吃飯了嗎？

Wendel's German Bistro

SO's cousins wanted to treat us to a meal in exchange for going out of our way in Italy to bring back Prada goodies for them. They chose the well-known German bakery and restaurant in Tianmu. A leafy courtyard provided a calm buffer to the main dining room, lit with a mix of natural light from the full-wall windows and a few well-placed spotlights. Tables were set with burgundy and white real tableclothes, well-spaced and fully occupied with families out for a Sunday brunch or foreigners looking for a taste of home.

The menu featured a good selection of German-European standards, and some good-looking breakfast specials. The ladies went nuts and between the six of us ordered six entrees, three with the set-meal extras, and tossed in a mixed-sausage platter on top. The food was almost American in the portion size, but we actually managed to clean the plates, give or take some of the sides. The bread deserved a special mention, too, not surprising considering the place started as a bakery. A basket of various slices of legitimate European-style bread. The mixed-grain was especially fragrant and tasty after a quick toasting.

The rundown:

• I got the Hungarian Pork Goulash which came with spaetzl and a surprising decent green salad as sides. It's recommended as chef's favorite home recipe and the dish did have its homey charm, a simple meat stew colored deep red by paprika. Did find the pork a tiny bit on the dry side, though.
• Perhaps I should've just gone with wienerschnitzel which is my default option for Germanic restaurants. SO's sister did get the jagerschnitzel, which is just the same port cutlet pan-fried with a mushroom sauce instead of breaded and fried. The naked port cutlet was a bit dry, too, but the rich gravy helped. Probably easier to keep the thin, lean slice of pork meat with breading and frying instead.
• Pig's feet has always been considered a delicacy in Chinese cuisine, so it's not surprising that the rustic German-style pig knuckle has become a popular dish here, perhaps more so than its original homeland. A big chunk of pork feet, bone-in and slow-roasted to crisp the skin and render out the fat, which bastes the meat to make it rich and moist.
• I usually pass on sirloin steaks since they're usually just there to offer a cheaper alternative to the good cuts of meat. Wendel's treats it right, though, grilled perfectly medium rare and smothered with good gravy and fresh-fried onions. Would've totally taken it over my own main had I known since it's not easy to get a good steak around here.
• The SO wanted something a bit lighter, and she likes pesto, so she chose the salmon fillet with creamy pesto sauce. A thick slab simply pan-fried and drizzled with the green cream sauce for flavor. Nothing fancy but the portion was generous, and the stuffed sweet pepper side was interesting. Roasted potatoes aren't interesting, but still tasty.
• So that was an entree for each of us (one of the cousins got the goulash, too), but how can you go to a German restaurant and not have a sausage, so we ordered an assorted sausage platter. The platter contained good mix of red and white sausages with sauerkraut, and yellow mustard for condiments, and a big mound of mashed potatoes on the side. Despite a mostly female audience and the American-sized entrees, we still managed to carve up and finish off the additional plate of meat. And tasty meat it was.
• We ordered three set meal combos added to the entrees, which got us additional soup, salad, and dessert to share amongst us. The green salad wasn't anything special but the veggies were fresh and refreshing in the face of the heavy mains. The mushroom cream soup had good chunks of shrooms and wasn't too salty which is about as much you can ask for from these deals. The dessert plate was a good piece of blueberry coffee cake with a scoop of mango ice cream on the side, so even with half portions it was plenty for each of us to have a good bit of sweets to end the meal.

All in all it was on the expensive side of the value line, but hey I wasn't paying. There were plenty of horror stories about poor service on the net but we were served at least adequately, although perhaps not quite up to a level consistent with the decor and pricing. Unfortunately we were off to do other things otherwise I would've loved to have picked up some pastries and breads at the bakery counter to take home, too.

溫德德式烘焙餐館
Wendel's German Bakery and Bistro
台北市士林區德行西路5號
02-28314592

富士日式鐵板燒

Went by the Breeze Center to check out the new Dean & Deluca there. Wasn't about to actually buy anything there, though, so we still needed to find a place to eat. Wanted something a bit nicer than the standard basement food-court fare but wasn't looking for a formal dining experience or anything like that. So the sit-down teppanyaki place off the side of the food-court was a good in-between option.

The pricing definitely encourages one to go with one of the standard set-meals-for-two, which makes sense given the teppan chefs are busy enough as it was during the dinner rush. The filet option was a bit too spendy, but the sirloin stir-fry ended up being pretty good. The set meal offered a nice variety of meat, seafood, and veggies. Not high-end materials, but well-chosen and prepared well. To be honest the veggies was probably my favorite as the high-heat teppan really brings out the sweetness in the cabbage and bean sprouts.

富士日式小火鍋/鐵板燒
微風廣場 B1
Breeze Center B1
台北市復興南路一段39號

Bellini Pasta

According to people who'd know, Mother's Day the busiest day for restaurants around here. So there we were on the day before before mother's day, and all the restaurants were swamped with lines out the door. Our lost wanderings took us over to the Vieshow movie theater, formerly known as the XinYi Warner Village. Typically the Bellini's inside the theater is one of the busiest places in the area as it's ideally placed for a decent meal before the show if you wanted something a step up from the food court. But I guess moms don't go for Italian and there was a lull anyway as we were there just after the 8pm showings started, so there were plenty of good seats available.

Bellini is a mid-priced chain out of Japan, serving Nippon-ified Italian food, probably with a further bit of Taiwan-ification thrown into the local incarnation. The salads looked interesting, with dressing drizzled over an entire heart of romaine, but we didn't feel like a big meal, so we just ordered soup and pasta. The cream of mushroom soup was fairly tasty without being too salty.

The place is known for its large portions, so we decided to order the two-pasta combo of two half-portions instead. Decided to go with the distinctly Japanese-influenced choice of Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce over Tonkatsu, and Spaghetti with Yuzu Mentaiko and Calamari, with a light mound of nori strips on top for that final Oriental touch. The tonkatsu was nice and juicy and let's face it breaded-and-fried meat will go with just about anything. The marinara was a bit sweet for my tastes but that's how the Japanese/Taiwanese like it. The calamari was tender and the cream sauce wasn't bad. I found the mentaiko made the sauce a bit too fishy for me. Although the addition of preserved fish roe into pasta is actually not inauthentic, being similar to the Sardinian bottarga.

Wanted a light meal so no desserts or anything like that, but did splurge for the refillable lemonade. The lemonade tasted fresh and lemony, but for some reason they decided to color it blue. Why mess with fresh lemonade? Unless it wasn't that fresh? Regardless, the citric acid provided a zing to keep the pasta from getting cloying.

Bellini Pasta Pasta (Vieshow Theaters)
110台北市信義區松壽路16號2樓
(other locations)
02-27586096

宮崎日本料理

We had May Day off but the SO working at the government agency didn't. So decided to meet her near her office for lunch. 宮崎 is down the block, a narrow bi-level space with the sushi bar and kitchen on the bottom floor and tables upstairs. Not luxurious, but well-worn and comfortable, except I was sitting right under the AC vent wearing a T-shirt. A group of oba-sans and a couple groups of biz-lunchers already occupied most of the small space so it was good that the SO went over first to get a table.

Good thing the SO gets 1.5 hours for lunch. Perfect for a couple of lunch specials. Paid for one 100 NTD supplemental of good sashimi and a gobo-yamaimo (牛蒡山藥) hand-roll. Both lunches came with miso soup, chawanmushi, and half a grilled fish. The chawanmushi was flavored with small fish instead of scallops and shrimps found in the fancier places, but the warm, delicate egg custard was just as good. The grilled fish was just cooked and perfectly moist with little salt instead of the usual salt-grilled, drier style.

SO had the unagi-don as the main. Not a huge portion but plenty for her. The eel was meaty enough and the sauce was different than the usual, more gingery and less sweet. I had the soft-shell crab which was a whole crab halved, breaded, and fried, seated on a crab-roe sauce. Gobbled it down shell and all, and fried gobo added to the crunchy goodness. A slice of pineapple and green-tea mousse finished off the meal.

The meal offered a variety of distinctive but not overpowering flavors and textures. Perfectly portioned for a leisurely lunch. Bill was under 800 NTD. An excellent value, in my opinion.

宮崎日本料理
台北市中山區中山北路1段57號之3
02-25638711