Indian Fans
Yokohama Station
Sababa
Sweetberry &
Little South Gate at
BREEZE at TAIPEI MAIN STATION
3, BeiPing W Rd, 2F
(02) 6632-8999
website: breezecenter.com Chinese only
hours: 10 AM - 10 PM
$-$$
Kid friendliness: lots of options, relatively new and clean.
Visit reviewed: 2/22/2008
If you're looking for a casual place with something for everyone, or you don't have a lot of time but want to have a tasting menu of Taipei eateries, you should head to Breeze at Taipei Main Station. And with all the MRT lines going through the Main Station, you could stop by before you head home or off to your destination.
Essentially, it's a GIANT, full circle food court, with four main sections filled with lots of familiar eateries- Taiwan "Night Market" Chinese food; desserts/bakeries; Curries, and even a whole food court of eight different beef noodle soups shops to choose from. I guess you could have your own Iron Chef tasting if you wanted to. I'll have to give that a try next time.
When we went, we walked around the whole thing to see what our options were, and then settled on trying out the section that seemed to be where all the non-Chinese/foreign options were- curry from Indian Fans, Sababa chicken pitas and Yokohama Station's fried pork tonkatsu and omelette rice.
The Plata Sababa was reliably tasty (with hummus and roasted eggplant) and I introduced Sababa to my friend who enjoyed it. (Although I think the prices at Main Station are slightly higher than their other locations (maybe because of rent) or maybe they raised prices overall?)
The bite of omelette rice and tonkatsu I had were forgettable.
For some reason, my friend got some food from Indian Fans.The flatbread from Indian Fans didn't even look like naan, and the curry was watered down. I usually love Indian food, but the offerings on menu were not appealing to me- it seemed more adjusted to Taiwan flavors. I didn't see any tikka masala or saffron rice. This old Taipei Times article reinforces my gut reaction about the place. I'd rather eat at the other mall court staple, Indian Palace.
There is a lot of seating for each section with wooden benches and you can even take your food from one section to the next if you really want to eat something different from your family/friends.
Of course, you have to save room for dessert.
The desserts section is a white, brightly lit mod area with options like Xiao Nan Men (Little South Gate) do-hwa, Meet Fresh, Pinkberry knock off Sweetberry, Beard Papa or Oishii cream puffs, Movenpick, Mr. Donut, or various bakeries. There's also Starbucks or Mr. Brown coffee if you need a caffeine burst.
The pink and green branding of Sweetberry was just TOO similar to Pinkberry to not be a shameless knockoff. See the same shades of pink and green and similar font in exhibit number 1 from dessertbuzz.com! It's laughable that they even made the logo pretty much the same (but it's a heart). I guess since no one has heard of Pinkberry here, they thought they could get away with it. But I have!
The expensive price for the extremely small portion (NT$80) and even smaller portion of fruit was a big disappointment. The flavor was appropriately tart (like Pinkberry) and yogurt-like, but I was shocked at the lack of strawberries. I'd stick to the Xiao Nan Men do-hwa or soy tofu custard. If you want frozen yogurt in Taipei, then you'll have to head over to Yogurt Me.
Next time, I'd like to try Minder Vegetarian restaurant and some of the other desserts as well as the Beef Noodle Soup (Niao Rou Mien) section.
View Larger Map
8 comments:
this breeze center is awesome! i find myself there a lot because a bunch of my relatives live near there.
I highly recommend the Minder Vegetarian! It's pricier than other vegetarian buffets but it is really good. Stuff is really fresh, instead of sitting there all day.
The Niu Rou Mian section has GREAT niu rou juan bing (牛肉捲餅）from several vendors.
Yokohama station is definitely not good!! i was expecting the tomato fried rice inside the omelet and it was just plain old white rice! and the egg was so thin i might as well have just gotten a plate of white rice. The place next door to the left is better. pricier though. you get what you pay for i guess.
Eh! what a gorgeous looking plate of Hummus and Falafel :O
Looks terrific.
Minder vegetarian is a favorite of mine. There are vegetarian dishes and also piece by piece food items (a lot of things made with taro which I really appreciate). You can also order dishes that aren't displayed in the buffet, including individual pizza pies!
hellobeebs: hi! cool! i will definitely have to take my mom there and check out the niu rou mien and juan bing. What else is good near Taipei Main station?
fili: yeah, you don't know how happy i am to eat good hummus in Taipei.
sera: wow, definitely making me want to check out Minder! I'm not crazy about taro, but my mom loves it. did you go to Mindong yet?
i've frequented breeze center, and can recommend the pho place by minder, the one in the center is pretty overpriced and unsavory. the dun hua pho hoa still ranks at the top of my list.
I can also recommend the japanese sushi place in the center. the grilled fish bottom is "GREAT" it honesty breaks off in tender strands and is worth the 200NT. Their sushi selection is wide, and you can choose certain types of fish from different regions depending on your tastes.
PS> the National Taiwan University B1 restaurant also has a small south gate desert shop and a vegetarian buffet, that i'm sure no one has evered ventured
Mmm xiao nan men's dou hua is so good! I get it every time I head to 101. I also got a chance to have Movenpick in Taiwan and it's become my favourite.
Good Job! :)
Thanks for blogging about this place. I almost forgot about it and did go check it out during my last visit January of this year. Upstairs is huge and there are tons of varieties. Best food court I've seen, only I think Taipei 101 food court has a bit more variety. There are a lot of shops that sell Japanese eats and snacks, many of them didn't like me taking photos :-/
Post a Comment