Apr 30, 20236 min read

Best Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot—Sichuan Longfu

Updated: May 3, 2023

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A few weeks back, Ares and I went to Longfu Shabu Shabu, we liked it so much, we decided that we have to visit the other restaurants under this brand as well. Which is why we found ourselves at Sichuan Longfu.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Interior

On the outside of Sichuan Longfu, is a life-size traditional Chinese boat, great for photos. The inside, is decorated with red lanterns, wooden windows, and paper fans. The half-and-half pot is also designed to exude ancient Chinese culture, with two dragon heads on each side as the handle. The decoration theme is based on the Shu Kingdom from the period of Three Kingdoms in Chinese history. Shu Kingdom was located around what we now know as Sichuan. Which is perfectly on brand for a Sichuan restaurant.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Broth

While Longfu Shabu Shabu offers individual pots inspired by delicacies from different regions of China, Sichuan Longfu mainly offers Sichuan cuisine and duo-flavored half-and-half hotpot. There are four flavors of broth to choose from: mala (numbing spicy), sauerkraut and pork, century egg with cilantro, and milk.

Of course, you cannot come to a Sichuan restaurant without ordering the mala broth. Ares loves sour food, so for the other half, we got the sauerkraut and pork broth.

As soon as the pot was placed on the able, I could smell the strong scent of the mala broth. I choose for it to be extra numbing and maximum spice. The broth is authentic Sichuan mala and even resembled the broth I made from the broth base my brother-in-law brought back from Sichuan for me. I like tofu skin and other tofu byproducts, but I rarely enjoy tofu itself. However, the tofu in Sichuan Longfu's broth is so soft that it almost melts into the broth in my mouth and slides down my throat. I liked it so much that I started eating it with broth and rice! Which is a strong indicator of how delicious and flavorful it is, because I usually don't like eating rice.

Ares loved the sauerkraut and pork broth. I think it's the first time I ever heard him tell me "you chose right," and more than once! Compared with the plethora of watered down sauerkraut broth I've tried, I love how the sauerkraut broth from Sichuan Longfu is strong and tangy. The pot is filled with crispy sauerkraut and Ares couldn't help eating one bowl of it after another. Most sauerkraut hotpot requires diners to order the pork on the side, while Sichuan Longfu offers a great selection of pork, the broth itself comes with slices of pork.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—A La Carte

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During our last visit to Longfu Shabu Shabu, Ares absolutely loved the a la carte dishes, so we had to order some of the same dishes. We got the Sichuan-style "Sorrowful Rice" with Tender Beef again, to our pleasant surprise, while the two restaurants belong to the same group, there are some subtle differences between the dishes.

Unlike the juicy sorrowful rice from Longfu Shabu Shabu, Sichuan Longfu's sorrowful rice has less sauce. Instead, there is a semi-cooked baked egg in the center. Once we cut the egg open, the runny yolk coated the rice, making it rich and smooth. While the seasoning is similar to the delicious one we had at Longfu Shabu Shabu, the distinct texture makes it seem like an entirely different dish.

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As I've previously mentioned, Sichuan Longfu is not just a hotpot store, but a restaurant the serves Sichuan Cuisine. We had the classic Mouth Watering Chicken. The mouthwatering chicken is tender, served with scrumptious and authentic chili sauce. Just as its name indicates, it makes your mouth water. The chili sauce is aromatic with a hint of toasted sesame seeds, the slightly numbing Sichuan peppercorn buzzed in my mouth. It's an excellent dish to eat with rice, which is all-you-can-eat, all served in a food-warming rice cooker on the counter. The soul of this dish is the special chili sauce called "oil-spill chili." A dish of assorted dried spices including dried chili peppers, chili seeds, chili powder, and cumin is splashed with bubbling hot oil. The piping oil quickly ignites the flavor of the spices, releasing all the flavors into the sauce. Even after finishing the chicken, we kept the empty dish so that we could use the remaining chili oil as dipping sauce.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Meat

For our meat dishes we got the Sliding Beef and Thick Sliced Pork Neck.

Sliding Beef is a classic Chinese hotpot dish where raw egg is mixed with thick slices of marinated beef, which helps keep the slices tender no matter how long you cook it and it slides right down your throat. Since it is Ares' first attempt, I got the original flavor one. Though I see that he is starting to accept and even love Sichuan spice, I tried cooking some in the sauerkraut broth just to see how he is adapting. Thankfully, he did not disappoint and immediately pointed out that though it was good, it tasted much better when cooked in the mala broth, which is how the dish was designed. The flavor of the marinated beef and the strong spicy broth perfectly complements each other.

I have not had thick slices of pork neck with hotpot in almost a decade. I remember that it was my go-to order whenever I had hotpot when I was little. It was only served at one particular shabu shabu store that my family always went to. But the food at that store has gone south a long time ago and has since went out of business.

Pork neck is an extremely tender part of the pig, with evenly marbled meat that does not seem to fat and greasy but preserves the perfect bouncy texture when cut into thick slices. This makes it a coveted cut of meat and therefore expensive. Most hotpot stores don't serve it, and even if they did, they only have thin slices. The Thick Sliced Pork Neck at Sichuan Longfu is presented as two beautiful roses set on top of ice. It takes about a minute for it to be fully cooked. The pork slices are so tender that if you shook one with your chopsticks, you could see it jumping and dancing in the air. It bounces against your teeth as you bite into it and Ares finally understood my excitement when he tasted it.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Seafood

If you love shrimp, Sichuan Longfu is the place to go. For each table, if 2 or more people leave a positive review with a photo on Google, you will get a free serving of 25 white shrimp. And if it's someone's birthday, then you are in luck. Call ahead to let them know that you are celebrating a birthday, and you will get free shrimp the same number as the age that you are turning.

I've previously talked about the freshness of Longfu Shabu Shabu's shrimp, and the ones at Sichuan Longfu are the same. Even as we were peeling the shrimp, savory juice bursted out. I like eating the shrimp straight up and enjoying the juicy sweetness or dipping the shrimp in the chili sauce from the mouthwatering chicken, which allows the spiciness to complement the sweetness. Ares, on the other hand, likes dipping it in some fermented tofu sauce with soy sauce, creating a salty profile.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Hotpot Ingredients

The tofu sheet from Sichuan Longfu perpetuates the impressive presentation Longfu has for its dishes. It's a simple dish but placed in a wide brim bowel, displayed as a traditional paper fan. Tofu sheet is the film that forms on top of soy bean milk as it cools down. Which is why it is very thin and tender. The tofu sheet from Sichuan Longfu is filled with the aroma of soy milk which is further enhanced in the spicy mala broth.

We also had a serving of cheese meatballs. The cheese meatballs were super juicy, a pack of soup exploded in my mouth as I bit into one. The tender and savory beef is mixed with a hint of saltiness from the cheese.

Taipei Sichuan Mala Hotpot: Sichuan Longfu—Dessert and Drinks

Ares loved the plum juice from Longfu Shabu Shabu so much, we had to get it again. And it remains the best plum juice I've had in Taipei.

For dessert, Sichuan Longfu served Sichuan Ice Jelly. Ice jelly is made from the Lithops plant, the seeds of the plant releases gel-like substance as you rub it in water and turns into jelly. The jelly is soft but retains a slight crunch as I bit into it. It is served in sweet soup with raisins, hawthorn, and some corn flakes on top. The crispiness of the corn flakes go very well with the bouncy jelly and soft raisins. The soup is mildly sweet with sourness from the hawthorn and has a hint of plum.