888 Sizzling - Calamvale

Those of you who have been in Brisbane for more than a couple of years might remember David's Sizzling, specialising in Taiwanese hot plate steak. They started out in Little Taipei, later moving off to their own shopfront when that food court closed before eventually closing down, leaving a gigantic hot plate sized hole in my heart. Clearly there is still a demand for Taiwanese sizzling steak in Brisbane though, because when 888 Sizzling opened up in Calamvale, wait times for a seat were allegedly up to two hours. Not wanting to wait for that long, we headed there for lunch on a weekday when I last had a day off work.

Luckily for us, there was no queue and other than two tables, the place was empty. We were seated very promptly by the friendly waitress and provided menus. 

Although we were undeniably there for the sizzling dishes, there was also a variety of rice and noodle dishes. I was particularly interested in trying out the beef noodle soup which sounded spectacular. Something to come back for I guess. Having made our minds up, I ordered and paid at the counter. 

Perhaps it was due to the fact that the weren't many customers on the day but the restaurant was very speedy in preparing our meals and soon we had the familiar sizzle of a steak in front of us. 

Dr L opted for mushroom sauce, cooked medium. It came served with an egg, spaghetti and some veggies. The steak was allegedly 250g but it was sizeable and filling. Given it was roughly 1cm thick, I dont think that it really was cooked medium as there wasn't a hint of pink in the meat. Nevertheless it was not tough nor chewy but wonderfully tender. Before coming, we had read some reviews of the mushroom sauce being on the sweet side, this was not our experience and he said it reminded him a lot of home.

I went for the superior choice of pepper sauce, cooked rare. Again the steak was a bit too thin to tell but I think there was a hint of pinkness to my beef. It was tender and flavoursome, especially with the zing of peppercorns. The portion of spaghetti provided was also fairly generous and there was enough sauce to accompany it for flavour. I don't really have much to add about the veggies, the carrots and peas were of the frozen variety and broccoli was just boiled. All round it was a solid meal for $28 and as good as the night markets in Taiwan.

We also had a serve of Taiwanese fried chicken as a snack. For $12 the portion was a little bit smaller than I would have liked, but the chicken was well seasoned with salt and pepper and had a delicious coating of potato starch leaving it crispy but not oily. We deeply relished our meal at 888 Sizzling, I would say that it is one of the most authentic Taiwanese restaurants available in Brisbane right now and will definitely be back for some of their noodle options or maybe another sizzling dish.

Price Range: $25 - $35pp

Taste: 7.5/10

Value:  7/10

Service: 8/10

Environment: 6/10