The Harbin Restaurant

Lane 290, #68 Guangfu Rd., Taipei

Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Exit 2, head straight down the cobbled path past pricey joints to the High Life on the left, turn into Lane 29o just before it. It's #68 down the lane on the right (no longer #51 as listed online).

Oh. My. Goodness. EAT HERE!

Meat on a stick! A fish so delicious we were scavenging bits of meat and seasoning from its depleted carcass. SUPER AWESOME deep fried chicken with hua jiao. Cold tangy noodles with cucumber. Eggplant cooked with...sweet potato was it? And green peppers. Lamb slices in a savory gravy. Ba si di gua (sweet potato chunks covered in hot caramel, dunked in water and eaten).

Need I say more? Just eat here. The chef is really friendly - as the only people there he came over and personally recommended dishes to us - the food is insanely good and not too expensive, beer flows freely (I love Kunming Islamic Restaurant and Ali Baba but they haven't got beer), the house tea is delicious, smoky and almost chocolatey in flavor.

GO HERE. Eat all the food. All of it.

GO. NOW.