[Taipei] Shin Yeh 欣葉台菜

Like my FACEBOOK PAGE and follow me on TWITTER or WEIBO!

Shin Yeh 欣葉台菜

Address: 34-1 Shuangcheng Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei / 台北市中山區雙城街34-1號
Tel: (02) 2596 3255
Hours: 11:00am~midnight
Website: www.shinyeh.com.tw
Price: 300~500 NTD/person
Visited on: 2012-01-24

Popular among locals and tourists alike, Shin Yeh is a safe bet when it comes to quality Taiwanese food. If you are a real foodie, make the trip to Shin Yeh’s original location on Shuang Cheng Street for the best of the best.

Shin Yeh, the original store

For a simple meal, go for the simple dishes. We started with 滷味肥腸 Braised Pork Intestine with Preserved Vegetables (260 NTD) – chewy texture, slightly spicy, addictingly good.

滷味肥腸 Braised Pork Intestine with Preserved Vegetables, 260 NTD (S) / 450 NTD (L)

滷味肥腸 Braised Pork Intestine with Preserved Vegetables

正宗菜脯蛋 Fried Eggs with Dried Turnips (185 NTD), fluffy fried eggs and crunchy dried turnips, perfect with a bowl of porridge.

正宗菜脯蛋 Fried Eggs with Dried Turnips, 185 NTD

正宗菜脯蛋 Fried Eggs with Dried Turnips

台式炸蚵仔酥 Fried Fresh Oysters (295 NTD) is another very typical Taiwanese dish that’s worth your stomach space. Fresh oysters covered in batter and deep fried till crispy. Dip them in the accompanying pepper salt, and into the mouth they go. Pop pop pop.

台式炸蚵仔酥 Fried Fresh Oysters, 295 NTD

Salt pepper dip

巧味潤餅 Fresh Spring Roll (160 NTD), a thin wrap enveloping bean sprouts, cabbage, grated peanuts and sugar. Sweet and savory, soft and crunchy.

巧味潤餅 Fresh Spring Roll, 160 NTD

巧味潤餅 Fresh Spring Roll

And all goes down smooth with a bowl of 地瓜稀飯 Sweet Potato Porridge (15 NTD/person, unlimited serving).

地瓜稀飯 Sweet Potato Porridge, 15 NTD/person

While I was happy with all the savory dishes we ordered,  our dessert – 古早杏仁茶 Almond Milk with Crispy Dough (80 NTD) – did not impress. The main problem was its bitterness, presumably because the kitchen did not find the perfect ratio of Southern (sweet) and Northern (bitter) almonds. The crispy dough was also served cold and hard. A disappointment.

古早杏仁茶 Almond Milk with Crispy Dough, 80 NTD

古早杏仁茶 Almond Milk with Crispy Dough

The complimentary 麻糬 Mochi, on the other hand, were a delight. Soft and chewy, covered in grated peanuts, yum.

麻糬 Mochi

Our dinner only costed 300 NTD per person, but a meal at Shin Yeh can easily cost more than 1,000 NTD per person once you start ordering the seafood dishes. You can also try Shin Yeh 101, the restaurant’s outpost in Taipei 101 which has a minimal spend of 1,800 NTD per person (window seats) or 880 NTD per person (non-window seats). If you are just going for the food, however, Shin Yeh’s original branch on Shuang Cheng Road would be your best choice.