Female-version Izakaya at Nighttime: New Taipei Zhonghe’s Japanese Oden and Hot Pot Dishes

Text and photos byXiao Hu’s Dream Food Blog

Well, humans are visual creatures after all, so some restaurants might influence your taste buds based on how pleasing they look or the dining atmosphere. For example, the food in the Japanese drama “Midnight Diner” seems especially delicious because of the story and the connections between the characters, making your stomach growl just by looking at it. Right? Do you have a few such midnight diners on your must-visit list?

Recently, our Banqiao uncle squad was struggling to find a place to eat and hang out in Banqiao. A nice older brother suggested we leave Banqiao District and come to this somewhat lawless area near Universal Studios. I’ve always been unsure how to categorize this area—calling it Zhonghe doesn’t quite fit since both Yong’an Market and Jing’an Station are quite far. Its actual location is more like the border between Zhonghe and Banqiao, so for simplicity, let’s just say it’s near “Fuzhong Station.”

I personally really like the exterior of this shop. I thought to myself, if I had discovered it on my own, I’d probably have walked right in to give it a try. Who could resist with my love for Japan...

From the outside, it looks like a small shop, but once you step inside, it’s surprisingly spacious. The entrance area seems intentionally arranged with fewer tables, which makes the space feel more open and improves the flow.

We arrived around 7 PM, during dinner time. At first, there weren’t many customers, but by around 10 PM, more and more people started showing up, giving off a strong midnight diner vibe. Most of the customers were young, and the majority were women—this is quite different from other Japanese-style eateries or oden shops. I doubt you’d see a scene like this in Japan (laughs).

However, my favorite spot was the counter seating at the front. Aside from the fact that the female owner is quite attractive and most of the staff are women, the ingredients at the counter all looked super fresh and photogenic—at least to me.

No exaggeration—I spent about ten minutes just taking photos here before eating. The ingredients all looked pretty good. One difference is that in Japan, oden is usually kept simmering in the broth, but here, they mostly cook it after you order, except for some ingredients that take longer to cook.

To be honest, I loved the atmosphere of this place even before eating—though I mean that visually, of course.

Then, one ingredient caught my attention: the one with black seeds on the right. At first, I thought it was breadfruit… but I got laughed at. It’s actually called “African peach” (a plant from the Malvaceae family, also known as the phoenix eye fruit). When cooked, it tastes a bit like chestnuts but with a slight bitterness. It’s quite unique, though I wouldn’t recommend boiling it too long as it can affect the flavor of the broth.

It’s called oden, but I noticed many customers actually ordered hot pot here... There’s a surprisingly wide selection of ingredients.

The blackboard lists some recommended items and special dishes of the day, which is worth checking out.

The variety of ingredients in the hot pot is mind-blowing, but each type only comes in one or two small slices. That means you can try a lot of different things, and even for two or three people, one order is plenty.

My friend ordered a seafood platter, but I don’t remember eating much of it that day... though according to my friend, most of it was pretty fresh, especially the lobster.

The beef and pork were also pretty decent, at least living up to the price. But man, I’d been eating so much hot pot lately, I was getting a bit sick of it XD.

For dipping sauces, there’s mashed garlic, mashed radish, chopped scallions, chili, and even the commonly seen Japanese yuzu (which I highly recommend).

I don’t really remember the taste of the side dishes (laughs).

There are five or six kinds of non-alcoholic Japanese drinks.

You can also choose from sake or beer.

By the way, that day we met a regular customer who brought out this Kamchatka milk liquor for us to try. It was insanely delicious!!! I immediately ordered a bottle the next day.

The ingredients in the oden were all quite fresh and delicious to the eye, but they felt a bit lighter than the oden I’ve had in Japan. The broth didn’t seem as flavorful either, but on the flip side, the taste of the ingredients themselves stood out more. I especially recommend the Chinese cabbage—it was really tasty—and the meatballs were also good.

I took a sip of the broth and was surprised by how refreshing it was. Even drinking a lot of it didn’t leave a salty or greasy aftertaste. Later, I found out there were apples in it... I’m not sure if it was astonishing or just unique, but I felt the apples in the pot were the best part XXD

Lately, I rarely use dipping sauce when eating hot pot, but in the end, I couldn’t resist adding some because the flavors were so light. I found the miso-like flavor quite charming, especially when dipped with oden ingredients—it was especially delicious.

Aside from oden and hot pot, my friends actually preferred the drinking-friendly side dishes. For example, this flying fish roe sausage was rich, sweet, and had a great chewy texture.

I also really liked the two dishes with pollock roe—they were rich, smooth, fragrant, and sweet. Absolutely delicious!!

Alright, I don’t really remember what this fried dish was called (laughs), but I do recall the frying was really well done.

Six-Heart Oden Hot Pot
Address: No. 2, Lane 3, Minzhi Street, Zhonghe District, New Taipei City
Phone: 02 2222 6660
Business hours: 17:00–01:00 (Closed on Mondays)

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