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[RESTAURANT REVIEW] Chicken Den (雞窩)

Chicken Den will leave a dent in your wallet. PHOTO: HO YI, TAIPEI TIMES

Chicken Den (雞窩) is the younger sister of Gi Yuan (驥園), a restaurant well known by gastronomes for its clay pot chicken soup and Sichuan-style cuisine. To keep up with the changing times, the establishment has reinvented itself through the new store, which opened earlier this year, wooing the younger demographic with a chic look, friendly prices and chicken casseroles straight from the mother ship.

The interior exudes a slightly modish charm with its opulent palette: black and crimson chairs, stone floors and ivory and redbrick walls. The compartmentalized dining spaces offer a bit of privacy that models Ethan Ruan (阮經天) and Tiffany Hsu (許瑋甯) seemed to enjoy (the two were spotted dining out on a weekday night by the reviewer).

The menu itself mainly revolves around the clay pot items - costing from NT$500 to NT$2,000 - that come with a choice of two additional dishes. Options range from the less expensive chicken soup to chicken bouillabaisse with shark's fin and abalone. For the ecologically aware, chicken soup with bamboo shoots and pitch are available to replace the shark's fin.

Chicken Den (雞窩) Address: 63, Ln 81, Dunhua S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路二段81巷63號) Telephone: (02) 2704-3038 Open: Daily from 11:30am to 2pm; 5:30pm to 9:30pm Average meal: NT$700 Details: Menu in Chinese; credit cards accepted

We ordered the clay pot chicken soup (砂鍋雞湯) set and chicken soup with bamboo shoot (竹笙脆筍雞湯). The dishes were reasonably savory, but as famed recipes that take more than 10 hours to stew, the meal was somewhat disappointing.

Unlike Gi Yuan, which specializes in Sichuan cuisine, the Den fuses cuisine from a variety of regions. Though decently prepared, they are not particularly impressive.

For example, the cumin-flavored lamb chops (孜然羊排) had a strong, piquant flavor, but was very dry. The shredded pork with sweet bean sauce (京醬豬肉) was over-salted and the fried shrimp wrapped in lettuce (生菜蝦鬆) had the shrimp-to-lettuce proportions all wrong.

With an efficient and friendly service from a well-trained crew, Chicken Den provides a decent dining experience that comes with a fat bill.
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