organic/western: i recommend NONZERO

NONZERO
N0.5, Alley 4, Lane27, Ren-Ai Road, Sec. 4
(02) 2772-1630

hours: 11:30AM - 2:30 PM，6:00PM - 10:00 PM

$$

Kid friendliness: one large table with bench style seating with smaller table/seating around. no high chairs but room for strollers.

Visit reviewed: 11/16/2007

Argh! I hate rewriting something that I've already written, trying to make it the same which is impossible. My computer froze and the alledged blogger autodraft failed me. Miserably. So here goes my attempt #2 at Nonzero.

Organic foods and restaurants are part of the latest trend in being healthy and treating our bodies right, and Taipei is no exception. I've heard about a few other organic restaurants and even home delivery services, but the first time I heard of Nonzero was when we went. Nonzero's menu is not huge, but offers a few options for salads, appetizers, pastas and grilled meats in English and Chinese. I imagine it's quite seasonal like most organic based restaurants. We got the set menu which included soup, daily special and dessert for about NT$550.

It's also a bright cool space with a huge rectangular wooden table with family style seating with a few typical tables on teh side. There is also a small take-home shopping area in the back of fresh vegetables and such. Our friends who introduced us to Nonzero said their brunch is also quite good. They also had fresh bread (with raisins. ick) and olive oil before the food came as well as some homegrown raisins on the stem (double ick. Can you tell I don't like raisins).

I loved the hearty vegetable soup which was light and flavorful, as well as the ala carte sweet roasted peppers salad (NT$180).



I also thought my friend's seafood creme linguine (changed to vegetarian) was creamy but not heavy and my own roasted chicken was too dry with slightly underseasoned sauteed mushrooms.




The set menu also came with a grilled pear which was not too sweet.



Maybe I did feel a little bit healthier after lunch. Don't know how the other grilled meats turn out based on my disappointing chicken. I could definitely go again for soup and salad since great fresh salads seem to be hard to find in Taipei, and maybe check out brunch. Sometimes you can only take enough of the watered down cream soups that seem to be so popular as part of set menus in Taipei (you know what I'm talking about?)