Lai Chen
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Faye, one of my readers, letting me know that a new Taiwanese restaurant had opened up on Miramar. Since both of my parents are from Taiwan, Taiwanese food is near and dear to my heart and I immediately wanted to pay a visit.
Faye was nice enough to send me a picture of the Taiwanese menu, which is in chinese, so that I could have my mom help me translate before visiting. You can read Faye’s review of the restaurant on yelp here.
The small restaurant is located in the same plaza as Roberto’s. Once inside, I was surprised to find that all the customers were Taiwanese. Apparently they have been doing a lot of advertising in chinese newspapers.
We were given the chinese menu only, so I don’t even know what the English one looks like. I whipped out my translations from my mom to help me order, though the staff can help you out as well.
We were given some complimentary pickled vegetables.
We ordered the Taiwanese style meat ball.
Ground meat and bamboo shoots are tucked inside a translucent sticky dough. I thought their version was a little on the sour side. I’m not sure if they make it themselves or buy it elsewhere.
We also ordered the fried chicken roll. This was pretty tasty.
We also got the stir fried pork with tofu skin.
We also got a spicy boiled dish containing five ingredients including tofu, intestines and pork blood. I’ve had some bad versions of this dish but it’s one of my favorites so I usually get it wherever I go. I was pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the version here.
Finally we got the beef noodle soup. The soup was very disappointing. The broth was too sweet and didn’t have enough beef bone flavor.
Overall, we had an enjoyable experience. The food served was definitely homestyle and it appears to be family run. I would not order the beef noodle soup again but I will come back and try some more dishes.
Here is the menu along with the rough translations (which may not sound too appetizing to those who don’t like tripe and intenstines)
A1- Taiwanese style meat ball (ba wan)
A2- Taro cake
A3- fried chicken roll
A4- Taiwanese sausage
A5- Fried fish balls (hua zi wan)
A6- Oyster pancake
A7- Fried squid
A8- Soy sauce braised bamboo
A9- Lu Zou Fan (a rice dish usually topped with braised meat, bamboo)
A10- Taiwanese sausage rice
A11- Red meat rice
A12- taro pastry
A13- Snow vegetable (xue cai) shredded meat fried rice
A14- oyster soup
A15- beef ball soup (gong wan)
A16-Missed this one. Will have to ask mom again.
A17- Sour vegetable with pig intestine soup
A18- Intestine and pig blood soup
A19- Che A Mian (It’s a noodle soup usually topped with shredded pork, bamboo and uses egg noodles)
A20- Spare Rib Noodle soup
A21- Meat noodle stew
A22- Beef noodle soup
A23- Taiwanese style noodles
A24- Taiwanese style rice noodles
A 25- Taiwanese mix soup
A26- Something tofu. Will have to ask mom again
A27- 3 spice chicken
A28- Stir fried vegetables
A29- Salt and pepper pork ribs
A30- Stir fried shrimp
A31- 5 ingredients spicy boiled dish including pig intestines, tofu and pork blood (wu gen chang wan)
A32- Stir fried Dried bean curd with meat
A33- Stir fried Tofu skin (bai ye) with shredded meat
A34- Spicy cow stomach
A 35- House special intestines dish
A 36- Stir fried sour vegetable with large intestines
Lai Chen
6780 Miramar Rd
Ste 104
San Diego, CA 92121
(858) 635-6690
actually, ignore my translation of A26
A16 is ‘dragon phoenix soup’ aka ‘long2 feng4 tang1’ – can’t tell you what that dish is though. A26 is ‘pulled tofu’ aka ‘ba2 dou4 fu3’ – also don’t know what this dish is.
I’ve been there once so far, found it only so-so, wanted to like it more. I do plan on going back and trying items off their specials board, especially the stinky tofu (haven’t had that in ages).
Thanks for some of the translations. My friend actually translated the entire menu, but I keep forgetting to put it up. I never did have a chance to go back yet! I heard they have stinky tofu now and have been curious as to how it is.
The owner has been “serving” Taiwanese Food to the local community through a home carryout service for a while now. We’ve been picking up food form him once a week. It’s kindof like what Chin’s on Miramar Road is doing (Call in the morning and decide if you want it for $15) Anyway, it truly Taiwanese cooking at a more homestyle fashion.
Thanks for the info. I didn’t know that they do that. I also didn’t know that Chin’s did the home carryout service either. Yes, I agree it’s very homestyle. It reminds me a lot of the food I make at home or when I eat my mom’s cooking.
Awesome review by Faye and Kirbie!! It’s been decades since I’ve had authentic Taiwanese food. I couldn’t even tell you what the last dishes I had were. Although I still have fond memories of pork blood rolled in crushed peanuts. The aftertaste of pork blood kind of reminds me of iron or something like that. Almost marrow-y tasting. I’ll have to see if I can convince the Mister to try this place with me.
A friend of mine hates blood-type foods. She said it has a metallic aftertaste. I never thought of it that way, but I guess maybe that is the taste. Well if you enjoy pork blood they seem to have plenty of pork blood dishes. Hopefully you and the Mister will like it.
Kirbie – I meant that it would be nice if the restaurant provided photos. Thanks to your photos and Faye’s photos, I’ll have an idea of what to order at this place.
I wonder if most of their business is the lunch-time crowd.
I think it’s probably more of a lunch crowd. The seating there is weird. No real tables. They are like benches at fast food places. So you can’t really go there with a large party.
It’d be nice if they had pictures. Some of the dishes, even with the translation, I don’t know what they are.
Thanks for providing the translation, although I would appreciate photos! It’s tough when you don’t read Chinese, don’t speak Mandarin, and are not familiar with the cuisine.
I don’t mind stomach or intestines – they do have a rather chewy texture that’s unfamiliar. I’ll pass on the pork blood, though.
Sorry I only have photos of the stuff I ordered! Faye has some photos posted on yelp too. So between the two of us, we got some of the dishes covered in photos. I’ll post more when I go back next time.
I’m getting there 🙂 That’ll be my next project when I muster up the time/courage. But you guys are my primary inspiration!
Thank you to your mom for translating! Now I’m definitely going to go back ! I’m never going to stop saying it, but I have NOOOO idea how you and Kirk are able to eat all the crazies (intestines, pork blood, stomach). Tell me again what the pork blood tastes like – is it like a jello consistency w/ sour taste?
Every time I’ve been there, each table seems to have ordered the ba wan. I’m curious to see if it’s home made as well.
The last time I was there they said they were ‘working’ on an English translation of their menu. I think you should do a trade – give them your translation and they give you an appetizer/dish to try 🙂
I didn’t know they were working on a translation. I could probably give them mine, but I want to change some of them to make them sound more appetizing rather than the literal translation of the words. I need to look at how other menus describe some of these things. I didn’t have much time to think it through last night when doing this.
I actually don’t like pig blood. It kind of tastes like firm tofu, but there is this aftertaste..which I believe is the blood. It doesn’t taste like blood, but it tastes like something I don’t particularly love. And it’s not sour.
I love intestines though. haha. So I was happy to see so many versions on the menu.
Thanks for the menu translation. I definitely need it 😀
Nice job Kirbie! We still haven’t made it up there yet…. so how does it compare to 168? It’s also about time that Faye starts a Food Blog (hint-hint)! ;o)
The restaurant offers less than 168, but so far I’m liking it better. I’m not much of a fan of 168. I agree, she should join the food blogging community. She’s taken so many photos and done so many yelp reviews.