Yamaarashi Ramen Review

Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店

4/5

Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店 is a popular ramen spot with 2 locations in Taipei’s college area. On any given day, you can expect a wait at this popular ramen destination in Taipei. For a Friday night, it took about 30 minutes from lining up to getting seated.

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4/5

On The Menu
First you’ll need to wait in line when you arrive at Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店. Once you make it in the store, you’ll be eligible to order your food through the vending machine.

Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店 specialized in a white tonkotsu broth. Expect a lot of pork fat and butter whenever you get a legitimately good tonkotsu broth. Unfortunately, the menu is only available in Chinese.

When you order your food at the vending machine, the languages available are Chinese and Japanese. To the right of the order vending machine, you can find a change machine. This is because the order vending machine will ONLY take NT$100 biils.

After placing your order, you’ll then give your meal receipt to the server and they’ll ask for your name. Then you’ll need to wait outside until they call you to come in.

Inside The Restaurant
Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店 looks like a really small restaurant from the outside, but it’s pretty spacious on the inside. They have about 17 seats for ramen customers.

After getting called to sit down, the ramen arrived in front of me within 5-minutes. They are pretty efficient with the seat turn-over at the restaurant to keep the seats flowing.

The Ramen
I’m VERY critical about food in Taiwan. That’s because you have A LOT of options so when something is rated 5/5, it should be one of the best meals in your life. With that said, the ramen is pretty good…at first.

What’s in it: Lots of pork (cold), noodles, mushroom, cabbage, onions, green onions, garlic and butter

Broth options:
100% thick: Japan style with LOTS of flavor
60% thick: Taiwanese style with medium flavor
30% thick: Light flavored ramen. Easy on the salt and fat.

[Meat]
The meat portions are very generous. In fact, it’s too much meat. Unfortunately, the pork is served very cold in a hot bowl of ramen. Since the dish is like 50% meat, it really makes the broth cold quickly.

The meat was also a little tough. It didn’t have too much flavor to it too. I actually wanted there to be less meat…and I’m not a vegetarian. Just a person who knows a good balance.

[Noodles]
The noodles were cooked perfectly while the broth was rich. You have the option of getting thick or thin noodles, and they are only served firm. That’s my favorite so this place knows firm is the only way noodles should be served.

Overall
Unfortunately, halfway through the meal eating then felt like work. The more I ate the more I felt tired of the taste. This is due to the unbalanced portion sizes and the lack of variety in the dish. It felt like it was just noodles, meat and broth. I ended up leaving 20% of the bowl uneaten because I was full.

As you know with any 10/10 amazing dish, you will end up overeating because it’s super delicious. There’s a few ramen places in Taiwan that I love much more that get the 10/10 rating.

7/10 overall, but the first few minutes eating the ramen was at least 8/10

Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店 Menu And Additional Photos

Yamaarashi 山嵐拉麵 公館店 Location

Rating Guide

1/5

It’s food, but you’re not going to enjoy it

2/5

Didn’t meet minimum meal expectations

3/5

Satisfying and an adequate meal.

4/5

So good you’ll eat here again!

5/5

You will remember this meal for the rest of your life!

Pricing Guide

$

NT$1-100 (US$0-$3.23)

$$

NT$100-300 (US$3.23-9.68)

$$$

NT$300-700 (US$9-22)

$$$$

NT$700+ (US$22.60+)

TIP

Not required or expected. Some restaurants may have a 10% service charge.

Each rating TAIWANEATER rating is comprised of Quality, Service and Value (in order of the rating’s most important points).

QUALITY: The [Quality] is based on how good the food tastes and the presentation.

SERVICE: The [Service] is based on the dining experience. This includes the ambiance of the restaurant and how the interactions with the staff.

VALUE: The [Value] is based on both the Quality and Service in relation to the price. Ratings for food with a low price are a little more generous than food with a high price.

Money In Taiwan

Tax Is Included In The Price

All displayed prices in Taiwan are the actual price. Tax is already included and for large purchases, tourists visiting Taiwan can get a 5% Taiwan VAT refund at the airport Tax Refund counter. Some shops offer this service too, but they will require your passport.

Taiwan Is Cash Only (For Most Small Shops)

The primary payment method for all transactions in Taiwan is cash. It’s very rare for small shops to take anything other than cash. It’s more common to see places accept the Taipei Metro Card as payment rather a credit card.

Supermarkets and convenience stores in Taiwan (7-Eleven, Family Mart) do not accept credit cards (at least not American credit cards). You can only make purchases by cash or by using your pre-loaded funds on your EasyCard.

Using Credit Cards in Taiwan

If you want to use your credit card in Taiwan, make sure to check if a restaurant in Taiwan accepts credit card in advance. When a place does accept credit card, it will typically be Visa or Mastercard. It’s extremely rare for a place to accept Discover and American Express.UberEats, HonestBee, Deliveroo and FoodPanda are Taipei Food Delivery Services where you can order food directly to your airbnb or hotel using a credit card.

Exchanging Money in Taiwan

You can exchange money at the airport or any bank in Taiwan. The rates vary from bank to bank and it can be a hassle to get a good rate. For additional information, check out my Exchanging Money In Taiwan Guide.

More

The purpose of this review is to give an honest opinion of the food you can eat in Taiwan. Many people come to Taipei to try out Taiwanese food and end up eating at low quality places meant for tourists. This is because they don’t know where the best restaurants to eat in Taipei are or because they were recommended food by a tourist rather than Taiwan Travel Blog that has researched and tried all the best Taipei eats.

TAIWANEATER is a Taipei Travel Blog bringing you honest feedback about all the Best Food to eat in Taipei, Top Restaurants in Taipei, Best Desserts in Taipei, Taiwan Night Market Guide, Best Cheap Places To Eat in Taipei and the Best Street Food In Taipei.

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