Jing Ying Cantonese Cuisine on Dunhua North Road | Private Rooms, Mud Crab and Set Menu Prices

Jing Ying Cantonese Cuisine (晶櫻會館) sits on the basement level of an office building on Dunhua North Road. From the street, all you see is a small sign at the building entrance, so it is easy to walk straight past on your first visit. Head down to B1 and, behind the glass doors, the restaurant is mostly private rooms; the largest even has an electric keyboard and microphones. It is the kind of Cantonese restaurant people book for company dinners and family banquets, and you need a big group to order its signature dishes properly: a whole crispy chicken, a plate of ten abalone, mud crab cooked three ways.

We worked our way through the chef’s recommendations, the seafood and the double-boiled soups, 20 items in total on the order slip. Below are the practical details and set menu prices first, then a dish-by-dish rundown of what is worth ordering.

Restaurant Info and Getting There

Opening hours and payment methods were copied from the notice at the entrance, and the address comes from online listings checked in October 2026. If anything changes, go by the restaurant’s own announcements. There is no dedicated parking, so drivers will need to use a paid lot nearby.

Private Rooms: Round Tables, Chandeliers and an Electric Keyboard

Private rooms are the main draw here. The largest has a big round table, blue-and-gold wallpaper and crystal chandeliers, set up for banquet-style dinners. In the corner sit a YAMAHA electric keyboard, microphones and speakers, so you can pick up the mic halfway through the meal. Handy for year-end company parties or a family birthday banquet.

If singing is not your thing, there are smaller rooms with rectangular tables and grey leather chairs, better suited to business dinners.

Choosing Between Set Menus and À La Carte

There are four set menus for 4 to 10 people, and all prices are subject to a 10% service charge:

The advantage of a set menu is that the expensive items, like abalone and crab congee, are already included. The 6-person set works out to about NT$1,280 per person plus service.

We ordered à la carte, with mud crab three ways and a whole splendid alfonsino on top. Most of the chef’s recommendations run NT$480–860: crispy chicken with golden garlic is NT$680 for a half and NT$1,200 for a whole bird, taro duck is NT$520, and Maggi-glazed king prawns are NT$160 each. Double-boiled soups are NT$280 per person, and fried rice and yi mein noodles are NT$420–520. Our order slip listed each mud crab dish at NT$1,850 and the alfonsino with preserved mustard greens at NT$2,380, for reference only.

Our 20 items came to NT$20,810 on the order slip (before service charge). Seafood made up more than half of that, so your budget mostly depends on how many crab and live fish dishes you order.

Chef’s Recommendations: Order the Crispy Chicken and Taro Duck First

Crispy chicken with golden garlic (風沙金蒜脆皮雞) is the house signature and appears in the 4-, 6- and 8-person set menus. The whole bird is chopped and covered in a thick layer of golden fried garlic. The skin is thin and crackly, and even the white meat stays moist. There is so much fried garlic that whatever is left at the bottom of the plate is great mixed into rice.

Taro duck (荔茸香酥鴨) is not easy to find these days. Mashed taro and duck are layered and deep-fried, so the outside is crisp and the taro in the middle is soft and fluffy. You can see all three layers in the cross-section. It is filling, so on a small table it will crowd out room for other dishes.

Maggi-glazed king prawns (美極醬大海蝦) are priced per prawn at NT$160 each. The shells are pan-fried in Maggi sauce until dry and fragrant, served on bok choy. Peel them by hand and expect sauce on your fingers.

Mud Crab Three Ways: Typhoon Shelter Style Steals the Show

We ordered mud crab three ways: typhoon shelter style, with ginger and scallion, and a pot of crab congee. If you can only pick one, go for typhoon shelter mud crab (避風塘紅蟳). The crab is buried in a mountain of fried garlic with chili and fermented black beans, and it has the strongest aroma of the three. When it lands on the table, this is the plate everyone reaches for first. The claws are big and the shells come pre-cracked, so they are easy to get into.

Ginger and scallion mud crab (薑蔥紅蟳) is the more traditional preparation: ginger and scallion are flash-fried, then the sauce is reduced around the crab, and the roe is rich and plentiful. It is lighter than the typhoon shelter version, so you taste more of the crab’s natural sweetness.

Mud crab congee (紅蟳粥) arrives in a clay pot with the crab shell set in the middle, and the rice soaks up all the crab flavor. Most of the earlier dishes lean salty and savory, so this congee works well toward the end of the meal. The 4- and 6-person set menus both include a mud crab congee, so if you want it without ordering it separately, a set menu is the way to go.

Abalone and Splendid Alfonsino

Garlic-steamed live abalone (蒜蒸活鮑魚) comes ten to a plate, each topped with minced garlic and steamed just until done, springy without being tough. The order slip listed them at NT$220 each, 10 pieces in total.

Splendid alfonsino with preserved mustard greens (梅菜金目鯛) is steamed whole and topped with preserved greens and shredded scallion. The salty-sweet greens cut through the richness of the fish, and the flesh is very tender. Our order slip listed it at NT$2,380; live fish prices depend on the day’s quote.

Stir-Fries: Beef, Black Pork, Ribs and Squid

Stir-fries all fall in the NT$480–520 range, and we ordered four.

Egg white beef with truffle (芙蓉松露牛肉) pairs silky scrambled egg whites with slices of beef. The truffle is fairly subtle; the appeal is the tender beef and the smooth egg. If you are dining with kids or older relatives, this is the easiest dish to eat.

Stir-fried black pork with garlic shoots (蒜苗炒黑豚肉) is a classic dish to eat with rice: garlic shoots and pork slices tossed over high heat, salty and savory. Sweet and sour pineapple pork ribs (糖醋鳳梨腩排) go the other way, with pineapple chunks and ribs coated in a glossy sweet-and-sour sauce.

Squid with ginger, scallion and premium soy sauce (薑蔥頭抽鮮魷) uses first-press soy sauce, with squid slices flash-fried alongside thick lengths of scallion. It is on the salty side. If you have already ordered the ginger and scallion mud crab, you can skip this one, since both are built on the same ginger-and-scallion base.

Double-Boiled Soups: One Pot Each

The double-boiled soups are NT$280 per person, served in individual pots, and we ordered both kinds. Chicken soup with cordyceps flowers and wild mushrooms (蟲草花野菌燉雞湯) is clear, with chicken, cordyceps flowers and mushrooms. Fig and pork cartilage soup (無花果燉軟骨湯) has a touch of fruity sweetness, and the cartilage is stewed until soft enough to bite through. Both are clear broths and not greasy.

Fried Rice and Yi Mein

We ordered three staples. Fried rice with Chinese sausage in oyster sauce (蠔油臘味炒飯) has the rich savoriness of cured sausage, and the grains are fried nice and dry. XO sauce seafood fried rice (XO醬海鮮炒飯) is marked with a chili icon on the menu and has a little heat. If you are choosing between them and the table has already had plenty of seafood, the sausage fried rice adds more variety.

Braised seafood yi mein (乾燒海鮮伊府麵) is the Cantonese egg noodle that is deep-fried and then braised. The noodles soak up the sauce and are softer and bouncier than regular fried noodles. It usually comes out near the end, and if you have over-ordered seafood and stir-fries you may struggle to finish it, so work out how much rice and noodles you need when you order.

A bowl of sweet red bean soup came at the end to round off the meal. It was not on our order slip, so whether every table gets it depends on the restaurant on the day.

Good to Know Before You Go

• Order seafood in advance. Live lobster, large male mud crab and several kinds of grouper are marked on the menu as requiring advance orders. If you want them, ask when you book.
• Last order is 20:45. The restaurant closes at 21:30, so larger groups should aim to be seated by 7 pm.
• Set menus are better value for small groups. The 4-person set already includes abalone, crispy chicken and mud crab congee; ordering the same dishes à la carte costs more than the set price.
• Book early if you need a private room. Rooms are limited, so larger groups should book ahead and mention that they need one.
• It is easy to miss. The sign is at the building entrance, and the restaurant is one floor down in the basement.

Fitting It Into a Taipei Itinerary

This stretch of Dunhua North Road is close to Songshan Airport, so it is a convenient dinner stop if you land in the late afternoon or have an early flight the next morning. For another restaurant suited to a big round table, try Paradise Dynasty Signature at Taipei Dome | Peking Duck Three Ways and the 6-Person Set Menu, known for its roast duck. If you just want a bowl of noodles on your own, see Taipei ICHIRAN Ramen Guide | Queues, Ordering, and Which Branch to Choose.

If you need to move a big group for a company dinner or family trip, check out our Taipei private driver page. The driver can drop you off and pick you up right at the building entrance, then take everyone straight back to the hotel or airport after dinner.