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Introduction
At Xi Men Ding Taiwanese Cuisine serves classic Taiwanese comfort food with a modern flair.
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Opening Hours
Mon - Sun
11:30 - 21:30
Above information is for reference only. Please check details with the restaurant.
Signature Dishes
Had a craving for taiwanese beef noodles and I have been on a hunt for a decent one ever since lai lai closed. I rrdered a clam soup - SO BAD. SANDY clams cooked in ginger-pepper salt water. Not recommended to order.Beef fried rice - overly oily. The beef has no taste at all. The fried rice was fine, i thought beef fried rice, the beef should at least be salted? It's like frozen beef bits with no taste. I also ordered the Wagyu beef noodle soup - it's $21.90 pre-tax... and the waiter forgot our order. Great, I didn't reorder since the food served thus far is very disappointing. Service is terrible. I was there at 1pm-ish on a Sunday, though not crowded, the waiters and waitresses didn't respond to our many hand waves to take our order. Please do not go.
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I am pretty sure the well-known shopping district in Taiwan - Xi Men Ding is no stranger to most of you. A fast-rising source of fashion and culture, Xi Men Ding is also home to the greatest food in Taipei. Since popular local food stalls which boast authentic Taiwanese delicacies are on the rise nowadays, one can easily enjoy a taste of Taiwan here.Girlfriend Peiyi and I would be heading to Taipei soon in mid-November 2012, and we thought, why not try something in preparation for our trip? We were in Vivocity at that point of time, and Xi Men Ding was quite the obvious choice. There was a short queue of approximately 6 people, but we were seated within 5 minutes.Anyway, we took notice of their signature fried rice - an impressive looking Taiwanese-style Grilled Roe Fried Rice (S$11.00). It was quite a disappointment when the grilled fish roes came 50% smaller than the ones in pictures. (Blame it on the "for illustration purpose only") Nevertheless, the fried rice was well fragranced and everything - the crunchy cabbage, spring onions and scrambled eggs came to mix perfectly with the heavily flavoured roes.Another speciality - San Bei Chicken with Basil (S$18.90) was slightly bland and overcooked, resulting in juice-less and hard chicken chunks. As a matter of fact, with the exhorbitant price, I could get better quality as well as quantity, at the neighbourhood tze char stall below the block. Fresh Fish Slices w/ Miso Soup (S$6.90) was delectable with the generous portions of mushrooms and fish slices (you don't see it in the picture cos' they are at the bottom).Xi Men Ding also serves a selection of Flower Tea Balls and Floral Tea. With the typical soft drinks going about at the same price, we rather go for a healthier alternative. Hence, we had Osmanthus Tea (S$8.00). I supposed that osmanthus tea emits a strong, sweet fragrance, but this was just bland.Contrary to what many food reviews said about their terrible service, I found it acceptable - the service staff smiled and greeted us. That is pure basic service techniques. However, there was once I requested a waitress to clear up a minor spillage on our table, but she totally forgot about it. Xi Men Ding is probably another restaurant that I will say "this is my first, and the last", as they failed to create any "wow" factors (except for the pricings) or any other reasons I should visit them again.
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FoodNot wanting to repeat visiting the same old eateries that we have been in vivo, we make up our mind for Xi Men Ding - to reminisce our taiwan trip food. Initially, I was skeptical about place as the restaurant is empty - no customers were dinning. This is one of the restaurant opened by the creative eateries.We have ordered the set for 2 for $48, excluding drinks, wet tissues and braised peanuts.The taste of Braised meat is bland, almost tasteless and doesnt seems like it had been braised for long. However, the sweat sauce coated on this meat makes it goes along well.The sweet and vinegar / sour sliced fish is just alright. If we have plain rice to go along with, it will be perfect. Too salty to have this dish alone.I will prefer the Taiwanese fried rice to other dishes in the set meal. Fried with cut peas, ham and braised meat bits. Even if I were to have this plate of rice as dinner, Im alright with it.They gave us a bowl of sweet potato porridge, indeed very hokkien/taiwanese style.I love si gua very much. However , this Gan Bei Si Gua doesnt appeal me much. Si Gua can be softer and i will prefer bits of gan bei instead of shredded.3 bei tou fu tastes more like tou gan than tou fu. Not my favourite though.A not very smooth Almond Toufu as our dessert covered with some mango paste. It tastes more like agar agar than toufu.ServiceI am not impressed by their service. (1) Firstly, Staff should take the initiative to arrange the dishes instead of customers helping them for every dish.(2) Secondly, they need customers to highlight to have the desserts to be served. Not only that, when desserts are served, there is no desserts spoon given. They need customer to remind them again. When desserts spoon are served, the other colleague chuckled. Service is unprofessional.(3) Thirdly, we are having our desserts and they are clearing away the finished dishes. It's quite disturbing.AmbieneNot much customers. They have some chinese songs playing in the background which is good.PricingOverprice for mediocre food. They should absorb the 10% service charge!TipsWe can save money on things like wet tissues and brasised peanuts. Ask them to take away from the table.
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If I'm around Vivo City and couldn't make up my mind what to eat, I'll go for Xi Men Ding knowing their food is always good, and their service is super fast! Also, remember to download the smartphone apps - Perx before you visit the restaurant, because spending $30 or more here will earn you one chop, which you can redeem a glass of bubble milk tea during your next visit, like I just did! We ordered their chef's recommendation dish - Deep-fried prawn with egg yolk ($19.90) as munchy starter. The presentation looks appetizing. the striking colour egg yolk together with a big prawn are set in the middle, surrounded by the prawn paste, then the whole thing is coated with flour batter and deep-fried till golden and crispy! Thumbs up! "Lion head" signature meatball ($10.90) is another chef recommendation dish. The giant meatball is so tasty, the portion of the meat and fats is just nice that one bite of it, it sort of melted in your mouth. The gravy is good flavour too. Taiwan-style stir-fried kang kong ($8/small) is an unexpected dish that gave us huge surprise. The flavour of the fermented tofu paste is so strong yet lovely! Very well done! However, it have to go with rice, otherwise would be too salty. Shrimp fried rice ($8.50) is ordinary, but tastes alright to eat with the vegetables and meatball. Yum!
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Had the taiwanese braised minced pork rice that is priced at $8.50, it was actually rather big portion and there is an egg, minced pork and vegetables. It kept me filled and the service was also quite good. They serve the dish rather fast also despite the restaurant being quite filled at dinner time. Had also ordered their recommended dish which is the salted fried chicken which was great in my opinion. It was very crispy and was well marinated with the spices also. Definitely would come back for this again next time!
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