HUNGRYINTAIPEI RESTAURANT ROUNDUP- SUMMER/SEPTEMBER 2012

HUNGRYINTAIPEI SUMMER/SEPTEMBER 2012 RESTAURANT ROUND UP

I can eat faster than I can blog, so here's a little catch up on the restaurant news around Taipei.

OPENED

-Opened just in the past month+, BARRITO and JUANITA are the two newest ventures into the Taipei burrito wars. Barrito is a countertop for take away orders only, at ATT 4 Fun, and open late for club hoppers, while Juanita takes a page from Chipotle and offers barbacoa beef and fresh guacamole (for those of you missing the now defunct OOLA).

-A very new place with crazy word of mouth, DRESSED serves up salads, sandwiches and smoothies and plenty of greens (and arugula!) for those tired of iceberg lettuce with shreds of carrot atop as salad.

-Quite possibly my favorite cupcakes in town now, LES BEBES CUPCAKERY is adorable from its shop to its packaging to its mini cupcakes. The peanut butter chocolate cupcake is crazy good.

-Cupcake fans can also find cupcakes at TRINE AND ZEN by SUPERBAKED with classic Flavors as well as special flavors like red velvet and cassis. My favorite is the carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

-If you can keep track, the mango ice shop at the address 15 Yong Kang St. is now owned and run by SMOOTHIE HOUSE, not to be confused with shut down YONG KANG 15 or ICE MONSTER. Or maybe the tourists are supposed to be confused.

-The pastrami sandwiches from 1 BITE 2 GO look promising- one day I'll make it out to Shihlin to try them.

-NCIS SUSHI moved its digs to the popular Zhongxiao/Dunhua area and closed its Shida location.

-LONGTABLE is a little off the radar with its Xinyi location in the same office building as DN Innovacion, but offers a brunch and Western menu in a spacious dining space perfect for large groups.

-MASALA HOUSE reopened in a new location in July.

-Did you even know there was cajun style seafood (ala The Boiling Crab) in Taipei? The places I knew about- BOILING SEAFOOD and SPICY ALLEY- are now both closed.

-Mostly cafe, with a side of vintage shop, LOVE LOVELY is certainly lovely to linger in and has some bright spots on the menu like mojito smoothies, truffle fries, apple dutch baby and grilled short rib steaks.

-YOPPI FROYO at  A4 Foodcourt, taking over HAAGEN DAAZ's spot. Froyo TUTTI FRUTTI also replaced HIELO at A8 Foodcourt.

-DAN RYAN's opened at Xinyi Mistukoshi A9 and closed its longtime Dunhua location

-TARTINE BAKERY opened up a satellite location at A8 foodcourt in September

-New udon shop FU YU WU SANUKI UDON near LAO YO JI and Dunhua Sogo

-A couple of other newly opened restaurants on the radar include PIG AND PEPPER and CUT & BITE NO. 6

CLOSED

-I heard CALIFORNIA GRILL closed its remaining location on Yong Kang St. Kind of sad to hear, too many burger places now to compete with probably.

-Shida lost RABBIT RABBIT and 1885 BURGER over the summer (while Macho Tacos still holding on despite the neighboring  negativity complete with huge signs plastering all over residential buildings). But don't worry, 1885 Burger reopened on Civic Blvd with shiny new digs.

-PAPA POULET closed its Tianmu location expecting to move to another location, but ended up in limbo and no shop. Another one I kept wanting to try, heard the rotisserie chicken was delish.

-SKINNY TAJ PIZZA in A8 Shin Kong Mitsukoshi is gone, as well as INDIAN PALACE at A4 Mitsukoshi. But in the same place at A4's food court is CAFE INDIA. Total revamp of owners and chefs or just a name change?

-I-BAKED closed its remaining Guangfu branch, but cookies can still be ordered online.

-Budget tonkatsu restaurant KITARO closed their DaAn Road branch.

What did I miss? Please add new restaurants or restaurant news in the comments!