While urban sophisticates may find the haphazardly-arranged interior less than prepossessing, and the service rather matter-of-fact, the reasons why this restaurant is usually bustling with customers are as straightforward as the eatery itself: It's conveniently located, and the fare served here leaves one very satisfied.
Changfu Restaurant (長福飲食店)
17 Changfu St. (長福街17號), tel (02)2671-9543.
Open 8:30am to 7pm. Average meal: NT$80 per person. No English menu. Credit cards not accepted.
Even closer to the Tsushih Temple than the Restaurant at 57 Hsiuchuan Street, the Changfu Restaurant is altogether more businesslike -- for better and for worse. The service is less laid-back but more professional, the ingredients and cooking-style utterly mainstream rather than endearingly rustic. The brightly-lit interior has a homely appeal, but as in countless other Taiwanese eateries, a television occupies pride of place, and is seldom turned off.
Meat and fish are favored over vegetables; river shrimp and river fish figure prominently, as do fried beef, pork, chicken and goose. All of these items are prepared in orthodox Taiwanese fashion, but the staff are receptive to requests to exclude MSG or go easy on the chili.
Those who prefer noodles over rice are well-served, with several choices listed on the menu, including noodle-soup with pork meatballs, and "ban-tiao" -- centimeter-wide but almost translucent pasta strips. The fried noodles are filling but rather stodgy, and may come with rather too much seasoning for many palates. Another dish is fried "mi-fen," which are noodles made from rice, rather than wheat. But the best non-rice option is a broth of broad noodles, bean sprouts, spring onion and a single fish ball called -- chie-ga-mi (切仔麵) in Taiwanese dialect.
The family which runs this establishment is particularly proud of the way they cook fish, and probably with justification: The fish this writer saw looked extremely fresh before cooking, and mouthwatering afterward.
If this restaurant does have one drawback, it is the early closing time. Those arriving much after 5pm will find that the range of possibilities has narrowed, and as 7pm approaches (earlier on a quiet day), the staff make no secret of their desire to see the last few customers leave so they can shut up shop.
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