Taipei’s decades-old roast meat shop famous for “clay pot rice”!

Text and photos bySan Gao Chi Han

Yue Xiang Yuan near Zhongxiao Fuxing Station is a long-established shop with decades of history. I’d heard their roast meat is quite authentic, and one of their specialties is clay pot rice. They also offer quite a few Cantonese dishes, so I eagerly came here for dinner.

Arriving around 7 PM, the entrance looks like a typical roast meat takeaway shop—with a few roasted ducks and soy sauce chickens hanging—but it seemed almost empty, which made me nervous. Thankfully, there was still roast meat available; coming any later might’ve meant it was all sold out. The restaurant has both a first floor and a basement, and it was nearly full during dinner hours. We ended up sitting in the basement, where the lighting was a bit dim.

Since roast meat is the specialty, we had to order it. The “Three-Happiness” combo lets you choose three types, so we picked roast pork belly, roast duck, and soy sauce chicken. The portion of roast duck was slightly smaller, but for 300 NT, the overall amount was quite generous.

The roast duck had crispy skin, tender and non-dry meat, and a rich flavor—it was pretty good.

The soy sauce chicken was leg meat. At roast meat shops, soy sauce chicken is usually at least decent and not bad, but it’s rare to find one that truly stands out. Yue Xiang Yuan’s version is the kind you’d want to eat again—the meat was smooth, tender, and elastic without being mushy, the skin was deep brown, and the seasoning was well-penetrated.

The roast pork belly had a sufficiently crispy skin with a strong smoky aroma—it was quite skillfully done. Overall, after trying all three, I felt the roast duck and pork belly were about as expected, but the soy sauce chicken was unexpectedly great.

Yue Xiang Yuan’s roast meat is pretty good. We almost finished it before even touching our rice. Maybe we should’ve tried the mixed platter with other items like Chinese sausage and liver sausage. As for char siu (BBQ pork), I wasn’t really in the mood since I’d just had some excellent ones at Hong Kong Global Cuisine near Technology Building.

Yue Xiang Yuan’s clay pot rice is cooked in an earthenware pot. When it arrived, the server poured soy sauce on top and offered to divide it up, but I quickly said no—the crispy rice crust hadn’t formed yet.

We let it sit a bit longer, but unfortunately, the crispy crust was still minimal (they use non-long-grain rice), and the overall texture was a bit soft. Although the sweet-and-salty seasoning was genuinely good and aromatic, and the pork ribs were tender and flavorful, there was somehow a vague sense of disappointment.

We also ordered three side dishes. It was actually hard to choose—one, because there were only two of us, and two, because we weren’t sure which ones were best. The stir-fried Chinese cabbage with dried scallops was something my dining companion insisted on having, as she always wants greens. Personally, I’d describe it as just… plain. Maybe I expect more layers of flavor in a good version of this dish.

I’m not sure what kind of shrimp was used (?)—the pieces were fairly large, not particularly firm, and had a slight crispness. The texture wasn’t bad and had a shrimp flavor. What I liked most was the wok hei (breath of the wok), the thin layer of sauce, the sweet cashews, and the mushrooms. This dish is better suited for 3–4 people.

The downside was that the tendons weren’t flavorful enough. After a bite or two, we ended up packing it to go and reheating it in the microwave the next day—it tasted much better that way than it did fresh.

Finally, they also gave each person a small bowl of dessert (red bean and black rice), which was nice. It seems like just coming to Yue Xiang Yuan for roast meat takeout is a solid choice. If you come with a bigger group, maybe you can order more dishes and hope for the best (hmm?).

Yue Xiang Yuan
Address: No. 47, Lane 190, Section 1, Dunhua South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City
Business Hours: 11:00 AM – 2:30 PM, 4:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Phone: 02-27719257

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