Taiwan Ganbei ~ Taiwanese - Chinatown

Taiwan Ganbei took the place of I Heart Taiwan which took the place of a lamb hot pot restaurant before that and has firmly settled in as a Taiwanese favourite.

[Updated January 2014]





The interior of this place is simple table and chairs. The old booths that used to be in here are now upstairs. It also used to have touch screen menus at each table where you could order from but they don't seem to work any more.



A Crown Lager for only $6. So good we had two. Ganbei!



Taiwanese beef noodle soup - $10. A light, sweet, dark beefy broth given some extra depth with a touch of pickled veggies; plus beef slices and veg. Awesome. Plus $2.80 for an iced lemon black tea which is sweet but not too sweet, just right.



Taiwanese spicy beef noodle soup with thin noodles - $10.80. Miss Chicken says how she much prefers one of these babies over a Vietnamese Pho, mostly because of the nice chompy noodles. Mr Shawn reckons there's different soups for different moods. Either way, Taiwan Ganbei does a killer beef noodle soup.



Stewed pork mince rice combo - $12.80. A small bowl of the classic Taiwanese pork'n'rice dish with choice of entree and drinky-poo. The spicy beef tendon is a little spicy and has the chewy texture we've grown to love over the years. Drinky-poo is an ice lemon yakult green tea which excellent, cold and a little tangy.



Three cup chicken combo - $15.50. The same pork mince rice and choose-you-own-drink as before, this time with a serve of three cup chicken, which is chicken cooked in equal parts sesame oil, soy sauce and Chinese rice wine. It's given an extra boost with fresh basil leaves on top. Yay. Today's drink is passionfruit Yakult green tea - it's super sweet and passionfruit-y.



Like most Taiwanese joints, much care goes into making the drinks. This iced taro tea was sweet and creamy. Awesome.



Stir fried mixed vegetable - $10.80. This is the best veggie stir fry we've had in a long time. The veggies are fresh and cooked just so, flavoured with a good wallop of garlic. Awesome.



Pipi soup with ginger - $6.50. A wonderful clear and simple soup flavoured with a handful of pippies, a smidgeon of ginger and a few basil leaves. We stumbled upon this soup many times on our trip to Taiwan.



Braised pork knuckle - $14.80. We're growing to appreciate this Asian style of cooking meat on the bone. There's more bone than meat but slowly picking the meat off is relaxing and fun.



We try entrees of dried fish with peanuts (a bit sweet for our tastes), cold brisket and eggplant with garlic sauce.



Taiwanese pork rice cakes kung po style - $12.80 - these are steamed rice cakes flavoured with piggy blood, stir fried with roasted chili, peanuts and leeks. Sensational, we loved it to bits (you can't taste blood). The camera didn't like it however.

[Updated January 2014]

Yesterday we returned from a three week trip to Taiwan and we're still keen for more Taiwanese food. After our trip we love Taiwan Ganbei even more.



Taiwanese thin noodle with oyster - $10.80. We saw this style of soup quite a lot in roadside Taiwan. The soup is like a gravy and thick with noodles and and it has a sweet tangy kick to it.



Stewed pork mince noodle - $6.80. Plain noodles with pork mince and an egg on top. A hefty serve for the price.



Speaking of cats, here's one we met on the way home. We call him Computer Says No. Sometimes you get a hello, sometimes you don't. Not many cats have a whole tree in their street as their personal scratching post.

Taiwan Ganbei is at 52 Dixon St, Chinatown. Ph 9212 2220