Eating Taiwan

［用餐日期：１０３年７月１２］

It's been terribly hot in Taiwan this entire summer, and it honestly just gets hotter the more south you go...

Nevertheless, there's always huge crowds where good restaurants are - or even just 'in' restaurants - and there's no lack of restaurants on Taichung's foodie street, Gongyi Road and its surrounding area.

Steak Akaoni has been a fixture of this intersection for a while now, and it's always bursting at the seams with customers. What you see in the photos are totally normal for a weekend. The name of the restaurant means 'red demon' ('Aka' = red, 'oni' = demon.)

The way to get in is to get number cards from the little hut up front and wait (you can call ahead to see if they're open, but you can't reserve in advance.)

台中真的好熱!!

雖說如此但公益路上的用餐人潮依然嚇死人，平日就經常爆滿的「赤鬼」在公益路與大墩路的十字路口，在星期六這樣的人數是算少的吧～～ＸＤ

排隊方式是從門口的小屋中抽號碼排等候

真的是高堂滿座

（藍色閃閃的是對面店家的燈光）

MENU的一部分。。。

(詳情請點此)

主打排餐，只有七種主餐點，加上一些如蒸蛋之類的單點

主餐皆附鐵板麵，麵包，沙拉吧與蛋品

價位今年二月以來有稍做調漲，現於２２０～４９０元之間

You can choose from seven set meals (beef, chicken or pork) served on a griddle; the meal also includes noodles, bread, an egg dish and unlimited use of the salad bar. Prices range from 220NT~490NT per meal.

Youkai wall art reminiscent of Edo-period artwork?

日本風的妖怪佈置

The restaurant provides water for waiting customers (which is much needed...the weather is so dehydrating.)

Aren't these cups cute? :3

等在外頭時可以自取水喝

看它的紙杯子可不可愛？有印上ＬＯＧＯ及Ｑ版的小鬼～～ 

There is a 10% service charge tacked on to your final bill, and this restaurant is cash only.

...I'm not too thrilled about the service charge to be honest because you have to get all the water and salad bar items yourself, but I think that's the norm for steakhouses in Taiwan.

切記，這裡是只收現金的喔，也有收服務費

（小聲說不知道服務費是收啥的，東西都要自己拿。。。）

We waited around 20 minutes to get in, and as you can see, the place is PACKED. The seating arrangements are a little crowded; you can probably fit 200 people in here, I think. I got a two-person table in the elevated seating area with my brother while my parents and grandparents were at another table.

Decorations are few (I miss the red chains they had dangling down from the ceiling, but it might have been a safety hazard), mostly just wall art and a couple of really cool, creepy oni masks hanging around.

坐位滿滿滿耶

我們大概等了二十分鐘左右才排進去

由於有六個人，大人們坐了一桌，我跟老弟一桌，坐在稍高一點的台階座位

店面滿大的（這麼多人來吃當然要大吧ＸＤＤ），裝潢就採用簡單的黑色系及垂燈及壁畫（話說它以前天花板有垂下紅色的鍊子！！超酷的，不過現在沒了。。。是怕掉下來嗎？？)

很煞的面具

The salad bar consists of two vats of soup, a couple of vegetable options and a drink section (iced tea or water.) Not much and not really a 'salad' bar per se.

沙拉吧，其實只有兩種湯及幾種小菜

If you get really bored waiting for your meal, you can play the maze game they have on every table.

咦～是迷宮耶！

等上菜嫌無聊的人可以玩玩ＸＤ

The tea was surprisingly good for something you put in a paper cup.

紅茶還滿好喝的，洋蔥我弟的所以沒吃

Bread with coconut cream inside.

附餐麵包，裡面有奶酥

My egg dish. Not sure what this would translate to in English, but it's 'Japanese-style' according to the menu. It's basically a half-cooked egg submerged in a cool, refreshing soy sauce. Mmm yummy. My brother gave me a lot of flak for eating runny egg yolk but hey, it's good.

我的和風（三分熟）蛋！！好吃

我弟看了一直嫌很噁。。。沒辦法，我就是半熟蛋控

His egg custard, which I did not touch.

他的蒸蛋

This is a Taiwanese version of borscht, which is...definitely quite different from the original. Beet isn't really big around here, so the soup consisted of tomato, celery, onions and chunks of tender beef. It's pretty good for the price, but slightly on the salty side.

羅宋湯，裡面有牛肉，蕃茄，洋蔥及芹菜

是重口味的湯，偏鹹不過我很喜歡

它的玉米湯也不錯，照片沒拍好就不放了～

My brother's 'special chicken meal', at $260 NTD.

上菜啦～

我弟的酥烤雞排 $260

以這個價位算好吃的，雞肉很嫩，皮雖然沒有想像中的酥脆但也味道不錯

旁邊有附鐵板麵(沙茶)，少許青菜與花枝丸

For the price (around $9 for the entire meal) it was pretty good! The chicken was tender and really juicy; while the skin wasn't as crisp as I thought it would be, it was definitely flavorful enough to make up for that. 

The sauce he ordered with the pan-fried noodles was shacha onion sauce, which can take a while to get used to if you haven't had it before (personally, I dislike it, but it's really popular in Taiwan and with Teochew-speaking populations.)

I had the 150g sirloin steak for $270 NTD.

我的沙朗牛排(150g) $270

配菜差在我是黑胡椒醬

老實說我滿想念他們的蘑菇醬的，現在沒了好傷心....

黑胡椒醬有點太嗆

I had pepper sauce with the noodles...which...wasn't really what I wanted, but they'd gotten rid of the mushroom sauce. Which makes me sad, but well. 

點了七分熟，不過上桌時裡面還粉嫩的! 要趕緊吃!!

沙朗嘛，就是有筋，不過這算不錯吃了，肉質以平價牛排館來說是OK的

價位也比別的連鎖牛排館低一些 (但這家只有在台中有分店啊)

All that pink, juicy insides. Mmm. Better eat up fast before the hot griddle keeps cooking it up. The tendon is a little hard to che through, but this performed pretty okay by Taiwanese steakhouse standards. The prices are also cheaper than other, bigger chain steakhouses, but unfortunately Akaoni only has restaurants in Taichung (one is opening in Kaohsiung soon, though!)

吃到後來整個好飽哈哈

這是算常來吃的店，回台中時好像也就吃同樣幾家東西...下次就來試試別的吧!

反正就公益路上就有多到吃不完的餐廳XD

We got really full (as always when we come here.) We've been coming here with grandparents since I was in high school (not that often but it's one of the few places we consistently eat at when we come back to Taichung.) There are so many other restaurants in the area though, might as well try something different when I go back next time!

地址: 台中市南屯區大墩路632號
營業時間: 11:00~23:30
電話: (04) 2320-5157

Address: No. 632, Dadun Rd, Nantun District Taichung City, 408 
Hours: 11:00~23:30
Phone: (04) 2320-5157

以上~