Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen

My favorite Chinesse/​Taiwanese restaurant in town. I will give it 5 starts except for the spotty service. I recommend the velvet corn soup, the beef noodles soup and the dumplings. Also, you better call before a drive to the restaurant at night. They randomly close without notice. The ambiance is cosy and the Taiwanese Television make the experience authentic.

Experience here has gotten better. When I first went here, they only spoke mandarin which made it difficult to order. They have more English speaking workers now which makes it easier and the service faster. The food here can be good. I’ve ordered the chef’s beef noodles here before and don’t like the noodles but did like the broth. I have also ordered the black peppered chicken and that was delicious. The watermelon juice is perfect during the summers.

Loved Henrys! Amazing tasting, very fresh, good service. Will definitely be back. Tried the beef bing appetizer (highly recommend), hand shaved noodles with shrimp, and Kung pao chicken with rice.

I’ve been a regular here for quite some time. I love everything here from their Beef Noodle Soup, Sweet and Sour Pork, Three Cup Chicken, Fried Tofu and Stir Fry House Greens.
I came in early last week but they were closed the owner of the liquor store said they were renovating the kitchen and said it won’t be open till friday.
I came in on Friday and ordered my usual 4 plates. Everything tasted different in a bad way. It wasn’t cooked like how we normally had it. The texture, the taste and even the presentation was off.
The asked the women who took our order if they changed chef or anything. She said «No». I wasn’t convince it didn’t make sense all those times the food came out consistent but just that one time it was off by a margin and it was the same chef?
Sad to say I won’t be coming back.

I’ve been here twice, once with my girlfriend. We ordered the Soy Bean Paste Noodles with Minced Meat Sauce and oyster omelet. We also ordered the stinky tofu, but unfortunately I was slightly disappointed. It’s funny but the tofu actually wasn’t stinky enough for me or as flavorful as have had at other places, perhaps this is because they want to tone it down for general consumption. But I do have to say their bean paste noodles is really good, I’ll be ordering that again for sure. I do look forward in trying the other items on their menu.

Had beef noodle soup and it was amazing, it uses the spice method which is a bit different from generic soy sauce method. I would prefer the meat to be more tender though.
Black pepper chicken rice was the best dish I had there. It’s super crunchy and the sauce they use on top of the chicken was very delicious. Consists of garlic and soy sauce. Must try. I will personally order this dish next time.

Of my five days in Phoenix, Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen was the most memorable dining experience. Everything we ordered was amazing. The three cup chicken, grain mash pork chops, dumplings, minced pork rice, crispy tofu. Everything I put in my mouth was awesome. Well almost everything…
I have heard the legend that people would line up for the stinky tofu food truck on the streets of NYC. You could smell the pungent tofu from 5 blocks away. In fact, I have heard tales that it triggered migraines and seizures from 10 blocks away.
Well, I have been avoiding a head to head battle with this beast of a tofu until this glorious day. We first engage in a stare off, and I can see the tofu hot and steaming. I take a deep breath of air, and it brings me back to the sulfur springs of St. Lucia. The walls seem to close in on us. I can hear the crowd chanting, «Finish him!» with utensils banging in unison. I take the first bite, and swallow as fast as possible before my taste buds can register a signal to my brain. I take another strike, trying to numb my brain of all senses. I keep telling myself this is an acquired taste, the more I eat, the better it will taste. I take another jab. But my senses have turned against me and has translated and equivalate this experience to eating flower fertilizer in the spring. I can acquire no more. FOOD triumphs over MAN today. A humbling experience. Will there be a rematch? Probably not. Even a dog averts a skunk a second time around.

So being Taiwanese and with the cuz visiting, we decided to opt for trying out this joint. I had seen the review on Phoenix New Times and was intrigued… plus stinky tofu anywhere warranted at least a try. We hit this place up and our first impression of the store front was that it was kind of empty… granted the location wasn’t optimal in a deadish plaza, but it’s cool. I’m more of a food quality critic than a mood quality one anyways.
We were seated right away, but I can tell you right off the bat, that much like most Chinese places, you didn’t come for the service. The waiter was very meh and the service he provided was meh as well. Not a problem as in my mind, meh service equals meh tip so it was no strain on my back.
Cuz and I ordered a variety of selection to get a broad taste of what Henry’s had to offer:
Stinky Tofu with Garlic Kimchi
Wonton in Chili Sauce
Steamed Pork Baos
Chef Henry’s Beef Noodle Soup
Azuki Manju
Stinky Tofu with Garlic Kimchi — ³⁄₅
The tofu was indeed a decent stinky, but not stinky enough for me I’m afraid. It had good flavor and the garlic soy based sauce that was drizzled on it was tasty, but just didn’t pack the punch for a Taiwan native such as myself. I had a feeling that it was stinked down for the AZ crowd; understandable but made for a lackluster appearance. The garlic kimchi was made culturally correct: pickled cabbage (as opposed to Napa that Koreans use), but it wasn’t garlicky or vinegary or spicy enough for me. In fact, it was kind of bland. Usually, it’s a bit of a palate cleanser with the stinky tofu but in this case, I felt like I was just eating crunchy flavorless cabbage. Brought the dish down 1 star.
Wonton in Chili Sauce — ⁴⁄₅
The wontons were delicious and I believe had more than just ground pork in them. It looked like possibly Mu-​Er (a type of fungi) and it gave the wontons great textural taste. It had great visual presence with plenty of cilantro and the perfect blend of garlic and peanut. However, the lack of spicy punch that should accompany this dish was a little disappointing. Even after asking for additional chili oil to add, it didn’t get any spicier. Thus the 4 stars.
Steamed Pork Baos — ⁵⁄₅
Worth, worth, worth. Yes, this is no Din Tai Fung, but it was pretty damn tasty. Skin was a little thicker than you would find at Din Tai Fung, but the pork, the soup that poured out when you bit in, definitely way beyond my expectation for a place in AZ. If this was California, I’d probably give it 4 stars, but I’m not about to fly to Cali just to eat steamed pork baos, so I’ll take what I can get and tell you this is WORTH. I only wish they gave us some julienned ginger and vinegar to eat, because that is definitely the way to eat these.
Chef Henry’s Beef Noodle Soup — ⁵⁄₅
The noodles were definitely hand-​made with great texture, the beef was tender, the soup delish… everything screamed authentic. I must admit that my mama can make it better, but my mama ain’t here so this is worth ordering and eating for those who don’t know the godliness of Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup. Try it. You will find that nobody makes soup noodles better than the Chinese peeps.
Azuki Manju — ²⁄₅
So, I have to say, that this was not what I expected when ordering this. It was very doughy, and not even the excellent filling could save it. I would not order this again. It was like an attempt at pan fry, but tasted like mehness and was such a disappointment for an end of a relatively delish meal. I would just forgo this dish the next time around and recommend to the restaurant that they take it off the menu. It isn’t doing the restaurant any favors.
Overall, I’m excited to try other things, and will definitely be back. The only other table at the restaurant when we were there had ordered numerous rice plates that looked and smelled bomb-​diggity, so Henry’s is worth coming back for. If you’ve never eaten home-​cooked Taiwanese food, this place is a gentle ease into the scene.
Rating:
Service — ²⁄₅
Price — ³⁄₅ (Some mismatch prices to portion for apps and dessert)
Food — 4.5÷5

We had high hopes but left disappointed.
First impression was many dirty tables that weren’t cleaned up until 20 minutes into our meal. The service was very slow and very bad. The waitress got one of our orders wrong and didn’t provide us with enough silverware. (Chopsticks) I had to go to the front counter at times for service. Totally unacceptable. This is basic food service 101 and they are failing. The food was unique to say the least. Definitely not geared for the western pallet. Some was bland. Some was okay. Some was funky. They charge extra for old rice and didn’t provide plates so everyone can share. The television was blasting some strange scenic Taiwan video.
I can’t recommend this place to anyone.

The food was yummy but not the best. They had a lot of different selections of Taiwanese food. We got the steamed pork baos (xiao long bao), potstickers, and beef noodles. I enjoyed each of them but it wasn’t over the top WOW!
Steamed pork baos– a lot better than ones you make at home that’s for sure but dont expect the perfection of Din Tai Fung, this was my favorite
Potstickers– The outer part was cooked perfectly, however, the filling could have used more salt/​seasoning. Even though you dip it in soy sauce/​vinegar somehow there’s water inside that comes out and makes it bland.
Beef noodles– Spicy (for my taste) but good. Don’t expect a traditional beef noodle broth, it’s more like a hot and sour soup taste. Different from the norm but yummy, I can just imagine rainy days and this dish, YUM.
Great place if you want to try Taiwanese food. Decently priced too.

Über yum… You must try
Looked up «Taiwan» under restaurants in Unilocal!craving some home-​style cuisine. Found Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen, loaded the fam, and off we went. Average strip-​mall location, but that’s outweighed by great food.
You can keep it affordable by ordering a sane number of dishes. We did not. Eager to sample, I ordered way more than I should have. On the positive, I had four cartons of food for lunch the day after.
Hot and Sour Soup? Superb and like my Ma’s. Authentic options? Yup. Our six year-​old loved the dau jiang and dan bing (cold soybean milk + egg pancake stick), which is a traditional breakfast in Taiwan. On the dim sum part of the menu, we had the boiled dumpling, fried dumplings, and stinky tofu. All were very good, though we weren’t as much a fan of the stinky tofu, which is served with kimchi and is missing the fermented sauce that my wife and I are used to. Not bad mind you, but not what we were looking for.
The Chef’s Specialties were the best part of the menu. The Three Cup Chicken and the Henry’s Noodle’s were truly superb. I had forgotten this type of excellent garlic flavor and thick noodles and was reminiscing of time spent in Taiwan as a kid. The ginger and chili pepper flavors of the Three Cup Chicken were equally memorable– just be careful with the small bones with this cut of chicken.
Simply wonderful! And next time, we’ll try some hot pot/​shabu shabu. I want to see Henry’s skill with that defining Taiwanese cuisine.

Loud music. Slow service. The ambient and décor represents nothing Taiwanese. Staff needs more training — you have to ask for «everything», water, bowels, spoons, etc. Most disappointingly, no tea!
The three stars go to the the dishes. 85% was very good.
I will give it another try. But not after they have their staffs trained!

Unlike most normal people, the smell of stinky tofu actually had me happy and excited to try out their food.
We ordered: house special/chef’s best beef noodle soup, xiaolong baos, and pork chop rice.
After growing up in Rowland Heights, I have some pretty high standards with Chinese food and this eatery delivered.
The broth for the soup was really tasty, but unfortunately the meat and noodles didn’t absorb the flavor entirely (probably due to the cooking method of just boiling the contents and then dumping them into the soup?).
The xiaolong baos were awesome though… you get the explosion of the soup from the dumplings with your first bite.
Even though the two of us both spoke chinese with the servers, it still didn’t get us any better service, so yay, at least they’re not racist.
Just don’t expect any water refills and you’ll leave happy.

This place holds the crown as the worst service in town. Their waiters are rude and definitely inexperienced. Besides, it took 30min for our foods and another 30min for the bills! That’s outrageous!
The dishes here are fine. Try the chef’s beef noodle soap or 3 cup chicken. They are good flavor. But, the potion is so tiny. I ordered the honey mustard lamb chop. It turned out to be 2 small pieces of lamb chops. It’s far from enough even for a girl.

All I can say is, if you see a review of an Asian restaurant by my fellow long-​time Unilocaler, Lester C., and he likes it, the place is most assuredly, worth checking out. All I can say is I concur with this assessment and this is one authentic Asian restaurant. It literally reminded me of eating at places back in Hong Kong.
I had the squid with Chinese Veggies (Bok Choy — e.g. Napa Cabbage), which was in a light oyster sauce with dried green peppers and a side of rice. Decent an the rice was nice and sticky, perfect when one is using chop sticks. If was just this though, I would have gone with three stars — the real star of the show, one might say the 4^th star, was the house made dumplings in chil sauce (also made in house) — the menu says it is a 15 minutes for the dish and that is because, as far as I can tell, they don’t make them till you order them — the dumpling skin was silky smooth and the dumplings burst with flavor when you eat them — a bowl of six is about $ 5 but that with rice is worth a light meal. I plan to try some other dishes but this will likely remain my favorite.
Oh, one other thing, my dining companion, who ordered the Kung Pau chicken (it is not like Panda Express but it was ordered by several people) comes with what I would call a tea egg — the shell is cracked all over and when you peel it dark salty broth comes out and the egg is mottled with the color of the broth — I might call this a soy egg more than a tea egg but it is delicious and a common street food snack, if I remember correctly, in many parts of Asia. All I know is, between the egg and the hand made dumplings, I’m definitely coming back for more. :-)

Henry’s Taiwan Kitchen is a nice addition to the the Tempe area. Been here a few times and will surely be back for more. It is hard to find these kind of flavors and so far they have been very tasty.
Inside is very casual with gold colored painted walls. Seating is comfortable with a TV available in the corner. Nice menu with a good selection of choices. Some items are Chinese while others have more of a Taiwanese influence.
Ordered the Chef’s Beef Noodle Soup and the Oyster Omelet on my first visit. I had asked for extra spicy soup and was not disappointed. Next visit went with some Wontons in Chili Sauce and the famous Three Cup Chicken. They were both very delicious and put a smile on my face.
The Three Cup Chicken was so good that I will definitely be reproducing it at home. Would probably use boneless thighs instead of drumsticks. This would make it easier to eat and give you more meat per square inch. YUM!
Service is friendly and somewhat helpful. The younger female server seemed a bit new to the restaurant scene and kept pacing back and forth across the floor. Made me a bit nervous and sadly took my attention away from the food. No need to panic. Food brought me right back in the zone as soon as she stopped.
Located in the LA Fitness shopping center next to the drive thru liquor store. No signage on the building at the time of writing this review. This place has a lot of potential so give them a shout out. ENJOY!
4 STARS

They don’t have a sign on top so look for signage in the window. The place is in the LA Fitness plaza. Tables were full throughout my lunchtime visit on a Sunday. Pretty solid food. We ordered the following:
Tendons in chili oil: Great texture and spicy chills. A little bit too oily, but it hit my tendon craving. FYI, tendon may look like, but is NOT, fat.
Stinky tofu: definitely not for the non-​adventurous palate/​nose. Smells kind of like you’re at a farm… Nonetheless, I still ate my half of the dish without problems.
Xiao long bao (XLB, soup dumplings): A little too dry for my taste. Ask for a soup spoon to eat the traditional way with some vinegar and/​or soy sauce. They should serve this with sliced ginger.
3 cup chicken: Hearty, satisfying dish. Lots of chicken cooked down in a wonderful sauce reminiscent of home-​cooked family meals. Only downside was the very bony chicken.
We didn’t order any noodle dishes but they looked quite tasty at neighboring tables. Prices looked reasonable on the menu but came out to just under $ 20/​person with tax and tip. Maybe we were just hungry and ordered a lot? I will be back, maybe on a weekday lunch where they offer 4 dishes for the price of 3 (cheapest item comped).

There was no sign on top of the building like all the other stores but there is sign posted in the window of the restaurant. If I did not call to find their location, we would have miss it.
Ok, so the 3 of us ordered a ton of food:
Big dumplings — Ok very doughy
Boiled dumplings — Good
Pot stickers — Good
Beef cakes — Where is the beef? Mostly dough
Fried Tofu — GREAT! The sauce is so good.
Chicken with hand shaved noodles — Fried chicken was good, hand shaved noodles were too thick and some not fully cooked
Fried pork with «stuff» over rice — I only tasted the pork, it was good
The service was ok. But after the meal for 4 to 5 hours laters, we were constantly so thirsty. I drank 6 bottles of water. Maybe too much MSG?

Another Taiwanese restaurant in the Phoenix area! That brings our total here up to… 2 :) It’s the real deal here folks, with a good selection of common Taiwanese dishes to choose from, in addition to desserts, sodas, and smoothies.
I entered the restaurant and noticed a strange smelling funk when I walked in. Maybe it was the stinky tofu? Anyways, we were seated at a booth and browsed through the menu. The interior is basic, but nice, with sunny yellow colors and a TV playing in the corner (They were playing Shaolin Soccer when we were here).
We started with the Taiwanese sausage. It was excellent, with tender pork, a slightly sweet flavor with a hint of spice. It’s some of the best Chinese/​Taiwanese style sausage I’ve had in years. It was served with some sliced pieces of raw garlic that accented the sausage well when eaten together.
We shared the three-​cup chicken and the Taiwanese rice noodle/​vermicelli for our entrees. The three-​cup chicken was delicious. It had chunks of dark meat, bone-​in chicken marinated in a deep, robust sweetened soy-​sauce broth. The vermicelli was perfect. The delicate rice noodles had a hint of smokiness, and a generous serving of soy-​sauce marinated meat was piled on top. The vermicelli tasted very similar to how my mom used to make it at home. Ah the memories!
Service was good, and the owner would stop by to check in on us. Our main waitress spoke both English and Chinese (Mandarin), but another person bringing out our food seemed to know only Mandarin.
Aside from your cans of American sodas, they have sodas you would find commonly in Taiwan, like Apple Sidra and Hey-​Song sasparilla. They also serve up fresh fruit smoothies, which I would love to try one of these days.
Overall, a very tasty experience that brings back memories of home-​style Taiwanese food. I can’t wait to go again!

Henry’s Taiwan is a new Taiwanese restaurant on the South east corner of Mill and Southern. Heard about it through word of mouth from a friend who said his parents really liked the place.
My friends and I got the fried tofu, garlic eggplant, 3 cup chicken, kung pao chicken, and sausage appetizer. Everything was delicious and pretty authentic, but I think the best dish was the fried tofu! Unfortunately there is sum ting wong with this restaurant… They charge $ 1 for every bowl of rice! It was also $ 10 – 15 for 5 dishes split between 4 people.