Geoff's Twitchen: Food Journey #16 --Kan Pai Yakiniku Restaurant (乾杯燒肉店)

First of all, my apologies that I am still blogging about my trip to Taipei as I finally have the time to retrieve below photos of a truly great venue which you must ALL visit when you are in Taipei. Note this posting is not all about the quality of food, but more on the overall vibe, atmosphere of the restaurant. Yakiniku (焼き肉 or 焼肉), means "grilled meat", is a Japanese term which, in its broadest sense, refers to grilled meat dishes. In a yakiniku restaurant in Japan, diners order several types of prepared raw ingredients (either individually or as a set) which are brought to the table. The ingredients are cooked by the diners on a grill built into the table throughout the duration of the meal, several pieces at a time. The most common sauce is made of Japanese Soy Saucemixed with sake, mirrin, sugar, garlic and sesame and sometimes yakiniku is eaten seasoned only with salt. This was my 2nd visit to Kan Pai located conveniently in Dunhua South Road in the heart of Taipei and please book a table prior your visit as the waiting list is normally 1 month long. It is simply a restaurant whereby guys & girls all gathering around to drink beer & eat grilled meat -- what a perfect combination for sure. I wouldnt go into any details of signature dishes as tastes & flavour do not really matter when you are downing your beers with sake-bomb! The restaurant itself is extremely noisy, full of drunkards and is now becoming a tourist hotspot for some authentic Taiwanese dining. Highlight of the evening will be at 8pm whereby staff of the restaurant will go around each table to select couples of whom will have to "snog" or "french-kiss" in front of the whole restaurant for 10 secs. Not difficult for sure after a few beverages and each group of contestant's table will recieve a plate of free Korean Beef and free pints on the house! Resolution of the photo is not very good as below but the restaurant is decorated with polaroids of couples doing it! Another highlight at 8pm is that everybody in the restaurant will have to stand up and do a Kan Pai (meaning CHEERS) and the beers will be automatically refilled by this good looking fella as below. He (His name is Ah Shun) will come around to each table with a backpack, like a portable beer barrel and refills with all your beers with a pipe. Now, that is COOL! Overall experience of the restaurant is that it is a very fun place, not your usual place to hang out but if you want something to kick start a good night, Kan Pai is the place for you 100%. Absolutely love that place! Happy Eating!!! Ciao Geoff