They're all over Taipei, with a couple on the east-side and one right down the street from GF's place. I guess the proximity was sufficient to breed contempt since we've never bothered to try the place due to the ubiquity. But I was over at the GF's and we found out late that her folks weren't bringing dinner back from Hsinchu. Didn't feel like running out some place far for dinner, so we decided it was time to give the chain restaurant a try.
Received the training-ingrained pseudo-Japanese greeting from the service-people upon entering. There were the standard Japanese meal choices such as various stuff-over-rice donburi bowls, ramens and udon noodles, plus some down-home mains like Salisbury steak. The seasonal menu added some zest to the standard menu, which was what we went with. I had the eel+egg donburi and the GF got the spicy egg-flower udon. Also ordered the fried-tofu appetizer, which was a little different than usual since it was coated with a sticky tapioca-starch coating instead of the typical crispy outer coating. The softer skin does allow it to sit in the soy-benito sauce longer without losing integrity and helps to soak up the sauce for flavor.
My rice bowl was covered with the cut up unagi chunks melded with almost-raw scrambled egg to provide extra richness. Mix the runny egg sauce into the warm rice, and it was time to pick up the bowl and shovel. Sure, it's mass-produced food, but it's tasty and filling without being too full of crap. The spicy udon was in an eggy shoyu broth with shrimps for substance. The broth wasn't blazing hot or anything, just a hint of spice reminiscent of kimchee or sansho. The shrimp kinda get overwhelmed by the other flavors, maybe chicken would've worked better.
Azabu Sabo is more known for its desserts, which contained various combinations of shaved ice, soft-serv ice cream, mochi, bean pastes, and syrups. Got the strawberry milk ice, and for once the real thing actually lived up to the plastic window model and more. Shaved ice is a bit painful sometimes because my teeth get sensitive, but the ice cream on top helps to moderate the cold ice, while the crisp coldness of the shaved ice keeps the ice cream from being too rich. A cheap strawberry syrup was added for flavor and color. The artificialness was a bit disappointing, but it was fine in small doses, and the bowl was large enough that just eating the edges was plenty for the both of us and we could leave the syrup-drenched core alone.
NTD750 for all that wasn't cheap, but it's fair enough for a decent sit-down meal in a tastefully decorated space. And it's useful to have a reliable spot for a decent meal or an icy dessert.
Azabu Sabo
麻布茶房
All over the place
Wanted to have a nice meal with the GF on a Saturday night but didn't want to get too extravagant. Olala is a short walk away, and any place known for fois gras is most likely on the upscale side. The restaurant is tucked away in an alley behind the leafy RenAi Rd. thoroughfare, set aback at the base of an residential complex. The dark lighting, generously spaced tables, and the European (but Chinese-speaking) hostess gave the place a Western flavor. Dramatically red walls and an electronica beat for some vibes.
We get the token Chinese waiter, who was competent enough so no problem. No need for the set meal, share a couple of appetizers then a couple of mains, with a glass of fruity red wine. The spinach salad was interesting, garnished with artfully rolls of thinly sliced cucumbers and sprinkled with walnuts and freshly shaved parmesan, dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette. The flavors were well adjusted and the components well-selected, it was just that the spinach itself was a bit disappointing. It was more like late-adolescent spinach rather than baby spinach. Sure do miss the fresh California organic salad greens. The ciabatta-like bread was plenty fresh though, and the dimsum steamer-basket to hold the bread was a cute touch.
Ordered an appetizer portion of the fois gras. The piece of seared goose liver seemed very small on the large plate decorated with a berry sauce, sitting on a round cake of polenta. Took very small bites, which is all one needs to enjoy the rich and juicy fowl innard. The bread helped to soak up any leftover juices. It was good, but it's questionable whether it's that (as in NTD500) good.
No such doubts about the mains, though. GF had scallops in a rich lobster sauce, which looked to be made with lots of cream and butter and one could really taste the lobster essence with a hint of bitterness from the innards. The visible strands of saffron provided the color. The scallops were cooked with respect, the center almost cool to maintain the delicacy. I had the sirloin, generously sliced in a robust but not overpowering wine and mushroom sauce. The meat was nicely medium-rare and one could tell the sauce was made from the meat drippings and juices to maintain the natural flavor. The sirloin was a bit chewy, would've been great if we could get the same preparation on a tender slab of American rib-eye.
Shared a Grand Marnier crepe for dessert, which probably seemed a bit stingy since it was just a couple pieces of flambeed crepe with a small scoop of ice cream on top. Nevertheless, the warm crepe was infused with the orangey flavor of the GM, and the cool vanilla ice cream made for contrast in temperature and texture but perfectly complimentary in flavor. Demonstrates that there's no need to stuff oneself with massive sugar-rush desserts every time out.
Sure, any old place in Paris would be better for the price, but unfortunately one won't always have Paris. Even if there were some small quibbles here and there, the food was done correctly in each case, which is a comforting thing to know.
OLALA法式餐廳
台北市大安區仁愛路4段371號1樓
02-27739577
Mother's Day is one of the busiest days for restaurants around here. This is one of the old stand-bys for us so I've been here a few times before but it's been long enough to not be stale. Got a tableful of relatives to toast grandma and mom. They restaurant was jam-packed so they put us into a private room but partitioned as small as possible. The walls are a little worn and the paint peeling a bit in the corners, but the lighting is good and everything else is clean and still barely nice enough to appear upscale.
The food is your typical banquet food done in Shanghai style. The cold-cut plate featured Drunken Chicken and a sliced pork terrine held together by the gelatin from the meat juices. The chicken was tender with just a bit of alcoholic bite. And how can you not love meat-jello? The salt-pepper stir-fried prawns were huge, but wasn't particularly special in the way of flavor or preparation. The stewed sea cucumber came whole, sitting in a rich brown sauce which was a bit sweet for my taste. One of those dishes guaranteed to scare off any non-Chinese person screaming into the night. Along those lines, the manager was nice enough to offer up a complimentary order of mapo-style stinky tofu for our eating pleasure. I don't get violently ill at the sight of it or anything like that, but stinky tofu is certainly not my favorite Taiwan specialty. Thankfully the cousins managed to make short work of the dish so it could be taken away quickly and not stink up the room when the more delicate dishes arrived.
The shark-fin soup was basically a nice chicken soup with some smaller pieces of fin, which was fine with me since I'm always down for a good chicken broth. Lack of finnage was alright since it's too much of a moral dilemma when I run into one of the super-fancy huge single-fins where one is suppose to impressed by its sheer extravagance, whether in terms of monetary value or in its uncaring cruelty.
It's a lot easier to appreciate the goodness of good old pork fat, and the star of the show was the thick slab of pork belly gently cooked to a rich mahogany sheen. A slice of meat-fat-skin between a flattened 饅頭 steamed-bun with some fresh scallions to cut the fattiness — perfection. Just in case you're not full yet, they wait until the end to bring out the classic Shanghai 小籠包 soup-dumplings. I wish they'd bring them out as appetizers so we can better appreciate the perfectly steamed little pockets of tight, almost al-dente skin and the burst of rich broth and meaty filling inside. Of course you eat one as it is, and one dipped in the ginger-vinegar for the additional zing. The good thing about sending them out late was that I managed to wait until the dumplings cooled a bit so I didn't scald my tongue on the steaming juices when I stuffed the whole dumpling into my mouth, which you really have to do because if you take a small bite the juices all leak out and what's the point of that?
All in all it was your well-done Chinese banquet, with the addition of a freakin' fantastic Bordeaux red courtesy of uncle's cellar. Portion was just enough to stuff one to the gills without bursting. Even had room for a peach-shaped bean-paste sweet bun in the end. And all for just a bit over NTD1K per person, so pretty good value, too.
悅上海<
台北市大安區敦化南路2段57號
02-27001949
Was in the mood for some Italian food but was tired of the cheap pasta places. Have been to the Osteria Rialto near SYS Memorial Hall, which was plenty good enough food-wise, but really a bit too expensive for what you get and probably full on a Saturday night anyway. Remembered that Rialto had a sister restaurant nearby in the Neo19 complex at a lower price point to appeal to the younger crowd in the area. The Warner Village, Mitsukoshi, Neo19 area usually is even more crowded with people, but the movie dinner crowd had thinned a bit by the time we got there so we were able to get a table without waiting.
The ceiling was typical unadorned industrial piping and the furniture was sparely modern, but the room was shaped with curvy walls and warmly lit with a big chandelier in the middle to add a touch of class. The kitchen was visible behind the bar and allowed the smell of freshly baking pizza to waft out into the room.
The Evian-for-30-bucks they push in your face was a bit off-putting but not that big a deal in the greater scheme of things. The combo meal addition of bread, salad, drink, and dessert for an extra NTD220 didn't feel worthwhile when the mains were in the 300-450 range. Decided to split a bruschetta appetizer instead. Three slices of Italian bread with a creamy tuna-cheese sauce (like at Herbs), a creamy pesto, and a fresh tomato-olive. The bread should've been toasted a bit to officially count as a bruschetta per se, but it still managed to carry the toppings well. Tomatoes are good right now, so that was the favorite, although the sauce-toppings were tasty, too.
GF ordered the Spinach-Bacon Pizza. Since that's a good-sized medium pizza and a bit more food than one normal Chinese girl will eat, I just ordered a simple pasta with meat sauce to share as a change of pace. The pasta was thick strands of perfectly al dente hand-made noodles, taking advantage of the sourcing availability of a high-end restaurant group. Wasn't all that impressed with the ragu, though, as the taste bore a disconcerting resemblance to the lunch-line spaghetti from the old middle school cafeteria. Maybe I just don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but it's no Olivetto, that's for sure.
The pizza, on the other hand, was just about perfect. Italian-style thin crust with edges blistered from the hot oven, cooked just enough to wilt the baby spinach and cook the bacon. The bacon was lean enough to not make it greasy, although smokey pork fat was certainly an important flavor component. The spinach cancels the saturated fat in the nutritional self-justification calculus. I think it may be the best pizza I've had in Taiwan, not that there's been a whole lot of competition. Only downside was that it got a bit heavy once it cooled down and the fat congealed. Not that it stopped me from taking the leftover cold pizza to work as lunch the next day. I should really push to have a microwave put in.
Service was competent and quick enough. Only thing I noticed was that the pizza platter was unheated, which was too bad because the heavy ceramic would've held the heat and kept the pie warm for a long time. Still, a good choice for a good-casual meal with a date or friends. Now if they only did pizza delivery we'd be all set.
里朵義大利餐館
Osteria Lido
台北市信義區松壽路22號2樓
(Neo19 Building)
02-2758-7868