Wang’s Broth, Taipei

Wang’s Broth in Taipei

[Non-halal] Wang’s Broth 小王煮瓜 at the Huaxi Street Night Market is a Bib Gourmand restaurant recommended by the Michelin Guide.

Established in 1975, Wang’s Broth specialises in lu rou fan (braised pork served on rice), steamed minced pork with pickles in broth, and many other braised dishes.

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Good lu rou fan can be easily found at most restaurants in Taiwan – but the one served here was the best we’ve eaten during our recent trip.

Wang’s Broth 小王煮瓜 in Huaxi Street Night Market

Wang’s Broth is a restaurant located in Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market.

Some background – Huaxi Street Night Market used to be a red-light district before it was re-purposed into a tourist night market. Find lots of restaurants here as well as the occasional massage parlours and trinket stores peddling to tourists and locals.

This street is known for its many great restaurants, with Wang’s Broth (and two other restaurants) being on Michelin Guide’s Taipei Bib Gourmand list.

The street is also located close to the actual night market that opens daily from 4 pm until midnight daily.

Wang’s Broth is on the Michelin Guide

Wang’s Broth has been featured on Michelin’s Bib Gourmand list since 2019 and for good reasons.

While we found most lu rou fan 卤肉饭 (braised pork rice) served in Taipei to be good – the one here is quite amazing.

While the place was quite busy during our visit, we managed to get a table almost immediately as the turnaround time was quite fast.

For dining, just grab the white paper chit and make your order after taking a seat. There is an English menu with pictures available if you can’t read Chinese characters.

We really liked the atmosphere here as we could get a full view of all the dishes served here, with the servers carefully picking up the food from large pots and stews to serve.

Wang’s Broth serves amazing lu ron fan 卤肉饭

For TWD65 (US2 or RM9) per medium bowl, the Lu Rou Fan 卤肉饭 (braised pork on rice) here was sensational!

The calrose rice here is cooked beautifully with a perfect texture – and topped with lots of diced pork and mushrooms. Do note that we ordered the Lu Rou Fan with Mushroom (TWD75 or USD2) and enjoyed this a lot as the mushrooms really added umami to the already tasty broth.

The fat here is just melt-in-the-mouth and soft, and the sauce has a good balance of savouriness and caramelized sweetness that goes so well with the rice. Compared to other lu rou fan, we tasted a stronger hit of shallots in the stew that gives it extra umami depth.

Stewed Pork Rice 控肉饭

For something more substantial, we recommend the Stewed Pork Rice 控肉饭(TWD95).

Instead of diced pork, the rice is served with a thick slab of pork belly (aka kong rou).

Braised for hours in the stew, this pork belly might look thick and hard, but we actually found it to be amazingly tender and flavourful. You definitely get more meat from this dish (vs. the lu rou fan) but it still hits the spot as the flavours were pretty much identical.

We enjoyed the pork belly so much, that we ordered another serving of stewed pork without rice.

Braised tofu is good too

For sides, we also ordered Braised Tofu (TWD30 for large) and Sweet Potato Leaves (TWD70). The tofu is a must-order in our view as it was very fresh with a nice bouncy texture.

Given how good the gravy was, the tofu was just perfect to soak up all the aromatic flavours of the broth.

The veggies were cooked nicely too and subtly seasoned with ginger to help cut through the richness of the main dishes.