Chinatown’s Seasons Glows Up: Now It’s Fully a Taiwanese Eatery

Photo: Martha Cheng

The spice level at Seasons runs from 1 to 5, but if you request anything more than a 2, the server will talk you out of it. She and my friend went back and forth for a bit: “But I really, really love spicy foods,” my friend insisted. “I eat them all the time!” The server was adamant. And when the Taiwanese popcorn chicken came, we were glad she stood her ground—the five-spice-dusted fried chicken heaped with Thai basil, also fried so crisp you can eat them like chips (and you will), tingled and burned just enough. 

This is the new Seasons, bigger, and yes, bolder. What used to be Seasons Ice and Eatery, primarily a Taiwanese shaved ice and boba tea shop—which owner Brian Wang says was the first when it opened about 30 years ago—is now Seasons Taiwanese Eatery, expanded into a space across from Legend Seafood Restaurant at the Chinatown Cultural Plaza. There are now three types of beef noodle soups—Chef’s Special Spicy Broth, Retro Spicy Broth and Classic Beef Broth—with a thicker, rounder noodle than before, a much preferred match for the soups, which are more multi-dimensional than I remember.

Wang says his mom had first opened the shop to give his dad something to do and dumbed down the recipes for him. When Wang took over the business six years ago, his mom gave him the original recipes. 

Photo: Martha Cheng

The retro spicy is like the Taiwanese beef noodle soup most people know, warmed with star anise and cinnamon, spiced with a house-made chile sauce and topped with pickled mustard cabbage. The Chef’s Special is where Wang takes liberties, combining his “three favorite beef noodle styles,” he says: Taiwanese, Sichuanese and Vietnamese. The base is a traditional Taiwanese beef broth, slicked with Sichuan peppercorn oil, which lends a citrusy perfume along with mala, and topped with Thai basil and bean sprouts, a fresh touch borrowing from pho.

Wang decided to take over his parent’s shop after a career in personal banking and law school in Sichuan. His time in Sichuan is why there are Sichuan-style dishes on the menu, like  the dumplings in a sweet, spicy and tangy sauce. But Wang also worked in kitchens in Taiwan for about a year when he decided to run the restaurant—he’s introduced dishes less known outside of Taiwan, like oxtail in a black pepper sauce, duck blood tofu stir-fried with chives and pork intestine with pickled cabbage, displays of Taiwan’s whole animal eating. 

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The Taiwanese food most people know in the U.S. has roots in the mid-20th century of Taipei, when the Kuomintang fled mainland China to Taiwan and brought their recipes with them (including beef noodle soup). Wang was born in Taipei, but his parents are from Taitung, which has preserved an older style of food, one of boiled greens topped with a pork sauce (think of it as Taiwanese bolognese) and a similar pork sauce over rice. This can make the menu feel disjointed, and it’s hard to know where to start. But begin with the popcorn chicken and beef noodle soups (any of them), and then choose your own path, as Wang did.

Dishes about $10 to $20, BYOB.

100 N. Beretania St. Suite 109, (808) 744-0272, seasonseateryhi.com, seasons_taiwanese_eatery