Kanpai Honten 乾杯 @ Taipei (2025)

The name said it all – Kanpai or “bottoms up” in Japanese. The place is so much fun that it’s Princess and my favourite yakiniku place in Taipei.

Kanpai began its humble journey in a cozy alleyway in Taipei’s East District back in 1999, thanks to a bunch of university pals on a mission to find the best budget-friendly yakiniku.

Fast forward to today, and the Kanpai Group has donned its fancy pants, sprouting sleek branches in Taiwan and China that are so posh, they practically needed a tuxedo to open! With decor that screams high-end and prices that might make your wallet faint, several locations have scored Michelin plates, with the crown jewel being the star-studded Shanghai Xintiandi shop. Who knew eating grilled meat could be so glamorous?

The present style of yakiniku restaurants are derived from Korean restaurants in Osaka and Tokyo, which opened around 1945 by Koreans in Japan. These new fancy Kanpai stores that they have opened are good for the bottomline but do not differentiate from the traditional yakiniku restaurant.

Luckily for us, they stuck to their roots and kept the Honten as-is when hey first opened. They pioneered a few innovations in the yakiniku experience that you don’t get in Korea or Japan.

Firstly, the 8pm Kanpai! which they refilled your drinks for free when bottoms up on the precise hour with the rest of the guests in rowdy restaurant.

And then there’s the “Kiss Cam” when you and another person kiss for the camera for 10 sec and get a plate of diced wagyu for free. Only one per table, and it doesn’t matter who is kissing who!

After we had placed the order for the meat items, we placed orders for a few appetisers that would help to cut through the greasiness of the wagyu, like kimchi and cucumber. The lettuce wrap was not complimentary.

乾杯自家製泡菜 Their Famous In-House Kimchi

The last time we came, we thought it was complimentary. This time we ordered the kimchi because it was really good. The taste was just a right balance of sour and sweet, and it wasn’t too salty to go with the meat. It was so good that we ordered two more times.

鯷魚蒜香小黃瓜 Anchovy and Garlic Cucumber

This appetiser was quite delicious – sliced Japanese cucumber with a Japanese-style garlic, sesame oil and vinegar dressing and topped with dried flavoured anchovy. We had a repeat order towards the end when the ribeye came along as it was quite refreshing.

We kicked off the BBQ with two types of gyutan (beef tongue). I love cow tongue, aka gyutan, as an ingredient since I was introduced to it in Hong Kong. And then the yakiniku version just blew me away.

Technically it is a piece of muscle instead of meat, so it needs some skills to get the best texture out of it. The best way to enjoy this would be to simply grilled them on all sides until the colour changed. And then just a bit more but not too long, to get the doneness just right. Else you will be left with just a chewy piece of muscle.

澳洲冷藏厚切牛舌 豪州チルド厚切り牛タン Chilled Thick Cut Australian Beef Tongue

The first bite of yakiniku should definitely start with the thick sliced beef tongue! Raised on a diet of over 100 days of grain, it creates a dreamy texture that is tender and bouncy. The waitress helped us with the grilling for the first few pieces as I told her I often got the doneness wrong. She did it perfectly.

鹽蔥牛舌2.0 新型ネギ牛タン New Style Beef Tongue with Salted Onion

This is a very thin cut of wagyu-tan with a copious amount of scallion and onions. We were advised to just grilled it until the colour changed on the meat and that would be perfect. And it was – the gyutan was delicious, crunchy and full of onion sweetness.

The prices in the menu refer to the cut of the beef, but not the origin, which can either be Australian or Japanese. We had to ask the waitress taking our order for the origin of each cut. For the ultimate enjoyment, we picked the Japanese wagyu karubi and tri-tip.

乾杯特選牛五花 Kanpai Selected Karubi

Karubi, or boneless short rib / flanken-cut rib, is one of the most popular cuts of beef for yakiniku. This cut showcases why yakiniku is worth its while.

日本和牛 腿三角 Japanese Wagyu Tri-tip

本日嚴選 Wagyu of the day was the tri-tip 腿三角, aka tomosankaku トモサンカク, which is a rare part of the cow yielding about 2~3kg per head. Tri-tip is a triangular cut of beef from the bottom sirloin, also known as a California cut or Santa Maria steak.

You don’t need to grill them for too long, and the best way to enjoy them was to eat them without anything else. With rich marbling and tender texture, the savoury and sweet meat juices burst in your mouth.

The texture of the meat was just right, not too soft like the usual wagyu, and ample marbling for that melt-in-mouth mouthfeel of a high quality Japanese wagyu.

水果玉米 Taiwanese Fruit Corn

Sweet corn is picked when still immature (the milk stage) and prepared and eaten as a vegetable. Fruit corn is a type of sweet corn that has even higher sugar level and can be eaten raw. But they are best when grilled.

Because of the high sugar content, they take a shorter time to grill than normal corn as the sugar caramelised quickly. So it’s better to surround the grill and use indirect heat than to place it directly over the fire.

上等角切 Premium Diced Wagyu

鹽昆布 salted kombu was provided to enhance the umami and savouriness of the beef – you simply add a strand on the grilled beef. Alternatively you can opt for the marinade that was used for everything else.

親親角切 “Kiss Cam” Diced Wagyu

We got this plate of diced wagyu after Princess and her mom did the “Kiss Cam” challenge. I never say no to free meat, and the quality wasn’t too shabby. And if I must find a fault just because it was FOC, it has to be the excess fats on the edges.

Seriously I couldn’t differentiate between the FOC diced beef and the one we paid a premium for.

鮮切澳洲和牛沙朗芯牛排 Australian BMS 8/9 Wagyu Ribeye Cut By The Table

When you order the Australian wagyu ribeye by weight, they would play a guessing game with you. And if you guess right, the steak is free.

The block of ribeye was brought to our table and we selected the amount of steak we wanted. The waitress proceeded to slice the ribeye and we guessed weight of the cut based on our observation. As long as the weight was within 5g, you get the steak for free, no kidding! We got within 20g and paid full price, which was NT 1269 for 381g.

The chuck is characterised by tender meat with excellent lean meat and a good amount of marbling. In addition to the fine texture of the meat, it has a good flavour, moderate texture and rich taste. While we cooked most of the meat ourselves, the wagyu ribeye was grilled by the staff at our table side.

The steak was thinner than I thought, given that we picked the weight ourselves. She skilfully flipped and flopped the steak at the precise timing to get the medium rare that we ordered. It was a juicy steak nevertheless and required nothing more than salt.

They have come a long way from this humble beginning, and it seemed that they have kept the faith of providing authentic, quality and entertaining yakiniku to the masses. However the price has quietly creeped up to more than affordable. Nevertheless it is still value-for-money given the quality of the meat and a recommended destination for yakiniku in Taipei.

Kanpai Yakiniku (Honten) 乾杯本店
17, Lane 236, Section 1, Dūnhuà South Rd, Daan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 
臺灣臺北市大安區敦化南路一段236巷17號
Tel : +886 (0)2 8773 1150

Visited Aug 2025

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