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Restaurant: Bullfight 鬥牛士

By Ron Brownlow
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Mar 02, 2007, Page 15

All-you-can-eat grilled meat. PHOTO: RON BROWNLOW, TAIPEI TIMES

You can get Japanese-, Mongolian- or Korean-style barbeque almost anywhere in Taipei, but few places offer the kind of views Bullfight (鬥牛士) does.

Located on the eighth floor of the Bistro 98 bar and restaurant complex, Bullfight serves yakiniku and offers a bird's-eye views of pedestrians, cars and scooters down the street from Pacific Sogo Department Store's (太平洋崇光百貨) Zhongxiao East Road branch. Look across Zhongxiao and beyond the hi-rises to catch glimpses of the blue-green mountains in Yangmingshan National Park.

Yakiniku means "grilled meat" in Japanese and in culinary language indicates a place where customers cook their own meat and vegetables, several pieces at a time, over metal grills on gas or charcoal burners set up in the center of their table. The ingredients are then dipped in a sauce before being eaten. In this, it is similar to Korean barbeque and unlike what in Taiwan is called Mongolian barbeque, where customers pick meat, vegetables and sauces and hand them to a chef to cook.

At Bullfight, NT$399 gets you an endless supply of small slices and portions of different kinds of beef, pork, chicken, lamb, fish, shrimp, shellfish, mushrooms and vegetables to barbecue. The NT$599 menu operates under the same principal but offers a wider selection of items for grilling. Both meals come with a pot and ingredients for shabu shabu. Side dishes kimchi (泡萊) and bibimbap (石鍋釜飯), a sizzling-hot Korean rice dish served in a stone bowl, are also available.

The key to the whole operation is, obviously, good cuts of meat and in this Bullfight excels. The restaurant's sleek, dimly lit interior makes it a good place for a date, and the staff is attentive and made good recommendations. The only blemish was the hot pot, which compared to the yakiniku was vastly inferior in quality. Perhaps it is served to prevent diners from loading up on the good stuff.

Two words of caution: Walk-ins often have to wait for tables at Bullfight. Call for reservations before you go and ask for a window seat, chuanbian de weizi (窗邊的位子). And be careful when handling the grilling tongs. Waiters will rest them on the grill when they bring your order. Leave the tongs there for a minute and you will burn yourself, as this reviewer did, when you pick them up.
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