The best Brown Sugar Milk Tea I've ever tasted was Xing Fu Tang in Taipei, Taiwan . It's even called Taiwan's No.1 Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea... And for good reason! The branch that I visited was hidden in a corner walking distance away from Ximen Station. A line of people gathered around the store. Usually, their service is fast so there's not that long of a wait. My family and I ordered a variety of different drinks from Xing Fu Tang... Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea, Brown Sugar Boba Milk, and Taro Milk Tea on two different occasions. I've got to say, I love them all... But the Iced Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea holds a special place in my heart. Their cream is so rich and thick, it's almost like melted ice cream... Actually, scrap that. It's like you're drinking chilled heavy cream. It's good. Their boba is tender and chewy... Surprisingly, despite being fried in sugar it's not overwhelmingly sw...
SUSHI EXPRESS
If you ever find yourself craving for sushi in Taiwan, look no further than Sushi Express.
Sushi Express is an affordable kaiten sushi or conveyor belt sushi chain in Taiwan. Each plate of sushi will only cost you NT$30 which is around PHP50.33 or US$1.
They have a wide variety of menu items which you can grab from their conveyor belt or order from a server.
Salmon and Salmon Roe (Ikura)
I highly recommend their salmon and salmon roe sushi.
Aside from them being my personal favorites...
Their salmon is fresh, meaty, and succulent. The flesh of the fish is absolutely tender and goes perfectly with the rice. The slices of fish on the salmon sushi are significantly better than the tuna sashimi. It's a classic and a definite must have.
Salmon roe is my favorite type of sushi since it's very difficult to find and when I do find it... It's expensive. It's great to be able to eat salmon roe here in Sushi Express... It comes with a half slice of cucumber which helps lighten the fattiness of the eggs and adds a refreshing bite to the dish. I personally prefer it without the cucumber but nevertheless... It's a great dish!
Tuna
Ahh! Tuna, a classic. I love tuna but I felt that the portion sizes for their tuna was quite small compared to the rice so after one plate I did not get anymore.
Clam
I appreciated their clam sushi.
The texture of the clams brought a very interesting texture profile to the sushi. The sushi itself was a bit chewy because of the clams but with every bite, the sauce brought out the clam's flavor profile which made me appreciate this dish. The clams provided a good overall balance to the sushi since the rice was soft and the clams had a tender chewiness to them.
Eel (Unagi)
I personally love eel (unagi) but I strongly felt that whoever did the preparation for the eel did not prepare the ingredient well. The eel had a muddy flavor which meant that the slaughter and preparation was not done correctly... Otherwise, it would have had a sweet taste and texture.
I was quite disappointed in the eel and after trying two different plates, I had to take a hard pass on this dish.
The salmon belly is a fattier and larger version of their salmon sushi.
It only has one piece but it has a generous portion of meat. I enjoyed this piece.
I recommend it for people who are avoiding rice but want to enjoy the taste of a big fresh salmon slice.
The grilled salmon belly was good. The skin was crispy while the salmon's fat had rendered down and was dripping its juice on the plate. I personally prefer the raw version better but the salmon belly's great for people who do not like eating raw foods.
I was a bit surprised at the horse mackerel. All the horse mackerel sushi I've ever eaten was cured in vinegar and salt. This piece of horse mackerel was cured differently... Its texture was soft and tender but I could not wrap my mind around the taste. It was unusual even with the sauce on top is a sweet soy sauce glaze with sliced spring onions. It's just something I was not used to and did not personally appreciate.
The mock abalone itself is slightly sweeter than the flesh of an actual abalone. It tastes good but if you have had real abalone, you will know the difference due to the level of sweetness the mock abalone has. The mock abalone has a wonderful fleshy texture and a mild taste. I would recommend that you try it at least once. When I had this dish, I did not know it was a salad. I thought the bed of lettuce at the bottom was just for decor and the mayo a dip for the abalone. 😅😅😅
The scallop is one of the few dishes that is worth two plates in Sushi Express. In other words, it will cost you NT$60 per plate. However, given the quality and volume of the scallop it is worth it. The orange roe of the scallop was very tasty with the sweet soy sauce glaze. The scallop itself was just boiled in water which helped maintain the natural flavor of the scallop.
One of the dishes I surprisingly appreciated was the truffle and shrimp sushi. It is a fresh shrimp that has been blanched in boiling water, butterflied, and covered in a cream and mayonnaise truffle sauce. The rich flavor of the truffles went really well with the taste of the cream and the texture of the shrimp. Each ingredient complimented one another. The truffle and shrimp sushi only had one piece of sushi per plate but it was really good! I got around three or four plates of this.
Pudding
After you're done digging into their sushi, get some dessert! This pudding was surprisingly delicious! It had a wonderful creamy texture and and the perfect balance of sweetness. It is best eaten chilled so I highly recommend you get it as soon as it comes out of the kitchen.
Pile Those Plates High!
When you're done eating, a server will come to your table and give you your bill based on the number of plates you've eaten.
If you're dining on a budget, remember to keep track of those plates. Also, make sure that you count how many plates you've actually gotten before you call the waiter. The waiter might make a mistake since he or she will be counting the plates manually.
Quality: 4 out of 5
Quality wise, it's a conveyor belt sushi so the rice has the tendency to break apart... (Which is technically better than it being mush) But... That's just the general experience with conveyor belt sushi places... Even in Japan it was like that.
Now for the toppings... There are a lot of hits but there are also some misses. There were items I tried like the eel and sea urchin that were not up to standard. I did not include the sea urchin in my blog anymore since I forgot to take a picture of it and it really tasted terrible. It was like someone took ascorbic acid and poured the powder all over my tongue. That's how the sea urchin tasted like... It was bad. The tuna was also quite sad due to the thin slices which is why I had to knock points for this category. However, staples like their salmon, salmon roe, and their scallops showed that they did have quality items if you know what to pick which is why I gave it a score of 4 out of five.
Comfort: 4 out of 5
The area where we ate was in an open air space. It was air-conditioned and had couch seats. It was comfortable especially in the couch area.
Cleanliness: 4.5 out of 5
It was clean. I generally have no complaints.
Service: 4 out of 5
It's a do it yourself place... But there are still servers. They're quite attentive and they are very helpful... 4 out of 5.
Value: 5 out of 5
For NT$30 (PHP50.33) per plate, it's definitely worth it especially if you compare it with the sushi chains in the Philippines... This stuff is half the price! It's the same as I spent in Japan actually...
Over all score: 4.3 out of 5
Sushi Express is a wonderful place where you can eat sushi to your hearts content without breaking the bank. Hope you can try it one day!
Comments
Post a Comment