Wenzhang Beef Soup (Anping Main Store)

Review

Wenzhang is the beef-soup shop tourists name most often around Anping, built on warm Taiwanese beef slaughtered the same day. It has expanded from the original shopfront into the building next door, so dining space is roomier than before, and it is registered on maps as the Anping main store. Sources list the street number as 300, 590 or 592, though, so check before you go.

Supertaste reported that the shop uses back, tenderloin and belly cuts, and simmers the broth in two stages for five to six hours with leg bones, brisket, onion, aged ginger and seven or eight Chinese herbs. Raw slices go into the bowl and are poured over with boiling broth until just pink. The slices are thick and generous, and there are mixed, belly, select and sesame-oil versions, plus stir-fried beef with Chinese broccoli, beef fried rice and beef minced-meat rice.

Diners often praise the fresh, tender beef, the generous portions and a sweet broth with a herbal note, and say the stir-fries hold up too. Complaints include long waits at mealtimes, shared tables and a crowd that skews heavily toward tourists. Some find the broth on the heavy side and less clean than small alley shops, and prices have risen with the shop's size, so the NT$100 small bowl in older reports may have changed.

Hours are long, roughly 10:30 a.m. to about 1:30 a.m., and seating is usually easier after 9 p.m. Sources disagree on the day off: some say Thursdays, others mention a break from Monday afternoon to Tuesday evening, so check before you go. The dining room is air-conditioned and you can add rice or minced-meat rice; parking nearby is limited, so buses or taxis are easier at weekends.

It suits travellers who want a proper beef-soup meal in Anping or a late-night bite. Two people can share a large signature soup with minced-meat rice and a plate of beef with Chinese broccoli; fans of marbling should pick the belly cut, and the sesame-oil soup offers a different flavour.