Taiwan Banquet

I’m a die hard taiwanese foodie, so when I saw the name taiwan ban-​doh which means to have a taiwanese countryside street banquet, I jumped in thinking the sky’s the limit. Boy was I disappointed. Their lunch special menu consists of all the usual suspects, sweet sour pork, string beans with pork, salt and pepper fried shrimp, fried rice. What’s the point of calling yourself ban-​doh if you’re not going to have some ethnic taiwanese favorites. The only thing I saw was the appetizers which taiwanese sausage, sticky rice, and stinky tofu. 3 things I can get from ANY taiwanese small eatery shops.
Ban-​doh or street banquet usually consists of foldable chairs, tables, and chefs who churn out dish after dish of ethnic taiwanese cuisine. This restaurant is basically a regular chinese restaurant with 10 – 12 taiwanese dishes that are ridiculously priced. Least to say I’m quite disappointed.
Although misleading, I still gave them a fair review. I ordered assorted taiwanese noodle soup, and teppan tofu.
Teppan Tofu
For a $ 10 dish the amount of food was scarce. For a moment there I thought I was eating french cusine or some molecular gastronomy place. The ingredient were fresh and the tofu was good just not the amount. C
Taiwanese Noodle Soup
This is basically an assorted item noodle soup with taiwanese ethnic touches such as fresh calamari, fresh bamboo shoots, Chinese celery. The noodles were machine made, machine cut. Usually they serve this as filler near the end of a banquet. I have to say the taste was decent, but perhaps if they add 2 – 3 clams it would make it even better. I wasn’t impressed by the taste although it was ok because the ingredient was very fresh. B
A grade of B– average, I took another half star off for misleading me to thinking this is a super authentic taiwanese banquet place. They are decent if you want ok chinese food. But unless you want to shell out $ 20+ per dish to feel Taiwanese, I would seek elsewhere for taiwanese banquet food.

Wow I don’t think this place deserves such unlove from all the negative reviews. I’d give it 3.5 stars and round up to 4. It was less than half empty on a Monday but decided to stay. I was not disappointed.
I stopped by for lunch. We had twice cooked pork with cabbage, and combo Kungpao of beef, chicken, and shrimp.
Both dishes were salty but very tasty. I should have known and asked for low sodium from start. But now you know.
Lunch special was $ 8 – 10. Add $ 1 for soup. Some one next to us ordered stinky tofu. It was not the smelliest but did have the sour smelly sock odor. We told the waiter to move us using both verbal and body language. They no speak English. We no speak Chinese. But they accommodate us with a smile. So those of you looking for the stingiest tofu, this is not the place.

Excellent place to have lunch at under $ 9.95 per dish. It is definitely delicious. They have an excellent chicken or pork spare rib soup infused with a rich variety of Chinese herbs. Their variety of traditional and authentic Chinese dishes leaves the taste buds satisfied. It is near empty during the week at lunch but on weekends and dinners, this place tends to be packed. However they double-​charged my bill according to my credit card statement. Unfortunately the cashier is not tech saavy nor did she tell me she accidentally swiped twice. I probably will not be back anytime soon.

Soup place does not disappoint.
Have seen this place change owners but it still remains a solid lunch place.
Highly recommend the ginger vinegar intestines

One of the worst places I have ever been to, the food was super small portioned and the service was horrible. Being a Taiwan native, I feel that this restaurant is an embarrassment to all Taiwanese people in the United States.
The lady messed up our order and was unapologetic, after notifying her of the mistake, she refuses to correct it. I have never seem such horrible manners at a restaurant before. You will believe that I will never come here again, I sincerely hope that they go out of business.

food was good however, service was not that great.
at the end, the servers like threw all the leftovers together even though we said we did want to take it home –_​– wtf. we paid $ 300 for all that and you think we’re just going to waste it??? Jesus. idiots. anyway. most of the food was good. banquet style? on to the courses!
first course had like. a buch of different dishes. appetizers if you will. some squid, which was meh, jellyfish which had too much filler ingredients, eh. breaded pork was good. intestines was alright. meh. anyway second course. duck. was mostly bone –_​– eh. was nice and smokey though. lobster salad… was more salad than lobster. but was still good. chicken soup with something similar to cassava? the japanese root veggie thing. was good ish. pork something was really tender and the skin was so good… came with bamboo shoots and it was great. very noms. next up was some deep fried things. one of which contained oysters and another was deep fried gobo. and some seaweed wrapped thing. next, sticky rice with a special type of krill? or plankton? another dish, steamed fish was good, the sauce was amazing. next dish, i think spinach and mushrooms. was alright. just. eh. fruit platter had a nice presentation. taro something dessert was good. had raisins and other things in it with peanut powder and some kind syrup sugar. was good.
service was meh. things were a little run down, they don’t seem to put money back into maintenance and repairs… it was so hot inside the restaurant, they douln’t turn on the AC.

Not a good taiwanese restaurant
Exterior: at the back of diamond plaza
Interior: clean. OK. Nothing too fancy here.
Food: disappointing. There are only a few taiwanese dishes on the menu. The rest are basically Chinese dishes. Plating was so so and could be improved on. Eggplant dish was bland. Stinky tofu is not as good as the stinky tofu booth at hk plaza. Really bland inside the tofu.
Service: OK. Nothing much. The person in the front desk ignored us and was on her phone so we didn’t get any sort of greetings from her. Servers were OK. Got their job done but didn’t communicate with customers much.
Overall, not worth going back. There are other better and more genuine taiwanese restaurants besides this one.

Summary: 3 stars for AWESOME Three Cups Chicken, solid Basil Eggplant, Shanghai Shredded Pork and Bean Curd, and Chinese Water Spinach, but the level of oiliness and saltiness tends to be inconsistent from dish to dish
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The last time my family and I came here for lunch, we had a little scare when we didn’t recognize the store name in Chinese, but then we saw that they left the «Country Bistro» sign up in the window. It turns out there’s a new owner. From what I could tell, most of the dishes have been kept the same.
As for service, ehh it’s an Asian place. Waiters/​waitresses like to leave you alone unless you flag them down. All our food came out incredibly fast except the Three Cups Chicken, since that takes long to cook.
The food we ordered was pretty much been only ordering the same thing here over and over again, so I really can’t comment on any other dishes:
— Free soup of the day (paigu/​pork spare rib). Maybe it was free because we had 5 people. The soup itself was very light and not too medicinal. We didn’t order $ 1 individual soups.
— Four season fried green beans. They were pretty salty and not crunchy enough, but the dehydrated baby shrimp gave it a nice flavor.
— Three Cups Chicken. SOOO GOOD! Careful not to burn yourself on the piping hot iron bowl! Savory, sweet, and slightly spicy chicken frolic with sweet, golden and perfectly caramelized garlic cloves. Chunks of ginger, basil, and chopped chili peppers are big enough to pick out.
— Basil eggplant. Fried to a vibrant purple. Sometimes oily, but it was fine that day and not too salty.
— Shanghai rousi/​Shanghai Shredded Pork and Bean Curd. My dad loves this stuff and I don’t know why, but the strips of bean curd were nice and soft.
— Kong xin cai/​Chinese water spinach. Cooked with onions, the spinach had a pleasant, mild flavor, though this dish was a little oily for vegetables. The leaves were tender, and the woody stalks were cut smaller so they weren’t too tough.
— Hou guo rou/​Double-​cooked Meat. A Sichuan style dish of pork belly, bamboo, bell peoper, cabbage, and bean curd in a spicy sauce that was just oily and spicy — there wasn’t any other flavor. We probably won’t be getting it again.

Came here expecting traditional Taiwanese food, but they actually have regular Chinese food and about a 5-​item Taiwanese menu… Everything was fine, but nothing special and it was not worth the 40-​minute drive we made. Ironically, the 2 Taiwanese menu items we ordered were our least favorite — the rice («mi gao») had too much of the sweet sauce on top, and the fried stinky tofu was meh. Tasted kind of old. I would recommend sticking to the regular menu here, and don’t come expecting Taiwanese food.

Love this place!!! I went to Taiwan Banquet last night, and ordered Black Pepper Beef on Sizzling Plate$ 15.95, Three Cups Intestine$ 13.95, Sauteed Clam w/​Basil $ 12.95, Eggplants w/​Hot Garlic Sauce$ 7.95, Oyster Rolls$ 7.95 and Stinky Tofu$ 4.95. All dishes are great taste and fresh except Oyster Rolls and Stinky Tofu (Just normal). The price is not so cheap but big portion. I highly recommend.

Not going back because…
Server 1 tried placing us at a table at the very back corner (not visible from the front) with cardboard boxes surrounding the table.
We asked if we could have another table (this was around 1 PM, and not crowded at all)
We were seated w/​o specialty menus; it took us around 5 min. to get attention of server 2 for menus which she she said «yes» and walked away into the kitchen???
Server 1 comes to take our order w/​o asking if we’re ready so we tell her we are still waiting on menus. Server 1 grabs one menu for my dad and I and tosses it on the table.
Server 2… she never came back.
We left $ 2 (which I thought was way too much) for a cup of tea my dad drank while waiting on this shit service and walked out.
Went to the Thai restaurant down the street in the same plaza for a much nicer experience.

atmosphere is good, tables r a bit crowded. Deceny taste, small portion, price is a bit expensive considering the amount of food on each plate.

Came wanting to eat at the former Taiwanese restaurant, but the location now resides a new restaurant, Taiwan Banquet, advertising authentic Taiwanese cuisine with no MSG, low sodium, and low oil. So, we thought to give it a try since we’re already there. The interior hasn’t changed much, same setup with existing furniture and classic Taiwanese music. They have lunch special menu, dinner menu, banquet dish, and bentos. We ordered two dishes, and both come out with disappointment in some way.
Complimentary Soup of the Day: Pork Rib Date Soup served in cute individual soup bowls, a little too salty.
Meatball with Napa $ 6.95: There were only 4 small meatballs served over few leafs of napa cabbage. The meatball was so dry/​hard and tastes mostly like tofu, and no, it’s NOT nor supposed to be a vegetarian dish. Those meatballs were probably made and frozen ahead of time, so all the flavor, tenderness, and juiciness were lost too. All we could think of was «let it go, let it go~»
Sautéed Clams with Basil $ 7.95: While the flavor was good, this was a bit on the heavy side. This is much better than the meatballs, but there’s room for improvement. Some of the clams weren’t cleansed well, and we tasted some sand in a few.
Overall, pricey for the amount of the food you get. Portion is WAY smaller than other Chinese/​Taiwanese restaurants around the area. This is my first time eating at a restaurant and coming out needing to order more food. So this is probably good for people who are on a diet as their servings are small.

Avoid this place like the plague! I wouldn’t even give it a one star if it was possible. All I need to say is I found a cockroach in my soup.

This place used to be Country Bistro and back then, my family and I would drive from Irvine to here to have their herbal soups. Since they’ve changed ownership, they no longer offer the herbal soups but rather the soup of the day.
Overall, the place is OK and it won’t be something that we’ll drive to anymore. Just too bad that they took away the herbal soup because I thought that was what made the place special but none of the restaurants offer 10 different individual serving herbal soups.

The name Taiwan Banquet brought back childhood memory of delicious food and decided to check it out with friends as our pre-​lunar new year dinner.
We were the first and only table on a friday night around 7pm, 2 out of the 6 tea cups were dirty had food in it. When they brought out the soup, all 6 bowls have chips and can easily cut someone. I can understand dirty dishes happens, but I can not stand a restaurant use broken dinnerware to serve their guests. That is just a no no to me.
Cherry Shrimp fried rice– It was the first dish came out, it is colorful and in a pyramid shape. nice presentation and taste pretty good.
Eggplant– Good, about the standard taste.
Hakka stir fried– plain
Young Bamoo shoot stir fried– plain
3 flavor squid– OK, this entrée might be their most popular item as the staff recommended to all guests. But I think this entrée is very easy to cook in a restaurant?
Taiwanese stir fried rice noodle– plain and too wet.
We enjoyed the company more than the food, but at the end of the dinner, a friend finally ask why is none of the Taiwanese food taste like it should be or the way we remembered. The waiter replied: the chef is from Hong Kong.
For sure NOT COMING BACK.

Was with family for the first time… very crowed but was seated very fast. Hugh portion. Delicious Made in Taiwan style… food quality is good and food integrity is high.
What is amazing is that the waitress uses Mobile wifi Androit phone or iphone to order and transmit order instantly to kitchen while taking the order and talking to me.
5 items were here less than 7 mn. Luv it.

This place replaced my old favorite Taiwanese restaurant called Country Bistro. I was hoping for something pretty similar to the dishes served there, but it was different. Country Bistro serves more banquet style Taiwanese dishes, while Taiwan Banquet serves more of a Taiwan «xiao chi» style dishes.
Both the stir fried rice noodles and the pork blood, intestine, and tofu pot dishes were good. The cabbage with dried shrimp was a oily for my taste. The taro dessert we ordered was good, but should be split among at least 4 people.

Rowland Heights. When one thinks of this place, one can only be reminded of the endless fine choices of dining up and down Colima Road and the many plazas that dot this wonderful and ethnic county. I have tried almost all the foods in Rowland Heights, and Taiwan Banquet really does fit in with the other authentic eateries in Rowland. If one wants authentic Taiwanese food, then this is the place to go to.
The food itself came in quickly, the broth hot and full of flavor. The tofu dish we ordered was perfect, not too salty, and definitely not the oily as many restaurant like to make it. The seafood that we ordered came in hot and steamy, sizzling with oil against the traditional cast-​iron pot. Delicious, and with a stunning appearance and sound. In the end, the service was quick and friendly, and the food came out just the way I expected it. For the reasonable price, I will come back again when I am in the Diamond Plaza area.

Doesn’t taste as traditional Taiwanese banquet.
Might come again try for other dishes but so far not impressed. Neh…