The last piece was about the rules. This one is about time.
Jotong’s night is not one bar; it is four legs. Each has the hour it belongs to, and walk them in the wrong order and you spend the same money but tire twice as fast. Below they run by the clock; every bar comes from the Zhongshan bar and izakaya list, and for the ones not on it — if you cannot read the sign, do not go in.
19:30, round one: eat, and make sure you get a seat
Round one has a single job: fill the stomach. Walk into Jotong empty and you will be down before eleven.
Lane 119, Linsen North Road is the densest of the lanes. 串藏燒鳥居酒屋 at No. 23 has a thousand-plus reviews and a 4.8, and counter seats only if you are there before 7:30; to skip the queue, head for Lane 145, where 最高 居酒屋 at No. 27, four hundred-odd reviews and a 4.7, serves the same skewers with half the line. For something Western, R77餐酒館 Bistro & Bar at No. 77, Lane 119 has eleven hundred-odd reviews and a 4.7 and a long drinks list — for anyone planning to open the drinking on round one.
Budget NT$500–800 a head. Do not order too much alcohol on this leg; there are three more to go.
21:30, round two: Jotong’s main event
Nine-thirty to eleven-thirty is the feature presentation.
7th Japanese Bar at 2F, No. 47, Lane 119, Linsen North Road has four hundred and fifty-odd reviews and a 4.8 — a Japanese-style counter, NT$300–450 a glass, and an owner who remembers what regulars drink. 酒點見Talking bar at No. 80, Lane 133, six hundred and eighty-odd reviews and a full five stars, has its purpose in its name: talking. Bar 千華 at No. 55, Lane 159, a hundred and ten-odd reviews and a 4.7, is deeper in the lane with fewer seats — go in a party of two or fewer.
The table-fee bars also come on stage in this leg, at NT$700–1,500 a set; the rules were covered in the Jotong advanced guide and will not be repeated. One addition only: do not switch bars more than twice on round two. Every switch opens a new tab, and that is how the money drains away.
23:30, round three: past midnight, the kind of bar changes
The small Japanese bars close one after another; anyone still drinking goes one of two ways.
One is Lane 85, Linsen North Road, at the Chang’an East Road end, heading south. 酒宮閣BAR at No. 40 has three hundred and fifty-odd reviews and a 4.9; 8528 Music Bar 不限時調酒暢飲 at No. 28, two hundred and twenty reviews and a 4.6, says the whole system in its name — one price, drink until you leave — right for a big table that does not want to do arithmetic.
The other is Shuangcheng Street, Jotong’s side line, about eight minutes on foot from Linsen North Road. 千曲卡拉OK at No. 18, Lane 19, Shuangcheng Street, a hundred and fifty-odd reviews, runs the old-style song-hall way; quiet on weeknights, rooms easy to get. Smile bar at No. 13, Lane 32, Shuangcheng Street, three hundred-odd reviews and a 4.9, is one of the last lights still on around here — closing time as posted on site.
Friday and Saturday, both directions fill up. Monday to Wednesday is, oddly, the most comfortable time for round three.
01:00, closing: a massage within walking distance
Linsen North Road is itself the place to close. 太都足體養生館SPA & Massage-台北中山林森北養生館 at 2F, No. 17, Lane 310 has a thousand-plus reviews and a 4.9, about ten minutes on foot from Lane 119; further north, 真功夫足體養生館 at 2F, No. 428, three hundred-odd reviews and a 4.9; 足之旅養生會館 at No. 608, two hundred-odd reviews and a 4.9, is the last stop toward Minquan East Road. Forty minutes of foot work runs around NT$600; some shops add a late-night surcharge, so go by the counter price list. The rest are in Zhongshan massage and spa.
After the massage, you are sober.
Getting home is the thing to think about first, not last
Last MRT trains run around midnight: MRT Zhongshan is at No. 16, Nanjing West Road, about ten minutes on foot from Lane 119; MRT Zhongshan Elementary School is at No. 69, Minquan East Road Section 1, close to the Shuangcheng Street end, about eight minutes. After midnight it is cabs and designated drivers only — Linsen North Road has cars all night, no need to book, just stand at the kerb and hail one.
If you rode a scooter, leave it and collect it tomorrow at noon. Nobody past round three should be touching a steering wheel.
The four legs together come to NT$2,500–4,000 a person; how many times you switch bars on round two decides which end you land on. Winter in Jotong is easier walking than summer — no hot air from the air-conditioner units in the lanes — and December to February weekends draw the biggest crowds. The whole district’s night is in the Zhongshan guide.