Taiwan Ganbei is a trendy looking restaurant in the Chinatown area with the promise of good Taiwanese food. The interior is clean and service is dependent on a button press system. Water was not immediately offered upon sitting down at the table and we were simply left with the menus. Items served with rice range between 10 and 12 dollars, and a combo meal that includes any drink ranges between 14 and 17 dollars.
I ordered the fried pork chop on rice combo for $14.50 and my friend ordered the three cups chicken combo. I had a milk tea with bubbles and my friend had a taro tea. Naturally the drinks came first and the milk tea was normal, nothing special here. However, the taro tea was powdery in comparison to other locations.
The food was quite a letdown. I will start with the worst item: the rice - the rice was way overcooked and all of the grains had burst and created a mushy mess with strong starchy flavors. The 3 cups chicken was flavorless and upon tasting that it was apparent that the kitchen had lost the soy sauce, the salt, and seasonings, and instead replaced all of that with food coloring. The fried pork chop was slightly better, but had a very bizarre brown sweet syrup sauce. The coating was crisp and stayed on the pork chop well, but outside of this, this pork chop also makes it evident that the salt was missing from the kitchen's pantry. The only item that I found acceptable was the minced pork that was on the rice. The minced pork was properly seasoned and cooked. The food was a huge disappointment, and the only properly cooked starch on the table was the bubbles in the milk tea.
I found Taiwan Ganbei to be a terrible restaurant and it gets my mark of no return until the owners change. The service and atmosphere receives 2/5 stars and the food achieves a generous 0/5 stars. Sorry Taiwan Ganbei, there is no chance that I am coming back. read more