A bucket full of gyudon rice

Gyudon literally means beef bowl in Japanese and is a bowl of rice topped with beef and onion and a sweetish sauce. Except at Mu Jing, you get more than a bowl, I'll show you in a minute.

Let me show you the outside of the restaurant first. Mu Jing is located down a side street, and has a nice bright front with full-size windows and a sharp blue and white sign. If you didn't know the sign and name, you can't really tell what type of meals it serves. This is quiet road and they have some tables outside, there was a bunch of kids sitting here as the inside was quite busy, and I think a few of them were smoking. You're not allowed to smoke indoors here.

The inside doesn't give much away either. It didn't have the typical decor with lots of wood, bamboo and Japanese posters. In fact, it had quite an industrial sleek look with exposed pipes and rustic walls. It could have served any type of cuisine.

This is a semi self-service restaurant, meaning you tick your order off the big menu and order your food at the counter.

There's free refilliable soup, tea and appetizer here. Their burdock salad is most famous and can often be found in Japanese restaurants. This is the root part, they slice it thinly into strips and add a dressing it. It has a good crunch and a slight bitterness to it, great as an appetiser. The miso soup was very tasty.

My wife and I both ordered the gyudon rice, her's a standard portion, and mine a large portion.

Here's my large portion which was served inside a wooden bucket! This is their speciality. The height of the wooden bucket is about the height of the chopsticks. But to be fair, the meal wasn't a whole bucket full. You'll see it actually sits inside a metal bowl, and that's about two thirds down the bucket. Still quite a large portion, but not a bucket full!

And the standard portion came on a normal plate.

The thin slices of beef was very succelent with the sauce which was not to sweet for me tasting. It was just right. And there was enough sauce and sauted onions and spring onions to mix with the rice so the meal wasn't too bland.

I helped myself to a second serving of both the miso soup and burdock salad, and overall enjoyed my meal here very much.

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Restaurant Information

Mù jǐng Gyudon Restaurant

No. 5, Lane 13, Mofan Street, West District, Taichung City, Taiwan 403

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A bucket full of gyudon rice
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