Dark Palace: Tamsui's Pork Chop Rice Since 1971

Founding Location

Tamsui is home to a few popular restaurants that have been established there over the years. 台灣G湯Tái wān G tāng (Taiwan G Soup), for example, now has locations all over northern Taiwan. 黑殿飯店Hēi diàn fàn diàn (Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet) is another, but they have only two locations, both in Tamsui. Today I visited the original one, called the 創始店Chuàng shǐ diàn (Founding Store). It’s down an unassuming side street, with only a little bit of signage out front. Yet it’s a large restaurant, with three different rooms, the leftmost one having a ton of seats. The center is the entrance and is the payment section.

So this is the type of restaurant that is somewhat DIY. Nobody is going to greet you at the entrance or seat you; you just grab an empty table, pick up a menu from the wall, and order what you want to eat. Then you take it up to the counter and pay. It’s a good example of the type of restaurant that North Americans expecting a lot of service in exchange for a tip would be horrified by, but I’m actually happy with it (and not being required to tip), other than not knowing exactly how things work the first time or two going in. But you eventually get your food even if you do everything wrong.

Dark Palace Taiwanese Gourmet is an interesting name; it makes me wonder whether I'll get a good meal or join a tabletop RPG. But they do serve food, and it is tasty. I have not tried some of the more expensive, actually gourmet items like the Wagyu dishes. Perhaps one day. However, their affordable dishes are good value. And that shows, I arrived on this visit after 2pm, and the restaurant was still rather full. It’s a popular place, filled with locals. I didn’t recognize any foreigners at this location; I assume almost all tourists end up at the location near the MRT station. I got a bit of a stare from an uncle there, which doesn’t happen super often, but it can. I’ve gotten used to it as a foreigner in Taiwan. So obviously, this is one of the restaurants Tamsui locals eat at.

Dark Palace: Tamsui's Pork Chop Rice Since 1971

After you mark what you want on the menu and write your table number, you take the menu to the counter to pay. This is also one of those restaurants where you grab your own cutlery, but it’s hidden. There is a counter with the condiments like soy sauce, white and black vinegar, and their 牛油辣醬Niú yóu là jiàng (beef tallow chilli oil), which you should definitely try, but be aware it’s pretty spicy. The chopsticks and spoons are hidden underneath in the drawers.

The menu is sizeable, not 100+ items like some restaurants, but certainly enough to be intimidating, especially without knowing Mandarin. They do have English menus, probably behind the counter, at least at the location near the Tamsui MRT station; I’m not sure they do at this one, though I didn't ask. It wasn't offered either. They are known for their pork chop and fried rice, though the chicken thigh is also mentioned as possibly the better option. It’s common to pair the dish with soup or a braised side dish. The signature soup is 祖傳大滷湯Zǔ chuán dà lǔ tāng (ancestral braised soup).

It’s interesting to look at the menu and see gourmet wagyu options. I haven’t tried the NT$599 wagyu beef noodle soup yet, but I would definitely like to come back to experience it. Perhaps I can share it with the missus. We have ordered the regular beef noodle, though, and it is exceptional. Salty, dark red-coloured braised broth, deeply flavoured and slightly spicy. I look forward to adding a proper review for it in the future.

黑店Hēi diàn started out 50 years ago as a small stall selling pork chop rice. Now they are selling wagyu beef and have claimed a spot on the 2025 Michelin Guide list. Because of this, it seems like the restaurant is actually a little divisive within the community, with regulars who have been going for years, but also many who now find it overpriced and not what it used to be. There are definitely some non-budget-priced dishes, like the aforementioned Wagyu short rib beef noodle for NT$599, or the surf-and-turf donburi for NT$299, which is getting up there. Other than the beef noodles, though, prices are not too bad, certainly not the cheapest, but still affordable.

For instance, on this trip, I got the fried chicken thigh with fried rice and a side of ancestral braised soup. The fried chicken and rice is NT$245, for a pretty large piece of fried, cut chicken thigh and a good helping of fried rice. The ancestral braised soup at NT$80 comes in an expected medium-ish-sized bowl. For NT$325 (no 10% service fee), I will admit this more than filled me up; I struggled to finish everything. And that also explains why probably half the people who left while I was sitting took to-go boxes of their leftovers. However, I did not get a to-go box. For one, I was going to be out for a few hours and didn’t want to carry around half a piece of chicken thigh, and also, I just plain wanted to finish, like some kind of foodie hero.

So the food, the ancestral braised soup, came out first. It’s pretty interesting. Coming from Canada, we don’t thicken our soups with corn or potato starch, so having this soup isn't a new experience, but it messes with my brain a bit every time I have the first couple of spoons. It’s thick, not in a meaty stew or chilli kind of way. It looks thin, but it coats your tongue and the inside of your mouth. The flavour really works though. They’re not joking when they say it’s a braised soup; the broth is rich and tastes like it’s been simmering for hours. I got hints of something smoky, which wasn’t in every bite; I assume it's the sesame oil they drizzle a bit on top. You can see some of the oil and fat glistening beautifully on top of the soup broth. The egg they add in, like egg drop soup, sort of gets lost in the deep flavours, but I don’t mind a little extra protein. Bok choy is a staple soup ingredient in Taiwan; it fits in just fine and tastes as you would expect. The strips of wood ear mushrooms provide a nice crunch and don’t taste strongly of mushrooms after being cooked down for a while. There is a little pork meat in the soup, one or two thinly cut pieces, that is just fine for a side soup dish. I didn’t have any complaints about the flavour, but putting in a little vinegar and 牛油辣醬Niú yóu là jiàng (beef tallow chilli sauce) truly amplifies the flavours.

In fact, let’s talk about the 牛油辣醬Niú yóu là jiàng. Goodness, is this a good chilli oil! The savouriness is off the charts. It’s surprisingly spicy as well. Pairing it with a little vinegar and soy sauce for dipping, it’s what you might call a flavour bomb, and I’m not one to use that phrase often. It fully applies here, though. In fact, when I got there this time, the chilli oil was out, and an auntie and I had to ask to get it refilled. This is the type of condiment people wish they sold separately, so they could take it home and use it on everything. Certainly one of the many reasons Dark Palace remains so popular.

The fried rice and chicken thigh came out next. The chicken thigh is rather large. Not night-market-as-big-as-your-face large, but still pretty large for being served alongside fried rice. In fact, it appears quite a bit bigger than the original favourite, the pork chop. It might be why local reviews have started to prefer the chicken thigh over the pork. It’s juicy and tender, and dipping it in the beef tallow chilli oil turns it into something special. The fried rice is expertly made, some wok hei smokiness is there, and it’s nicely seasoned, most definitely with some MSG (which I love and I wish people would stop being afraid of, it's safe to eat, and yes, that fear has a history). It’s relatively simple, just including egg and cabbage, but it works alongside the other foods you can pair with it. Oftentimes, simple but well done is all that’s needed.

I’m a fan of Dark Palace. In fact, just two days after going, I ordered it on Uber Eats on a Sunday night we were staying in. The beef noodle soup, while on the expensive side, is a superb bowl. The pork jowl meatball egg drop soup is just SO Chinese tasting: the white pepper, the egg drop strands in the soup, the super porky meatball, the flavour of the broth, I’m not sure how else to describe it. If you need to enter your Chinese phase, this soup will get you there. Also, my wife’s favourite: the peanut buttery, spicy dan dan noodles. I’m looking forward to doing full reviews of these in the future.

If you’re visiting Tamsui and looking for authentic Taiwanese food, check out Dark Palace, either of the two locations, although the one near the MRT station will most certainly be easier for most to get to. To me, this restaurant is a fantastic example of what Taiwanese cuisine is: blending multiple regions of Chinese cuisine, melding them with a strong Japanese influence and dishes, and combining them into a local, unique spin.

Update: The MRT Location

I visited the location near the MRT in September 2026. This time instead of the pork or chicken and fried rice, I was intrigued by the beef noodle soup, starting at a rather high NT$350. For that price, my expectations were quite high. I had just visited Menqian Yin Wei Beef Noodles - the Ichiran of Taiwanese Beef Noodles. That bowl was NT$310, and one of the best bowls of beef noodle I've had. So an even more expensive one meant it better be really good.

In doing a little research on what locals say again about Dark Palace, I did find that opinions are somewhat mixed, a large part of it due to the higher prices on almost everything. The beef noodles are more expensive than almost everywhere else I've tried, not to mention the pork chop and fried chicken are also more expensive than most. It does have "Gourmet" in the name of the restaurant, though, so I suppose it's not completely unexpected.

At this location, the worker behind the counter did greet me, ask me 內用還是外帶Nèi yòng hái shì wài dài, for here or to go. When I got tripped up on his question about if I needed an English menu, he switched to English, handed me the menu in English, and led me to a seat on the first floor at a counter looking out the front windows. So the overall first encounter is quite different from the Founding location I initially reviewed, they actually will seat you here.

So I ordered the cheapest beef noodle (though, again, not actually cheap at NT$350), and also got the yuzu-flavoured radish for NT$80; again, a little more expensive than what you'd normally spend I think. The food comes out rather quickly. How's the soup? I think it gets close to being worth the price. The broth is deep and rich, you can see a lot of beef fat floating on top. I would say the broth at Menqian Yin Wei has an edge in deeper flavour. This one is slightly spicy, leaning a bit towards that mala spice and numbing flavour. For a little spicy kick, their beef tallow chilli oil really adds even more kick and beefy goodness to the broth.

Where I think they do make the price tag justified is the pieces of beef. Many places give rather small pieces or slices of beef. The beef included with this bowl is quite substantial. They're thick, they're tender but still with some chew. It's using the top blade cut, it's the cheapest cut you can get at Costco for beef, with tendon running through the center of the cut. But after a long braise, it breaks down to a soft gelatin just like other tendon, and works really well in beef noodle.

I chose the regular noodles, and they are fantastic. Chewy, wide, not thin. They get coated in a bit of the fat on top of the broth with each slurp. They also include what I have to assume is Chinese broccoli, rather than the standard bok choy. It's a welcome change from the only slightly crunchy bok choy, the stems of the Chinese broccoli retain a lot of crunch even after cooking. And all the scallions floating on top make each sip of broth more interesting, more than just a flat broth.

The yuzu-flavoured radish is a perfect accompaniment to the hot and spicy beef noodle. The acidic citrus and crunchy radish cut through the richness of the broth.

At NT$430 for the meal, it can be double what many places charge for beef noodle soup and a side. But I would call it a transformed experience. They include Gourmet in the title of their restaurant, and they don't disappoint. Despite the higher prices, there's a reason both of these locations always have locals dining.