Carton King 纸箱王 (Taiwan)

We had initially wanted to visit Carton King at Dakeng. However, the taxi driver who was supposed to bring us there persuaded us to go to Lavender Cottage instead and the rest, as they say, is history. 

While at Sun Moon Lake, we were looking for dinner options at around 7+ pm and realised that the popular shops were either closed or winding down for the day. We walked to a nearby shopping centre and to our surprise, Carton King was open. 

Unlike other branches where you get to see exhibits made of cardboard, this was solely a restaurant with a small shop next to it selling souvenirs. We were the only customers around at late 7+ pm.

As we weren't particularly hungry (after snacking our way through in the afternoon), we ordered one Chilli & Spicy Hot Pot 野地麻辣锅 (NT$390) to share. The set came with a choice of drink (honey tea / honey green tea / sun moon lake black tea).

There is a restaurant policy of each person spending at least NT$100. I don't get such policies but we ordered an extra portion of pork (NT$100) just to hit that minimum limit.

Everything except the burner was made of cardboard. The waitress told us not to put too many items into the pot at the same time.

While the soup base was pretty good and delivered a feisty kick, I was a little alarmed when frozen food were served to us. I mean, yes I get that the food we normally put into our steamboat was probably frozen as well, but having the food blatantly served in frozen form seems to be a first. Most of the ingredients were cheap ingredients - they tasted fine though.

The drink is served in a carton box and the waitress told us that we could bring the cardboard box back as a money bank. Great recycling initiative but I think we are past the age of having piggy banks!

Novel concept and it was an eye-opener how so many things could be made from sturdy cardboard. That said, the food was not value for money and you are really paying for the novelty.

Carton King (Yuchi branch)
2F, No. 163 Zhongshan Road
Shuishe Village
Taiwan