The Taipei Idee department store is near GF's workplace and it's along the same MRT line I take from work, so it makes for a convenient place to get together on a weekday. It's convenient for lots of other people, too, especially on a Friday night. Didn't do my research beforehand so we wandered about for a while but nothing caught the eye, so we ended up back inside Idee. Of course, all the restaurants were full, but the GF's been to Turandot before for lunch with co-workers and liked it okay, so we we left a cell phone number and had some time to wander around the store before they called us in.
A mirrored wall on one side makes the space seems larger than it is, dark red curtains adds a dramatic element. Nevertheless the entire side is open to the store so the noise filters in, plus I had my back up against a cosmetics counter. An open kitchen helps to assure that everything is on the up-and-up.
GF's green salad was the typical goop-on-iceberg, but my calamari salad was actually very interesting. Thick chunks of squid on real greens (albeit a bit limp), with a warm bacon-onion dressing. Pig fat always makes things tasty. Cream-of-mushroom soup had plenty of mushroom chunks in it but not quite the amount of flavor that would imply. Liked the bacon theme so much that I got the spicy bacon-and-shrimp angel hair. GF had the salmon-cream pasta. A few Thai red chilis gave the spicy pasta some serious heat. The bacon is rich enough to stand up to the heat, but the shrimps kinda get overwhelmed by the other ingredients. The salmon seems to be smoked which was an interesting twist to that dish. Both pastas would've been quite good except they were way too dry, such that the noodles were sticking in lumps. The problem could've easily been fixed with a couple of tablespoons of pasta-cooking water. The fact it wasn't showed that the people in the kitchen were drones cooking to a formula and not real chefs. Which wasn't a surprise, really, but the formula would've been good if they'd just followed through.
Split a desert which was a mutant fruit tart where the tart shell was filled with sponge cake instead of pastry cream, plus a cream puff on top. It was okay, but at least it was a different kind of okay.
So it ended up about average, but with potential to be better. GF said lunch was less crowded which would help. There must be better alternatives nearby, though, and we'll be better prepared next time.
杜蘭朵 (Turandot Pasta)
104台北市中山區南京西路15號B1樓 (衣蝶S館地下室)
02-25675225