After missing it twice, we finally got to try Zhenzhu Restaurant inside Q Square Xiaobitan. We were actually the first dinner guests to be seated that evening. Even by the time we finished our meal, the restaurant still wasn’t full—likely because it was a weekday. The foot traffic here tends to be lighter on weekdays, but the scene is completely different on weekends. The area fills up with locals, and almost every restaurant is packed. Without a reservation, you might not even get a table after lining up.
The stir-fried pork jowl with water lily stems definitely needs rice to go with it—it’s too salty to eat on its own.
The braised pork belly was a bit of a letdown. While the flavor was there, it hadn't been stewed long enough, so the meat wasn’t tender and the taste hadn't fully soaked in. The insufficient cooking time was a flaw, and the sauce didn’t blend well.
The smoked tofu skin had a nice flavor, and the bamboo shoots were tender.
The salty glutinous rice dumplings were somewhat like crystal dumplings, served in a distinctly Hakka-style soup. This kind of taste is actually quite rare to find in Taipei but would be very familiar to anyone from a Hakka background. The only downside was that the outer skin was a bit too thick.
Overall, it’s hard to say if it was because we were the first customers of the evening, but it felt like the kitchen hadn’t fully switched out of rest mode yet. The seasoning wasn’t very consistent—some dishes were overly salty and couldn’t be eaten without rice. Others simply hadn't been cooked long enough. That said, the presentation of the dishes was quite refined, though the portions were small. The value for money wasn’t great, and based on what we ordered, the food didn’t quite live up to its visual appeal. One of my dining companions even mentioned they probably wouldn’t come back again.
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