We first heard about SKB Burger through online shared posts from our friends as we drooled over their meaty burgers and bacon cheese fries photos.
What appealed to us was how they insist on keeping everything authentically American without succumbing to the pressures of adapting to the Taiwanese taste buds. After hearing what our friends had to say, we went to go check them out for ourselves.
SKB Burger (originally named ‘Sofa King Bueno’) is located in Da’an District and is about a 6-minute walk from Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, exit 4.
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1. About the Restaurant |
The restaurant is a modern American-style diner with an upbeat vibe that only just opened up last year (mid-2020).
We walked in on a Sunday evening and were immediately able to get a table, and although it did get busier around 6:30 onwards, we were happy to see that there was always seating available.
The service was friendly and attentive, and the menu came in both English and Chinese.
As we looked around at the wall decor of the restaurant, we could see that SKB Burger has a humorous personality.
They’re very clear in letting us know that they confidently and proudly believe their burgers are great!
We didn’t waste any time ordering our drinks and food with high expectations.
What We Ordered
The Drink Choices
Since we’re at a burger joint, we felt the ideal drink of choice would be a nice cold pint of beer which is offered at the top of their drinks menu. We went for the IPA draft beers ($180) since we felt it’ll go well with our burgers and chicken with it.
In addition to a good selection of draft beers, they also serve a range of cocktails, liquors, and non-alcoholic soft drinks to accommodate most people.
SKB Burger ($380)
Our burger arrived at our table pretty quickly as we arrived at the restaurant early in the evening when it wasn’t very busy.
The meat in this burger is two very chunky U.S. choice beef patties. Sat on top of the beef is a large fried mac and cheese croquette – it’s hard to see it under the dripping thousand island dressing.
This burger comes with a decent side portion of salad as well as a seasonal fruit vinaigrette dressing (we believe ours was pineapple vinaigrette) – which we used to pour over salad. There were a few small pieces of pickle in the other small bowl which we didn’t end up eating.
While enjoying the juiciness of this meaty burger, we could taste how similar it was to the burgers back in the U.S. We realized that SKB Burger achieves an authentic American beef taste by how much salt they use when cooking their burgers. Using more salt is an effective way to get more of the beef flavor out of the meat, making a big difference.
The Taiwanese tend to be more health-conscious as they typically use less salt to cook the beef than those in the United States.
It can get messy pretty quickly after you take the flag out, and attempt to take a bite out of it. Luckily, they provide you with a pair of disposable food prep gloves that come with your meals.
The crown of the burger bun comes slightly fried in butter which becomes less puffy when you press it down on the burger. The reason being is it makes it easier to press the crown down to make it fit your biting size.
We loved how pressing down made the cheese slowly ooze out of the croquette and over the burger – what a beautiful and mouth-watering sight!
Chicken Wings Platter ($280)
We also ordered the set of 12 chicken wings which comes with the option to choose two or three different flavors from maple syrup, spicy, and garlic.
As the wings are more about the sauce than the meat itself, we went for all three flavors to try them out.
The spicy wings come coated in a hot ghost chili sauce, we’d say they were a little more than mildly spicy. However, if you wanted the wings to be even hotter, you can ask for some extra spicy sauce as a side dip.
We mostly enjoyed the honey and garlic wings as we struggled to decide which of the two were our favorite.
These chicken wings had a nice crunch to them, and the juicy meat came off the bone easily without them being too greasy.
Mr. Fahrenheit S’more Pie ($200)
There’s nothing quite like a dessert to make a good sweet ending to your meal. Once it arrived at our table, we got to see the waiter douse it in honey whiskey, then light it up on a blue ghostly flame.
There was also get the option to have it doused in cinnamon whiskey, too.
The topping was a thick marshmallow that had been singed by the flame, giving it a lightly toasted taste.
The base was made up of digestive cookies which went very well when eating all three layers together.
What made this super tempting to order in the first place was its 72% chocolate ganache. Surprisingly, it wasn’t as sweet as we imagined.
The chocolate was fairly dense, so we had to slowly carve spoonfuls of solid chocolate out to eat it. The best part was it just melted in our mouths – this was absolute heaven!
The Menu
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Worth visiting?
Overall, we had a great time there. The $380 price tag for a burger isn’t cheap, but it’s pretty standard in Taipei for an authentic American-style option. Considering that, we feel it’s worth it as we left feeling full and extremely satisfied.
The burger joint is also quite spacious with many seats, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding available seating.
While we visited, we saw it’s frequented by locals and foreigners, we even bumped into a few expat friends there.
Will we go back?
Yes! We will most definitely be returning to SKB Burger in the foreseeable future. We’re excited to try even more of their menu next time!
S.K.B BurgerHours: Telephone: 02 2711 1738 Facebook: S.K.B Burger English address: No. 8號, Section 1, Da’an Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106 Chinese address: 106台北市大安區大安路一段8號 Closest MRT: Zhongxiao Fuxing Station, exit 4 |
🗓️ Updated: April, 2021 – Taipei.Expats
