Y.Y.'s Kitchen & Steak House must hold claim to being one of the oldest Western restaurants in Taiwan. While the exterior of the restaurant my look nothing special - even a bit off-putting - the interior reminded me of the country-style steak houses I used to eat at in England.

Rich wooden panels cover the walls, crests of arms front the bar, deer heads look out from the walls, and dim lights and soft music complete the cozy, country inn feel. Owner Y.Y. Lee, now 68, has been cooking to Western palates for 46 years. Trained in the school of self-taught, Y.Y. clearly recalls his days as personal cook to the U.S. top brass stationed in Taiwan between the 1950s to '70s, including the U.S. Joint Chief of Staff. 

He was also cook to a former U.S. ambassador to Taiwan, as well as with the Argentine Embassy - his last job before starting up us own restaurant. "They used to love my steaks so much that they requested them three times a week," recalls Y.Y. After opening Y.Y.'s Kitchen & Steak House in the Chungshan N. Road district, business was so good that unless you made a reservation weeks in advance, you had little hope of getting a table. 

Former ROC President Chiang Ching-kuo, and Madam Chiang were regular customers, along with numerous politicians and celebrities. The night I dropped in, a couple of politicians were having a late dinner. Y.Y. says his restaurant has stood the test of time by holding to the simple philosophy that good steaks don't have to be drowned in sauces and that they don't have to be expensive.

"When I'm cooking steaks, I don't use any fancy sauces that destroy the taste of the steak -- just salt and pepper," he says. "And I only use U.S. prime and choice steaks - U.S. beef is the best." His secret seasoning is a specially prepared brew of salt, pepper, soy-sauce, ginger and garlic, which if left in a pot between three to six months to brew.

I ordered a T-bone, a massive 24 oz. porterhouse, served sizzling on a hotplate. Watching Y.Y. cook -- his open grill is next to the bar -- he first trims excess fat off the meat and fries it on the grill to create a rich, beefy oil which gives the steaks that extra bit of taste. 

Just before putting the steak on the grill, Y.Y. just dips it in his secret mix, and that's all the preparation your steak will see. The result is a unique taste, which your tastebuds quickly become addicted to.

My medium-rare steak was falling off the bone, and the quick dip in the sauce drew out the taste of the beef, but if I hadn't had seen him dip the beef in the sauce, wouldn't have been able to tell that it was even on, so light was the taste. accompanied by a baked potato with knob of butter and string beans, it was deliciously simple cooking at its best.

For starters, I had a salad and onion soup. Suspiciously sweet, I asked Y.Y. if he'd added sugar, and assured me that he uses not one grain of sugar. Every day, he fries sacks of onions until near black and then drains off the onion juice which is his basic onion stock. 

"Lots of people ask me if I put sugar in my onion soup," he says. "But the onion is actually already sweet. All I do is take out all of its juice, it's as simple as that." 

Simplicity is what good cooking is all about, and Y.Y.'s steaks are simply delicious. Most steaks at Y.Y's are around the NT$1,100 mark, with the most expensive being just under NT$1,500. 

For the Jewish community in Taipei, the restaurant also sells kosher meat.