Taiwan Day 1: Arrival, 'Reconnection' and Dinner at Wang Steak

Wassup People of the World!

This is my virgin blog post of my exciting twenty over years of my life!

Kudos to NTUC LearningHub's 4D3N Taiwan Learning Journey, for the birth of this blog!

Tuesday, 22 April 2014: Arrival at Taiwan, Taoyuan Internation Airport via SQ876

I used to love flying but after the MH370 incident, it changed my love for flights. Flight on SQ876 was smooth and we arrived safely at Taoyuan International Airport. We were herded quickly after immigrations check and whisked into the Taipei on our very own tour bus that sticked to us throughout the entire trip.

First stop, Chunghwa Telecom HQ, where all of us surrendered 300NT willingly, just to stay connected (prepaid data sim cards) on our smartphones. How dependent on technology we are these days, that even a learning journey trip requires a time slot for us to get reconnected. This make good business sense to me, perhaps a big commission is earn here? Hehe...

Next up, Wang Steak, the one of the few itinerary that I really look forward to.

Upon arrival to Wang Steak, we were greeted by friendly smiles and warm service. The host at the ground floor showed us up the stairs to our conference room, where the restaurant manager, Jerry awaits for us.

Jerry shared with us WOWprime the corporation that owns and runs Wang Steak, very similar business model as Breadtalk locally in Singapore.

Wang Steak's success was due to their focus on 3 Wows: "Wow! Looks good", "Wow! Delicious", and "Wow! Good price". These are the exact same 3 wows that Jerry shared, word for word.

The food definitely looks beautiful, every plate to plated with balance and thought with functional garnish and designs. The attention to detail the chefs and service staff give is impeccable. It goes to the extent of even fanning out the toothpicks in its holder. Everything has to look good.

I shall not comment on the taste of the food before this blog post turns into a food critic/review, but it definitely taste OK.

Last of the 3 wows, the price, was indeed a 'WOW!' to me! NT1350 + (SGD$60+) for a 4 course dinner with palate cleansers in between courses. Not forgetting, the restaurant ensures that every plate is satisfactory, if it's not, they would re-fire a new plate just for you. Overall, it's a steal!

Their emphasis on the quality, presentation, taste and value are immaculate. Every dish goes through stringent food sampling and surveys before it ends up on the menu. Jerry even shared that they even go to the extent of looking through the garbage just to know their customer's preference.

Dining at Wang Steak, reminded me of service class. We were scrutinizing their service all the time. I picked up one learning point about their service. Whenever they serve their steaks, they would barge-in and ask politely from you, your utensils, and cut up your steak for you. They would then ask to check the doneness and instruct us on how to eat it. Don't get me wrong here, what they did was a very well thought out gesture, by them cutting up the steak in front of the guest, this ensures that the doneness is done right and guest will not have the chance to finish half the plate and complain that the steak was not done right. Also, in asian setting, it makes the diner feel like he is 'king'. However, if this was done to a westerner, who love their chunky slab of goodness (steak), they would go: "Hey! Do not mess with my steak!."

The night a Wang Steak ended with a birthday 'surprise'. (Not much of a surprise, with the tour leader asking whose birthday was around the corner before arrival to the restaurant.) The surprise to me was, how far would they go to make it special. Everyone was filled to the brim by now, but they (servers) are not done yet. Here comes the birthday cake and a balloon lollipop.

Jerry and the 'Lollipop'

Stay tune for Day 2...