About
Gien Jia is a modern, industrial-style restaurant that offers a diverse range of Western-inspired dishes and beverages. The establishment recently hosted an event featuring chefs from various trendy restaurants and bars, showcasing their specialty cuisines. Notably, The Lookout Bistro & Bar presented the preparation of grazing black pig Tomahawk with pomelo pepper chicken sauce, while MUO Steakhouse demonstrated the creation of crispy quail pie - both exclusive to the event.Reviews
Gien Jia, which translates to 'Picky Eaters' in Taiwanese dialect, offers a unique and elevated dining experience with fusion dishes blending Western and Taiwanese flavors. Reviewers praise the exceptional food quality, fresh ingredients, and friendly service. The restaurant's ambiance is described as sexy and well-designed with an open kitchen concept that allows diners to watch chefs at work. While some find the portions small, each bite is savored for its delicious taste. However, there are mixed feelings about the mobile app ordering system that some guests dislike due to lack of personal interaction with servers.
Super delicious food with excellent service. The waitress that serving us is very caring and keeps checking on us. She also explains to us whenever each dish was served. She noticed that we were waiting for all the food to be served in order to take photos, and she told the kitchen to start cooking all meals rather than serving following our space. Not enough staff, so need to be patient during peak eating hours. Overall, it is worth the price you pay.
I had a good experience at there! Many Dishes and beers. We had a steak, fish meal and tiramisu for dessert. BTY, I love their guava juice, I will come again!
Will definitely revisit this restaurant if I am going Kaohsiung. Food was exceptional with fresh ingredient and amazing flavouring. Unlike normal western restaurant, the dishes seemed to have fusion with Taiwanese style that the taste could not be commonly found. Waitress was friendly and proactively recommend menu to us which was nice. Best to make reservation in advance, not easy to get a seat even during working days.
I had a great dinner with a friend here. Two of us ordered several dishes to share and each dish is quite tasty and beyond my expectations. Even the cocktail is very nice.
I didn’t give it 5 stars as the baguette in the fish soup is day old. So it’s not those crunchy-outside-soft-inside bread that could be soaked with the soup. Otherwise the meal is perfect.
4/5Carl Richard Smith Jr
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For those curious, GIEN JIA is Taiwanese dialect for Picky Eaters. Think of "Picky Eaters" a bit like discerning foodie rather than someone that doesn't like tomatoes. So, you know if the place has a name like this, you are in for a more elevated experience. Overall, this place was really cool. A unique menu you will not see anywhere else. Truly! The restaurant itself is very sexy and well designed. The open kitchen concept is really awesome and I recommend sitting as far back in the restaurant as you can to enjoy watching the chefs do their work. This restaurant is marketed as Western-food. I think they should call it Pan-Taiwanese-Fusion. They've taken these more Western dishes and translated them for Taiwan. The portions are small, so savor each bite.
Now, for the bad part - ordering through a mobile app. I hate it so much! To pay so much money, I expect table service. The app is clunky and you have to rig certain fields to fit what they want you to do (put your table number in the name field but you still have to enter your own phone number). Hate, hate, hate it! Also, with the mobile app, it causes the servers to refuse answering questions. If you ask about a dish, they tell you to look at the app. Give me a real menu, come to the table and talk with us, share you passion for the menu, and take our order. Did I say I hate the mobile app ordering? Because if I didn't, I need to say it. HA!
The dishes - fried oysters and fries - great breading with a great crunchy, but the oysters lacked seasoning.
Sashimi - delicious! Probably my favorite. Thin sashimi with sea urchin on top and a trio of sauces - mango, chili, and something like a chimichurri.
Lychee bread with pork pate - delicious. The bread had great texture with sour sweet pops of flavor from the lychee. Then you spread this rich pate over. It was really nice.
Peach salad - so delicious. I wish the peaches had been a bit more ripe, but you could still enjoy. Sweet peaches, earthy pepperiness from the salad and green sauce, touch of nuttiness from the peanuts.
The cocktail I had was summery and beachy with tropical flavors. The burning star anise added some tableside spectacle but didn't add to the flavor at all in my opinion.