Located along what is affectionately called Mushroom Street (香菇街) in Siecheng Village (協成村), Taichung County, Mushroom God (菇神新社觀景餐廳) is just one of many establishments offering visitors a chance to sample the area’s most famous product — mushrooms. Since it opened in 2001, it has established a strong reputation for putting good food on the table fast.
Mushroom God can seat around 400, and on the busy lunchtime when I visited, it was packed almost to overflowing, customers constantly replenished by the coach-load. Fortunately, designed as a partially open wooden pavilion on a steep hillside overlooking a wide valley, the restaurant manages to effectively minimize the impact of big crowds, and for such a busy place, the atmosphere is surprisingly relaxed.
The menu is relatively simple, as everyone is there to eat one thing: mushrooms. Siecheng is famous for mushrooms, producing a wide variety, many of which feature in the restaurant’s two main offerings: mushroom hot pot (火鍋) and mushroom stew in a jar (煨罐).
What differentiates the hot pot here from elsewhere is the quality of the broth, made using local mushrooms. It captures the fragrance of the dried fungi and is then given further depth and complexity as a variety of fresh mushrooms are added by diners at the table. The mushrooms on offer include chestnut mushroom (柳松菇), lion’s mane mushroom (猴頭菇), golden oyster mushroom (珊瑚菇) and abalone mushroom (鮑魚菇), and these are complemented by various meats and other vegetables. For a table of four, the price ranges from NT$1,400 to NT$2,320. Individual hot pots with pork, beef or lamb are available for NT$380. The quantity of meat provided is not large, but is of good quality and not deep-frozen. The broth makes a delicious soup after the meal. As with most hot pot restaurants, additional ingredients can be obtained and for a more hearty meal, extra servings of pork (NT$140) or beef (NT$160) and the mushroom platter (NT$180) are recommended.
The mushroom stew in a jar (NT$380 for set; NT$160 alone) is self-explanatory and is available with meat or as a vegetarian option. The broth is highly flavored with dried chestnut mushrooms, and the meat is steamed inside the jar until it falls off the bone. The stew has a much more pronounced mushroom flavor than the hot pot, and may be a little overpowering for some. In the case of the pork option, the flavor of the meat was pretty much obliterated by the earthy mushrooms and provided little more than texture.
The service is surprisingly efficient with young people wired up to headphones furiously busing food to tables at great speed, but who were also generally helpful and pleasant. A choice of open air and indoor spaces provides seating options depending on the weather, but if possible, a window seat overlooking the valley is the thing to go for.
If you are not keen on mushrooms but you still want to enjoy the view, Mushroom God also offers a range of afternoon tea items and cold drinks, including waffles (NT$120), fruit platters and finger foods, as well as a long list of teas, ices and mixed drinks. Until the end of the year, guests dinning between 2pm and 5pm will get a complimentary non-alcoholic drink worth NT$120.
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