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Wang Steak - American beef
Wang Steak is famous for its “Chinese style” steaks which are cooked thoroughly and is to be eaten with garlic slices and gravy. Even though I usually like my steak more on the rare side, the well-done Wang Steak was tender and full of flavour. There is a choice of New Zealand and American beef. I’ve tried the New Zealand beef and it was nowhere near as tender as the American. =)
The story behind the legendary Wang Steak goes like this: Wang Yung-Ching, founder of Formosa Plastics, was once the wealthiest person in Taiwan. He was famous for being a polygamist. He had 3 wives and the 3rd wife was the one that invented the Wang Steak, orginally to entertain his guests, and eventually the steak become famous and the recipe was (stolen) by a large restaurant chain. Ok I made up the last part but it may very well be true.
Bread w/ butter & Pâté
Seafood Mixed Vegetable Salad
Salmon Roll with Italian Vinegar Dressing
Other than the steak, the Shrimp and Mushroom Soup was my favourite dish of the meal. The green stuff is steamed egg with greens (I’m guessing spinach) on top. Our waitress suggested us to first taste the soup and steamed egg separately, then pour the mushroom soup onto the green steamed eggs. It was very flavourful and I could see this dish being served in a Michelin restaurant.
Crusty Grilled Tenderloin
Do not scream like a little girl when you see this bloody steak. The tenderloin is usually cooked to medium-well but I asked for a rare version b/c I looove the taste of blood. The steak was coated with coarse salt and pepper, and the waitress grounded sea salt around the plate and the salt definitely succeeded in bringing out the flavour of the meat.
fruit plate
Chocolate Lava Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream
Darjeeling Tea
Latte
Wang Steak offers set menus only. There are 5 to 8 dish choices from each course (salad, soup, entree & dessert), and all of the menus are priced at 1200 NTD (37 USD).
Overall this was a very pleasant dining experience, the service was great and the waitress was knowledgeable of the dishes they’re serving. The only thing I want to complain about is that my tenderloin was served 5-6 mins after the other guest’s steak was served. To me, a good restaurant should always serve dishes at the same time so people could enjoy their fewd together instead of having to wait for other people’s fewd to arrive.
Date of Visit: Jan 31st, 2010
Location: (Wang Steak currently has 11 branches in Taiwan)
Mincyuan Branch
No.88, Mincyuan 1st Rd., Kaohsiung City
886-7-226-6241
P.S. I didn’t have my DSLR with me that day so these pics were shot w/ my Canon IXUS 870IS. Plz excuse the poor quality photos.
5 Responses to “Wang Steak 王品牛排 (Kaohsiung, Taiwan)”
I’ve been to Wang Steak a couple times in Tainan. Food is pretty good, but I think the service is what impressed me most. Very courteous, lots of attention to detail, and a smooth experience in general. I’d say that’s a trademark of the Wang empire because they seem to stress service a lot in all their brands of restaurants.
We’ve visited Wang Steak a couple more times since this post. We will be making a new post for Wang Steak in the near future. I agree with you fully that this restaurant group has some of the best service. I was just there with my sick uncle and they apologized profusely for not having an elevator and even gave us a nice fruit bowl in apology. Great service and a great value to boot.
I went to Wang Steak a week ago in Kaohsiung with my Taiwanese girlfriend for her birthday and I can honestly say, for what we paid, I was far from impressed.
The whole feel of the restaurant was the same as if children were playing at having a nice restaurant. On the surface yes, everyone was dressed right, they practically fell over themselves trying to serve, but it was all very clumsy and awkward to someone used to fine dining establishments.
Other than the very uncomfortable experience of getting a new type of drink with most of the courses, meaning by the end of the meal I had 5 glasses all sitting in front of me with not a one being cleared, the one thing that really bothered me was how my main course was served.
After finishing my soup a bit before my girlfriend, the waiter instantly brought out my veal without waiting for my girlfriend to finish her soup. So, not only was my veal dying under a heat lamp in the kitchen while I ate my soup (how else could it have been brought out instantly after my soup) so that it was rather dry when I got it. I had to sit there awkwardly waiting for my girlfriend to finish her soup, and then about 10 minutes after for her to get her main course so I could then start eating without being rude. So I sat for 15 min with my food getting cold. Any professional server would have known to either serve the lady first, or serve us both together and that there was no way I would start on my main course before she had received hers. I was not impressed.
My feeling of the restaurant was that they can play fine dining, but the food and service was all about appearance and nothing about substance or quality. A good starter restaurant for someone who’s never been to a fine dining establishment, but not worth the nearly $50 USD per person price.
I won’t be returning.
To Mr DOC. With a US$50 per head spend, were you really expecting Fine Dining? I think its better to set expectation.
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