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Double Happiness Hakka Cuisine
雙囍家常料理
*CLOSED*
I Recommend ☆☆☆☆
Taipei restaurant offering: Hakka Food / Chinese Food / General Tso's Chicken / Sweet & Sour Pork / Kung Pao Chicken, 宮保雞丁 / Ma Po Tofu, 麻婆豆腐 / Stir-Fried Rice / Stir-Fried Noodles / Stir-Fried Meat Dishes / Stir-Fried Vegetables / Fish / Stew / Soup / Vegetables / Appetizers / Beer / Tea / Calpis / Soft Drinks
Address:
No. 2, Ln. 48, Sec. 2, Roosevelt Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100
台北市中正區羅斯福路二段48巷2號
Phone: (02) 2358-4662
Hours: 11am - 2pm & 5pm - 9pm Daily
Last Reviewed: 6 October 2016
*Update: I've noticed two copycat restaurants that opened up before Double Happiness went out of business. I tried the General Tso's Chicken—my favorite item at Double Happiness—and it wasn't nearly as good; in fact, it was an entirely different dish. However, maybe the other copycat restaurant didn't a better job duplicating this dish. Also, maybe the copycat restaurant do a better job mimicking the other items on the menu. I just can't get past the cheekiness of Taipei-copycat restaurants to give them a try—come up with your own ideas!
Double Happiness Hakka cuisine is a casual, affordable, and delicious dining experience. I'm happy when I'm eating their delicious food, and then I experience double happiness when I'm paying the very affordable bill at the end of the meal. Double Happiness fulfilled most of my American-Chinese food cravings. That doesn't mean that Double Happiness is bad, it's because American-Chinese food was taken from Hakka cuisine as apposed to other Chinese region's cuisine. If you've been missing General Tso's Chicken and Kung Pao Chicken, this is the place to go in order to subside those cravings. Compared to the American-Chinese dish, Hakka's General Tso's Chicken has a lighter sauce, but just as exquisite, and is very mild in spiciness. They have many other delicious dishes that are similar to American-Chinese food in North America. Too bad they don't have Sweet & Sour Chicken, which might be a dish that was created in America, inspired from Hunan's Hakka people's Sweet & Sour Pork; as with many dishes, the history books aren't definitive on the truth about their origins. According to a my.openrice.com article about the ten most known traditional Hakka dishes, "A perfect Hakka dish can be described in 3 principle tastes: salty, fatty, and fragrant. Thus, it has become a tradition that meat dishes are a must have dish in every Hakka family. Cook by using these few techniques of Stew, Fry, or Braised, this ensures the food cooked will remain fragrant and delicious."
I don't profess to be a culinary expert on Hakka cuisine, so I will say nothing as to how authentic Double Happiness' Hakka food is. After the Han moved to different parts of Taiwan (and elsewhere), their cuisine started to differ as it settled in different regions of Taiwan, which is conveyed by Jerry Chiu on behave of Taiwan Food Culture in the embedded video at the bottom of this review. Therefore, it's difficult to definitely label what is authentic Hakka cuisine and what isn't. There are numerous restaurants in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand serving Hakka cuisine. It's more important to recognize what one likes, as far as what one's preferences are, rather than get stuck up on what's authentic or not. Of course, if you have grown up on the authentic version of a food, it becomes what you are used to and love, which is what this website is mostly about in regards to myself and Western food, particularly American and Italian food. This quote taken from Double Happiness' Facebook page might express that the chef isn't solely focused on making authentic Hakka cuisine: "Double Happiness is a restaurant that specializes in Hakka and Taiwanese cuisine. Executive Chef Jason King uses fresh local ingredients with a variety of techniques and influences to offer guests unique dining experiences."
The fact that Double Happiness was full of locals on every single one of our visits, touts validation of the place's great food. If you come too late during dinner, you may have to wait for a table -- as we had to on two visits -- if you haven't made a reservation. Therefore, I recommend you make a reservation for dinnertime. They were good about taking our number and calling us back when a table became available. Many a time have I experienced giving a Taiwanese restaurant a phone number and never being called back; only in Taiwan would a restaurant pass up business out of forgetfulness or laziness.
Vegetarian options: From all that I've read while researching Hakka cuisine for this review, it appears that many Hakka dishes have meat in them. Hakka cuisine in Hong Kong is less dominated by meats, instead, an emphasis is placed on an abundance of vegetables, but this isn't Hong Kong. Double Happiness' menu appears to mostly be comprised of meat dishes, although, one would have to ask the staff for some of the dishes because it doesn't list even the main ingredients in Chinese on the menu; only the Chinese name, and sometimes an accompanying photo, is shown on the menu.
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Click pictures for prices and critiques
雙囍家常料理 Double Happiness Hakka Cuisine Facebook page
Double Happiness Hakka Cuisine Unofficial Facebook page (but better than official)
Double Happiness Hakka Cuisine 雙囍家常料理 Chinese review
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Address:
No. 2, Ln. 48, Sec. 2, Roosevelt Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100 台北市中正區羅斯福路二段48巷2號 Phone: (02) 2358-4662 Hours: 11am - 2pm & 5pm - 9pm Daily Chinese Menu Only (but there are many pictures on the menu and I have added English to my favorite items on the menu in my picture section) Cash Only No Stupid 10% Service Charge Reservations Accepted Takeaway Available Delivery Click on the link below for their Google Map page for the street view and/or other visitor's photos. Afterwards, you can click the dedicated back button on Google Maps to view the destination on a full-screened Google Map for directions. Double Happiness Hakka Cuisine |
In this Taiwan Food Culture video, Jerry Chiu speaks about Hakka people and their cuisine in Taiwan.
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