已經比我十二小時沒洗的臉還要油膩，只能用可怕來形容。此時鍋中的食物最好吃的，就是南瓜與蘿蔔等本身帶甘甜味道的食物了。

最後整理： 環境：文青裝潢，但同行友人說服務人員在擦桌子的時候把殘渣掃到他的衣物上。 食物：油蔥酥雞腿排石頭火鍋的湯頭油膩噁心、雞肉無味、高麗菜生硬。 加價10元的滷肉飯的滷肉極少且味道不足撐起整碗飯、白飯糊爛且已無絲毫米飯香。 紅茶、豆漿、豆漿紅茶三項飲料應該僅在全台任何一間連鎖永和豆漿的平均水準而已。 服務：人手嚴重不足。在門口確認完人數座位後，等入座等了快5分鐘。 明知是需要人力炒製鍋底的石頭火鍋，人力卻少到連菜盤上了沒都顧不齊，甚至一度被放空城將近半小時。 醬料區略顯髒亂，且醬料碟早已一個不剩。 然後上面這些東西我還要付10%。 價格：上面這餐要價360+10%新台幣，將近四百。寧可點3鍋三媽臭臭鍋只吃料不喝湯都完勝這間。

另外，以上的批評不是針對任何服務人員，而是針對店家的各方面感到嚴重不滿。在各方面都有如此嚴重的疏失，決不是一兩位服務人員可以導致的。希望店家能好好檢討各項疏失。如果覺得競爭太激烈實在不好做，其實也不需要勉強經營，因為你們如果選擇下台一鞠躬，我想也不會有太多人失望。畢竟大家應該在第一次...