afternoon tea: JADE LOUNGE at MANDARIN ORIENTAL TAIPEI

JADE LOUNGE at 
MANDARIN ORIENTAL TAIPEI

No. 158, DunHua N Rd, Songshan District
(02) 2715-6888

MRT: Taipei Arena or Nanjing Fuxing

website: Jade Lounge facebook page

$$$ (about NT$1300/person + 10% service charge)

Visit reviewed: 2/6/2017

[TAIPEI- SONGSHAN] First thing you should know if you are meeting someone for afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental in Taipei is which part of the hotel you are meeting at. It was almost comedic trying to find my friend while I wandered the marbled hallways, furiously texting him from the lobby to the empty shopping arcade, back to the Jade Lounge where I started. (Even finding their restaurants Thai and Thai or Bencotto takes a little bit of navigation as the hotel is split into separate buildings and there is an attached shopping mall). 

Afternoon tea is offered at both the Jade Lounge on the 1st floor as well as Cafe Un Deux Trois, with slight variations. Since my friend was doing a write up on "must stay" hotel round up in Taipei and invited me to join him on his comped afternoon tea, how could I say no. 

The afternoon tea at the Mandarin Oriental is a classic three tiered combination of sweet and savory bites, including a ham and truffle cheese layered crepe, Le Jambon Cru, 36 Months Dry-Cured Ham, Nut Bread Baguette Toast, Candied Tomatoes, smoked salmon on toast, scones and delicate raspberry and chocolate desserts and tea cakes to share. While the lounge and the set are very opulent and posh, the food unfortunately was prettier than they tasted, with some of the pieces being way too sweet. A lot of them were mousse based, so being someone who doesn't like mousse, this was a minus for me.  Which is unfortunate since the cakes I've had from their cake shop are actually quite delicious. 

The tea connoisseurs should be happy with their wide selection of teas, including half a dozen Chinese green teas, all from Taiwan. One of my readers mentioned on instagram that they used to offer you to try different types of tea along with the set- that would make it more worth the price tag of NT$1300 per person. Unless you are meeting someone who is staying at the Mandarin or looking for privacy, I would rather have afternoon tea at somewhere like Yellow Lemon or Smith and Hsu.

So cute but...

The scones were dry, even with jam... made me wistful for Smith and Hsu's scones.

On the way out, I spied this cart of chocolates and cakes, which after asking, are not a part of the afternoon tea set, but can be ordered a la carte. The price tag of NT$270 for three pieces of homemade chocolates will be sure to make you savor them slowly. I do also have to note that the service at Jade Lounge was quite helpful in suggesting what tea to choose and they kindly boxed up what we didn't finish for me in a takeaway box.

dessert/japanese: i recommend MYOWA

MYOWA 和茗甘味處
No. 221 JinHua St 
金華街221號
(02) 2351-8802

MRT: DongMen 

hours: 1PM- 9PM

price: $-$$ (minimum one drink or dessert per person)

kid friendliness: lots of desserts or drinks if your kid likes green tea

visit reviewed: 11/11/2016

I'VE PASSED BY MYOWA DOZENS OF TIMES OVER THE YEARS, as it sits discreetly next to the adorable Patisserie La Douceur. But yesrtday feeling the mood for matcha, we stopped by after sushi. 

Inside I spied matcha everything on the tables we passed, as they led us to the seating in the basement. The menu included photos of matcha tiramisu, chiffon cake, lava cake, matcha cheesecake, matcha shaved ice, matcha crepe cake, matcha lattes- basically 10 pages of anything you could imagine in green tea dessert or drink form. The server told us there was a minimum order of one drink or dessert per person and that we would have to order at the cashier and pay first upstairs.  I considered the shaved ice or the hot plate matcha cake (which I really wanted to try), but I couldn't finish it by myself and my friends wanted soft serve which didn't count as an item for the minimum order (annoying). So we ended up not sitting inside and ordering to go. 

TTheir matcha soft serve is pretty tasty (and not too sweet) though I could do without the cornflakes in the sundae. Inside the sundae there's also matcha jelly at the bottom and two mochi atop with a touch of adzuki red bean. I didn't love the mochi (I'd prefer the tang yuan at Tai Yi if we're counting calories), so next time I'd get the plain soft serve cone or the hot plate matcha cake or maybe the cheesecake. If you're looking for matcha galore, I'd recommend Myowa- I've never seen so many matcha desserts in one place. You can also look for shops inside the malls specializing in green tea desserts like Tsujiri and Matcha One (spotted at Breeze and Mitsukoshi), but those are mostly soft serve and ice. Here's the menu for Myowa for your perusal.

OTHER LOCATION:

ZhongXiao branch

No. 40, Lane 31, DaAn Rd, Sec. 1

(02) 8771-7720

dessert/modern: i strongly recommend YELLOW LEMON

YELLOW LEMON 黃檸檬

561 MingShui Road, ZhongShan District 

明水路561號

(02) 2533-3567

MRT: Dazhi 

hours: 11AM- 8PM

pricing: $$-$$$

kid friendliness: lots of treats for kids to enjoy, picnic is also very fun with lots of photo ops

visit reviewed:  4/2016 and 9/2014 

SUMMER IS IN THE AIR AND IT'S TIME FOR A PICNIC! Or at least that's the idea behind the newest food-meets-art creations by Yellow Lemon and its chef Andrea Bonaffini. Inspired by all growing popularity of picnics in Taipei's parks, Chef Andrea thought, why not bring it to the table? The result is an unique experience that combines food, art, performance, wonder and fun together. 

Located on a quiet neighborhood street in Dazhi, Yellow Lemon is a dessert bar offering a menu of salads, sandwiches and cafe fare alongside its desserts and drinks. The first time I came, we were dazzled by the playful take on french toast and the watermelon granita. When it first opened, I thought it was very creative, but that prices were a bit high for the portions, but over the years as more cafes and desserts spots have opened up and I've tried other places like Dominique Ansel's creations in Tokyo, I've realized that Yellow Lemon/Chef Andrea pushes the boundaries (like Dominique Ansel) and it's really a gem of a dessert bar in Taipei. 

Yellow Lemon's first table art was a messier splattering and dumping of chocolate and sweets on the table in a picasso style freeform painting (as I later saw, similar to Chicago's Alinea, which you can see in the SPINNING TABLES or CHEF's TABLE docs on Netflix) and I wasn't drawn to eating off the table. But Picnic, a more dainty and composed presentation, definitely caught my eye as other instagrammers started to post their photos of macarons and caviar on a table full of green grass. 

Yellow Lemon's space is bright and inviting and enough room between tables to have private conversations. The front is the bakery section where you can browse the cakes and desserts.

I love open kitchens because I love to admire chefs at work. Sometimes it's a good way to get details about the dishes or desserts that you wouldn't ordinarily get to hear. 

Focused. 

The desserts for picnic are prepared to order- so everything is assembled and fresh for the right textures and temperatures, which is so important for desserts. This is the apple pie sandwich, which was inspired by apple pie. The thin apple slices are liquid nitrogen'd and sandwich caramel sauce and pop rocks. 

We weren't actually sure what Picnic included so we had some lunch first- the beet and arugula salad  (NT$320) was SO SO good. I could have eaten a whole one myself, and the Pizza Parma (NT$320) was really great too, with generous toppings of parmesan cheese, parma ham and arugula atop fluffy focaccia bread. The chicken burger with truffle slow cooked onions and sous vide chicken and black sesame bun was also tasty.You could also order their other desserts on the menu, but I love the picnic experience (NT$600/person).

When you are ready, they will lay out the turf. We had four people, so we had two squares of turf. They bring out the elements and scatter them across the table, so we could ooh and aah over each dish as it came out, as our neighbors from the next table did as well. There's both sweet and savory components to the picnic and lots of little delicious surprises. Chef Andrea has said he'd like to change the menu seasonally, so use this as a reference for spring/summer 2016.

Like picnicking in a magical forest.

The strawberry napoleons were so yummy, with fresh cream, strawberries and strawberry crumble.

The playful imitation caviar was actually made out of chocolate, with a panna cotta underneath.

Apple pie sandwich- crispy, caramel and popping from the pop rocks. Loved this.

Black pepper macaron with king crab, lemon mustard and ikura- so so good, and the macaron shells make for a perfectly bite with the fresh crab.

Even the "dirt" is edible, it's made of chocolate crumbs. 

Now that it's either too hot in Taipei or rainy from the June gloom and doom, you can still picnic indoors. Can't wait to see what's going to pop on the table on my next visit! Thank you chef Andrea and Yellow Lemon for inviting us to try it and for hosting a fun lunch.

PS-- For a limited time, check into Yellow Lemon on Instagram or Facebook with a photo, tag @cretinofelice (Yellow Lemon's chef Andrea) and @hungryintaipei, and show the server/chef to get an extra 🍰 free sweet treat with your order!