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Taiwan Cafe

June 14, 2010 by Jennifer Che 11 Comments

Crispy Beef Roll Pork with Fresh Bamboo Shoots from Taiwan Cafe Boston
Roast Beef with scallions roll in scallion pancake – $5.95
I’m a sucker for Taiwanese street food. In the end, I think it’s what the Taiwanese do best, and I love it. I even tried  cooking a whole Taiwanese street food dinner once, complete with Taiwanese meat balls (bawan), tea eggs (ca ye dan), meat sauce over rice (lo bah bng), and pork and bamboo shoot soup (ba genh). Since I’m Taiwanese, these dishes just hit that comfort happy zone that no other food can hit.

It’s gotten better in the last few years, but for a long time, Boston had very few Taiwanese restaurants. As a college student, we basically went to Wisteria House (which used to be on Newbury Street), because that was all we had. Thankfully, in the past decade, several new restaurants serving Taiwanese food have opened, including Jo Jo Taipei in Allston, Shangri-La in Belmont, Chung Shin Yuan in Newton, Mulan in Cambridge, and more recently, Formosa Taipei in Lexington and Unique Dumpling in East Cambridge.

Taiwan Cafe was one of the first of these Taiwanese restaurants to open soon after I graduated from college. Now, after all these years, it’s still one of my favorites. The food is excellent, the kitchen is insanely fast, (serious, like 3-5 minutes and your food arrives), and it serves all of my favorite Taiwanese dishes.

I’m sure the entire menu is good, but I like to stick to the super traditional Taiwanese brunch / street food type dishes, which are usually listed in the appetizer section. Here’s a sampling of what we got on our last trip and also some of my recommended favorite dishes to order.

We saw the Roast Beef with Scallions Roll in Scallion Pancake (picture above) on someone else’s table and we told the waiter:

“We want what they’re having.”

It was fabulous! Imagine a perfectly crispy and flaky scallion pancake rolled around fragrant steak slices decorated with a splash of hoisin sauce and cilantro. I loved loved loved this. It was probably my favorite dish of this meal.
Oyster Pancake Pork with from Taiwan Cafe Boston

Oyster Pancake with Gravy – $5.55
Oyster pancakes are a classic Taiwanese street dish and you should definitely get this if you’ve never had it. Eggs are mixed with potato starch to create this unique one-of-a-kind-texture pancake filled with oysters and spinach. It’s topped with a sweet chili sauce that pairs quite well with the pancake.
Beef with Longhorn Peppers Pork with Fresh Bamboo Shoots from Taiwan Cafe Boston
Beef with Longhorn Peppers – $10.95
This dish can sometimes be very spicy, so consider yourself warned! I love the fragrant hot peppers and how they pair with the thin slices of beef.
Pork with Fresh Bamboo Shoots from Taiwan Cafe Boston
Sauteed Pork with Bamboo Tips – $9.95
This is one of my friend’s favorite dishes. Fresh bamboo shoots are stir-fried with thinly sliced pieces of pork. It’s a great non-spicy option for the table.
Hollow Heart Vegetable Pork with Fresh Bamboo Shoots from Taiwan Cafe Boston
Sauteed Chinese Watercress with Garlic – $9.95
I always like to order some sort of stir-fried greens. I guess secretly it makes me feel healthier. There are many ways to order greens, but I like to get mine simply sauteed in garlic and oil. I like how it’s not too oily here. Interestingly, Chinese watercress, literally translated as hollow heart greens, are actually considered a “noxious weed” by the USDA. They are Bryan’s favorite Chinese vegetable, so we order it a lot.
Soup Dumplings (xiao long bao) from Taiwan Cafe
Mini Steamed Buns with pork & crabmeat (8) – $6.95
The soup dumplings here are pretty good. Bryan likes them better than the ones at Gourmet Dumpling House, though they are still no comparison to my favorite dumplings in the US and my favorite dumplings in the world.
Sticky Rice with Sweet Chili Sauce from Taiwan Cafe Boston
Steamed Pork & Mushroom Sticky Rice with Gravy – $3.50
Another typical Taiwanese dish, this is sticky rice with that same sweet chili sauce used in the oyster pancake.

A Sampling of Authentic Taiwanese Dishes
The menu here is huge, and I have not come close to trying all the dishes. However, I would recommend trying some of the authentic Taiwanese dishes since you can’t get those in as many places. Here are some classics.

House Special Pork Chop over Rice Platter ($5.20)
This is a simple, classic Taiwanese dish that consists of a fried pork chop, rice, and other typical Taiwanese sides such as meat sauce over rice, a soy sauce egg, and some pickled vegetables. This is a very common lunch in Taiwan.

Beef Noodle Soup with Spinach ($5.20)
Beef noodle soup is huge in Taiwan, some calling it the national dish of Taiwan. It’s been a few years since I’ve had this dish here, but I’m guessing it’s still good. Has anyone had it recently?

Hearty Noodle Soup with Pork-Fish Drop and Mushrooms ($5.20)
This is Bryan’s favorite noodle soup. It’s hard to find in Boston, so we often order it here. It’s thick, has tons of umami, and is a great hearty soup to enjoy in the wintertime. I often make it at home too.

Braised Pork with Peanuts & Sour Mustard Green in Steamed Bun ($3.75)
David Chang’s famous Momofuku pork belly buns are based off of this traditional Taiwanese version of the dish. The Taiwanese version uses peanuts and sour mustard greens instead of hoisin sauce and pickled cucumbers. It’s a fantastic appetizer. I actually recently tried making it at home for the first time. Stay tuned for an upcoming post about it!

And if you are an adventurous eater . . .

Chilled Spicy Pork Ears ($4.75) – Crunchy and chewy at the same time, I’ve always loved this authentic Taiwanese appetizer.

Stinky Tofu ($5.95) – If you are really really adventurous, you can try their stinky tofu. Taiwan Cafe is one of the few places in Boston that carries this very authentic Taiwanese street food. This is not for the faint of heart. You are essentially eating tofu that’s fermented and basically gone bad. For a more detailed scientific explanation of what stinky tofu, click here.

Simmered Three Essences Duck Tongue in Hot Pot ($15.95)

This grossed me out, so I had a hard time eating it, but my Chinese friend swears by it, and honestly it is tasty if you can get over the fact that you are eating duck tongues!

Even if you are not adventurous, you can still enjoy a great meal here.

Taiwan Cafe has something for everyone. Definitely try to come on a weekend when they have the expanded brunch menu. Then you can try other favorites, such as sweet soy milk with deep fried crullers, salty soy milk, scallion pancakes, and chive pies, just to name a few. The best way to enjoy this restaurant is to go with a group of people (at least four but preferably more) so that you can order a bunch of stuff family-style and share!

Taiwan Cafe
34 Oxford St
Boston, MA 02111
Taiwan Cafe on Urbanspoon

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Boston, Restaurant, Review Tagged With: Chinese, Taiwanese

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Comments

  1. Max says

    June 14, 2010 at 3:07 pm

    Staple for poor college students wandering around Chinatown looking for food 😛

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  2. carolmacgregor says

    June 14, 2010 at 3:36 pm

    Adventurous food . . . beautiful photos and nice writing!

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  3. jentinyurbankitchen says

    June 14, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    Lucky is the college student who gets to be so close that he can eat there on a regular basis!

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  4. jentinyurbankitchen says

    June 14, 2010 at 3:51 pm

    Thanks Carol! I hope someday to become as good as you are at photography!

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  5. burp_excuzme says

    June 15, 2010 at 3:51 am

    I LOVE that last dish! I haven’t had the chance to try it yet, but gosh I can’t believe I missed my chance to go to TW this summer!

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  6. Drjoycracksanegg says

    June 15, 2010 at 5:07 pm

    Thanks for the beautiful post! I LOVE Taiwan Cafe and LOVE LOVE beef scallion roll. Even family visiting from SoCal think it’s one of the best they ever had.

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  7. Tiny Urban Kitchen says

    June 17, 2010 at 2:37 pm

    Yeah, I was so happy eating the scallion roll! My husband’s family likes to go to this place called Peking Restaurant in Westminster that supposedly has awesome scallion rolls.
    https://tinyurbankitchen.com/2009/05/southern-california-favorites.html

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  8. Jen @ Tiny Urban Kitchen says

    June 17, 2010 at 2:38 pm

    Ha ha, that’s OK, you didn’t miss out on that much because Singapore has AMAZING food!

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  9. Jessica says

    June 17, 2010 at 3:31 pm

    These dishes look so delicious! I especially love the roast beef with scallions roll…my mouth is watering!

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Trackbacks

  1. Jen's Top Restaurants in Boston says:
    July 8, 2015 at 11:06 am

    […] Chinese food, our favorites in Chinatown are Taiwan Cafe, Gourmet Dumpling House, and  Dumpling Cafe. For Cantonese fare, we also enjoy Peach Farm, Winsor […]

    Log in to Reply
  2. Jen's Top Restaurants to visit in Boston - 2017 update - Tiny Urban Kitchen says:
    December 21, 2017 at 2:12 am

    […] Chinese food, our favorites in Chinatown are Taiwan Cafe, Gourmet Dumpling House, and  Dumpling Cafe. For Cantonese fare, we also enjoy Peach Farm, Winsor […]

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Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
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