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TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot, Dubai restaurant review. “Fortune favours the brave in International City.”
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TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot, Dubai restaurant review. "Fortune favours the brave in International City."
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot is big on flavour and reminds us that some of Dubai’s best meals are not in obvious places.
The Highs
The Lows
The Highs
The Lows
I keep a constellation of green “Want To Go” flags littered across Google Maps. They are mostly restaurants bookmarked for some hypothetical future when I find myself hungry and curious.
Some neighbourhoods announce new arrivals, making my green flag-curation easy. Others require intent, commitment and a mildly intrepid sense of adventure. International City falls firmly into the latter, particularly its China Cluster, an area whispered among Those Who Know that rewards the curious, the willing to look a little harder.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot is one such reward.
Some neighbourhoods announce new arrivals, making my green flag-curation easy. Others require intent, commitment and a mildly intrepid sense of adventure. International City falls firmly into the latter, particularly its China Cluster, an area whispered among Those Who Know that rewards the curious, the willing to look a little harder.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot is one such reward.
We are not going to comment on the geopolitics of a Taiwanese restaurant nestled inside China Cluster *cough* but, from the outside, TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot barely registers.
Inside, it is something else entirely. A study of sobriety bordering on minimalism, with pale pine surfaces, bare white walls, and the vague stillness of Nordic restraint that feels more like an IKEA canteen than a cacophonous Chinatown restaurant, save for the bubbling broth cauldrons and live seafood tanks along the walls lined with yellow rubber “duckies”, as my son calls them.
At the centre of TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot sits a communal self-serve sauce station laden with chilli pastes, black vinegar and glossy reductions of Wagyu beef.
Fortune favours the brave. Ask the staff which concoction they eat, as we did, and you will be guided towards something far better than instinct and chance might deliver.
Inside, it is something else entirely. A study of sobriety bordering on minimalism, with pale pine surfaces, bare white walls, and the vague stillness of Nordic restraint that feels more like an IKEA canteen than a cacophonous Chinatown restaurant, save for the bubbling broth cauldrons and live seafood tanks along the walls lined with yellow rubber “duckies”, as my son calls them.
At the centre of TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot sits a communal self-serve sauce station laden with chilli pastes, black vinegar and glossy reductions of Wagyu beef.
Fortune favours the brave. Ask the staff which concoction they eat, as we did, and you will be guided towards something far better than instinct and chance might deliver.
You cannot help but think that TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot would be packed to the rafters if it sat in Dubai Marina, Alserkal Avenue, Al Wasl Road on the Palm. Instead, on a Friday afternoon in International City, it is blissfully calm. That may change. Reports like this have a habit of doing so.
TaoXiang's subdued decor lets its broths do the talking
Seating ranges from tables for two and four to private booth rooms better suited to groups. Come as a group. Each table is fitted with a built-in hot plate, allowing you to control your broth–an important detail to moderate the flavour intensity.
The menu is vast, and their broths are the soul of the meal.
Choose a single broth or, for a modest supplement, opt for a yin-yang pot dividing two broths down the middle. Do this. We did.
The signature seafood broth is clean, aromatic and quietly comforting, though immeasurably improved by a deliberate hit of chilli. The Taiwan Spicy Pot is ferociously spicy, unexpectedly so; the sort of weapons-grade heat that should come with military clearance.
Meats range from gossamer sheets of Wagyu beef and Angus to Australian fatty lamb, like the haberdasher’s catalogue behind THAT Lady Gaga dress. Get a well-marbled ribeye, so the fat succumbs to the warm broth with each mouthful.
Order the seafood platter or live shrimp, and watch the team impale each one with a skewer into a bowl of ice until it writhes to a complete stop.
Did I mention this is a family restaurant?
Vegetarians, do stay! There are mushrooms aplenty, a bouquet of leafy greens, seasonal vegetable platters, noodles and a handful of dim sum.
Grace, our server, is warm and punctilious, regularly replenishing our broths, which grow richer in potency with time and reduction. They understand the rhythm of hotpot without interrupting it.
Kunwal Safdar, my dining partner, and I finger-lick our way through 11 dishes like dynasty royals, with four bottled waters, all for a hair over AED300 before tips.
You cannot help but think that TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot would be packed to the rafters if it sat in Dubai Marina, Alserkal Avenue, Al Wasl Road on the Palm. Instead, on a Friday afternoon in International City, it is blissfully calm.
That may change. Reports like this have a habit of doing so as the curious like you, in search of good value and a break from the mall-clad mediocrity, venture further. Indeed, fortune favours the brave.
This flag is green. Bright, vivacious green, but there too is gold here, bubbling gently, and waiting.
Verdict: at this price point, absolutely. Hotpot can read gimmicky, but in a group, this concept is hard to beat.
Hotpot is not for everyone, but hotpot fans should make the pilgrimage. Those looking for value-driven meals in more remote areas of Dubai. People unafraid to explore. Chinese food fans. People who are looking for good group meals. Unlicensed restaurant seekers.
Number of visits: One.
Dishes ordered (pricing in AED): mala beef soup (18); double-flavour soup (28); split bowl supplement (12); snow beef (58); live shrimp (42); wide potato noodle (12); baby cabbage (11); spinach (11); mushroom platter (29); black fungus (15); king oyster (13); HDD chicken fillet (19).
Drinks: sparkling water (12); still water (10). TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot is unlicensed.
Total spend (in AED): 317.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot, A04, Warsan First, China Cluster, International City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For the latest information, check out TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot’s Instagram or call +97144276055.
Liam is a restaurant critic, food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He co-authored The Rise of Indian Food: Recipes Reimagined by Trésind Studio, out 6 May from Phaidon Press. You can find Liam on Substack, Threads, Instagram, BlueSky or Facebook.
The menu is vast, and their broths are the soul of the meal.
Choose a single broth or, for a modest supplement, opt for a yin-yang pot dividing two broths down the middle. Do this. We did.
The signature seafood broth is clean, aromatic and quietly comforting, though immeasurably improved by a deliberate hit of chilli. The Taiwan Spicy Pot is ferociously spicy, unexpectedly so; the sort of weapons-grade heat that should come with military clearance.
Meats range from gossamer sheets of Wagyu beef and Angus to Australian fatty lamb, like the haberdasher’s catalogue behind THAT Lady Gaga dress. Get a well-marbled ribeye, so the fat succumbs to the warm broth with each mouthful.
Order the seafood platter or live shrimp, and watch the team impale each one with a skewer into a bowl of ice until it writhes to a complete stop.
Did I mention this is a family restaurant?
Vegetarians, do stay! There are mushrooms aplenty, a bouquet of leafy greens, seasonal vegetable platters, noodles and a handful of dim sum.
Grace, our server, is warm and punctilious, regularly replenishing our broths, which grow richer in potency with time and reduction. They understand the rhythm of hotpot without interrupting it.
Kunwal Safdar, my dining partner, and I finger-lick our way through 11 dishes like dynasty royals, with four bottled waters, all for a hair over AED300 before tips.
You cannot help but think that TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot would be packed to the rafters if it sat in Dubai Marina, Alserkal Avenue, Al Wasl Road on the Palm. Instead, on a Friday afternoon in International City, it is blissfully calm.
That may change. Reports like this have a habit of doing so as the curious like you, in search of good value and a break from the mall-clad mediocrity, venture further. Indeed, fortune favours the brave.
This flag is green. Bright, vivacious green, but there too is gold here, bubbling gently, and waiting.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot: Would I Return?
Verdict: at this price point, absolutely. Hotpot can read gimmicky, but in a group, this concept is hard to beat.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot: Who Should Go?
Hotpot is not for everyone, but hotpot fans should make the pilgrimage. Those looking for value-driven meals in more remote areas of Dubai. People unafraid to explore. Chinese food fans. People who are looking for good group meals. Unlicensed restaurant seekers.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot review information.
Number of visits: One.
Dishes ordered (pricing in AED): mala beef soup (18); double-flavour soup (28); split bowl supplement (12); snow beef (58); live shrimp (42); wide potato noodle (12); baby cabbage (11); spinach (11); mushroom platter (29); black fungus (15); king oyster (13); HDD chicken fillet (19).
Drinks: sparkling water (12); still water (10). TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot is unlicensed.
Total spend (in AED): 317.
TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot, A04, Warsan First, China Cluster, International City, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For the latest information, check out TaoXiang Taiwan Hotpot’s Instagram or call +97144276055.
Liam is a restaurant critic, food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He co-authored The Rise of Indian Food: Recipes Reimagined by Trésind Studio, out 6 May from Phaidon Press. You can find Liam on Substack, Threads, Instagram, BlueSky or Facebook.
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