american/burgers: i strongly recommend 1885 BURGER STORE

1885 BURGER STORE
24-1 Pucheng St
(02) 2367-8258

MRT: Taipower Bldg

website: 1885burgerstore.com

hours: Mon-Thurs 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Fri: 11:00 am - 11:00 pm
Sat: 9:30 am - 11:00 pm
Sun: 9:30 am - 10:00 pm

$

Kid friendliness: roomy booths and tables; though beef patties a bit peppery

Visit reviewed: 4/13/2010



Is it only me or have a plethora of burger (and sometimes burgers + brunch) places sprung up the past five years or so in Taipei? Let me count the ways:

• 1-the Diner (2006)
  
• 2-Forkers (2007)
  
• 3-California Grill (2007)
  
• 4-Evan's Burger (2007)
  
• 5- Posh (2007)
  
• 6- Good Day (2007)
  
• 7- KGB Burger (2008)
  
• 8- JB Burger (2008)
  
• 9- An Burger (2008)
  
• 10- Bravo Burger (2008)
  
• 11- The Door (2009)
  
• 12- Haleakala (2009)
  

That list includes the good, the average and the ugly, but in general, it's nice to have some other options besides fast food outlets McD's, Mos Burger and Burger King and sit down chains like Chili's and TGIF. I have yet to try Evan's, An or Bravo Burger, but I'm slowly making my way through the list

My most recent burger adventures is 1885 Burger Store (2009), picked as our lunch spot by my friend Karen. The decor feels somewhere between Western and a diner, with a few chandeliers thrown in.




Maybe they couldn't decide on which Americana kitsch to go with and decided to just go with both. But it's roomy and comfortable with lots of booths with some table seating to accommodate large groups.




You can flip through the Ikea framed menu for the various burgers and breakfast, or choose from the daily special menu or from the chalkboard (which saves you about NT$40 by giving you a free refillable soft drink).




The pineapple bbq grilled chicken burger I get, but what is a Mexican Tartar burger?



Since it was Tuesday, I went with the Mushroom Cheese Burger set (NT$200) and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could change the cheddar cheese to Havarti (or Pepper Jack or Blue Cheese). I chose the wheat bun, but you can also choose a roll or white bun. We also upgraded our drink to a Chocolate Banana shake to share. Other milkshake flavors include Green Tea, Strawberry, Vanilla, Chocolate and Hazelnut Chocolate or you can get a smoothie.

It didn't feel like we waited long for our food and the burgers came plated on a large wooden board with a handle, with fries piled high on a silver pail, and a fork and knife. The pickle was sliced thin so you could put it in your burger.



From looks alone, I was happy with the ratio of toasted bun, burger and accompanying tomato, onions and lettuce.



I hate it when the patty is tiny and the bun is huge, or the restaurant skimps on tomatoes. The first few bites were unusually peppery- I guess they season their patty stronger than usual- but it faded as I kept eating. The seasoned fries were also crispy and hot and filled about half the pail, which was more than enough.



The burger was also satisfying juicy as I must have used at least 5 or 6 napkins to wipe my hands and mouth. I felt like Padma in a Carl's Jr commercial looking for a white shirt to dirty.



Quite close to the Shida night market and National Taiwan University, it was packed full of camera snapping diners and groups noshing mostly on burgers. I'd definitely return here with friends and take them to Yofroyo for dessert, especially since a few of my friends have been unhappy with the size/value of California Grill lately. That's the power of supply and demand- more options to choose from and getting to discover new favorites.


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snapshot/bakery: i recommend IJY Sheng Bakery

IJY SHENG BAKERY
53 Shida Road
(02)2362-0425

website: ijysheng.com.tw

$-$$

Kid friendliness: just make sure they don't touch everything

Visit reviewed: 3/6/2010



After passing by this bakery so many times near the Shida night market (on the way to Yofroyo), I finally got a chance to try it.




Windows full of breads and cakes, my first pick was my favorite- a huge bun swirled with sticky brown sugar. Slightly crispy on the outside, tear apart soft on the inside, the swirled brown sugar is almost gummy, like thin mochi. You must eat the breads the same day, since they never seem as good the next morning. I also preferred the oversized bread to the brown sugar croissants, which didn't have the same gooey texture inside.



I didn't get a chance to try any of the cakes or desserts, but I'll be back!

bakery/desserts: MY SWEETIE PIE BAKERY AND CAFE

MY SWEETIE PIE BAKERY AND CAFE
No. 3, Lane 93, ShiDa Rd
(02) 3365-3448

Hours: 11 AM - 12 Midnight

Kid friendliness: roomy sofas and seats

$

visit reviewed: 5/18/2009



A cute little nook for American style cakes and pies, My Sweetie Pie also offers a few dishes such as pizza, chili dogs or lasagna, as an extension of across the lane Grandma Nitti's. A cozy casual place for afternoon tea or dessert in the Shida area, you can also treat your sweet tooth to smoothies, milkshakes or floats.

I drooled over all the choices.




Chocolate chip cookies. Blueberry cheesecake. Apple pie. Luckily I came with friends, so we could order them all.

They also had black forest cake, carrot cake, tiramisu, scones and other cakes. Selection changes day to day.



Slices are around NT$80- NT$100, and whole cakes or pies can be ordered with advance notice. The slices are a bit small-ish for the price, but you're paying for the "novelty" of American desserts in Taipei. It would be awesome if they were going to be really American style and give us some fat slices. If you order a meal, you can add dessert for an extra NT$60 which is a better deal.




Our favorite was the blueberry cheesecake, with the perfect crumbly graham cracker crust. The density and sweetness of the cheesecake was just right.



The apple pie had raisins (ew) and hearty chunks of baked cinnamon apple. I think I've been ruined for apple desserts since I now compare everything to the deliciousness of the swedish apple cake from Flavors.



Unfortunately, the chocolate chip cookie (NT$35) was a bit dry, and not chewy, like the way I like to bake them. A little disappointing.



You might even catch a glimpse of the bakers in action if you grab a seat towards the back, near the windowed open kitchen. Or you can bring your laptop to do some work with the free wifi.

I'd like to eventually try Grandma Nitti's as I've heard a lot about their American style breakfasts and Mexican food. They are right across My Sweetie Pie and next to a Gerge's.



Anyone else have any favorite cakes/pies that I should have tried?


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CLOSED! dessert/frozen yogurt: i strongly recommend YOFROYO

CLOSED!

YOFROYO
at Shida Night Market
No.9, Ln.59, Shida Rd.
Jhongjeng District

(02))2365-0188

MRT: Kuting

website: yofroyo.com

$

Kid friendliness: lots of free samples and kid pleasing marshmallows, mochi and sprinkles!

Visit reviewed: 5/18/2009



Everyone in LA has heard of Pinkberry. Maybe even heard of Red Mango, Yogurtland and the Frozen Yogurt Wars.

But in Taipei, the frozen yogurt wave is just beginning... there were some attempts here and there, but none that really seemed that they would take off until now. A few years ago, I even daydreamed to open a Yogurtland-berry-ish froyo place here and eat free frozen yogurt whenever I wanted, the way I wanted, but luckily for us, the founders of YoFroyo actually went ahead and did it.

YoFroyo is located in an alley off of the busy Shida Night Market, across from Subway. I would have never ventured there but for an email invitation letting me know about their Grand Opening. I couldn't make it then, but the call of tarty frozen yogurt (or fro yo, for short, hence the name YoFroYo) was too strong to let me wait too long to check it out.



And I'm glad I did. First off, next time I'd come with an empty stomach to the Shida Night Market since there are so many alleys full of street eats to sample, such as "gua bao", pan fried dumplings, crispy fried chicken cutlets or "G-pai" and sausages, just to name a few.

But if you are headed just for the frozen yogurt, you have a lot to choose from. There's an array of toppings, flavors and combinations. Most importantly, there were berries, or at least strawberries, and mango. They also have other confections- gummy bears, marshmallows, crumbled cookies, diced fruits, chocolate chips and even baby cream puffs to decorate your dessert. They also have freshly made baby mochi balls to choose from and quite a number of flavors (original, guava, taro, black sugar, blueberry, mango and lychee) to match whatever yogurt flavor you choose. The combinations ar endless. It's probably easier for locals to get the concept, since it's quite similar to picking and choosing your sweet toppings on shaved ice, which also comes in a plethora of colorful shapes and sizes.



If you've never had Pinkberry, the whole phenomenon came from the frozen yogurt being tart and sweet, rather than just overly sweet. Being a "healthy" dessert with fresh fruits, Pinkberry was even nicknamed "Crackberry" for its addictiveness. From that sprung entrepreneurial copycats with a twist, such as Yogurtland, which provided "pay as you weigh" and self service with 8-12 flavors of froyo to choose from. YoFroYo borrows a few elements from each and makes it own hopes of an Asian franchise- a shiny and hip plastic white and silver decor, a range of six tart to sweet yogurt flavors that can appeal to all ages and tastebuds, and putting an Asian influenced spin to it.

And it works. I really liked the green tea frozen yogurt with a dash of azuki red beans sample that I had. I liked the soft and squishy bite sized mochis that I tried.

All the choices can be a bit overwhelming and with all the signs to read (thankfully in both English and Chinese), I was a little overwhelmed at what to order.



But they try to make it easy for the newbies by giving you large samples and providing a list of wryly named Froyo creations like Tokyo Reverie, My Blueberry Night, Barbie Doll or Cookie Monster if you can't decide (which maybe would be easier to drool over if there were pictures to look at like Coldstones?)



But maybe most importantly, the portions are sizeable and the prices are great (perhaps a happy result of needing to be competitive with other night market eats and being near a university). A regular at NT$55 is totally shareable with 2 or 3 people, or large at NT$75 if you're really hungry.

And if you're not a fan of the tart or fruit flavored frozen yogurt (they currently have original tart, mango, blueberry, lychee), then you can get chocolate.



They even have a suggestion box for future flavors. I'd put a vote for peanut butter or strawberry, and white chocolate chips or yogurt chips toppings and of course, raspberry or blueberry toppings when they are in season. The founders are from UC San Diego and set on making it So-cal authentic.

As the weather gets hotter and word of mouth spreads, I'm sure we'll see more signs of a Taipei Yogurt War. Maybe you can be the "cool" one in your group to help your friends discover tarty frozen yogurt the next time you're tired of shaved ice.

What do you think? Is Taipei ready for tart froyo? Will you be checking it out?


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afternoon tea/western: ROSE HOUSE

ROSE HOUSE
No. 15, Lane 233, Dun Hua S. Rd, Sec 1
(02) 8773-2519

website: rosehouse.com Chinese only

hours: Weekdays 11 AM - 10 PM ; Fri-Sat 11AM- 12AM

kid friendliness: Not recommended. Quiet, delicate atmosphere and friend with nursing baby was asked by servers to take baby outside if he started to cry. Have heard that others were refused entry when with babies at other locations.

$$

Visit reviewed: 5/15/2007

If you're looking for a quiet place for a cup of tea with your friends or business associate or your significant other, then Rose House is a pretty good choice. If you are looking for a place to have lunch with your friends and their babies/kids or have boisterous conversation, then you should probably go somewhere else.

Rose House is a chain tea shop/cafe that you might have spotted around town. With its frilly logo on the sign to its equally frilly interior with bone china in cabinets and along the walls- it's a ultimate setting for afternoon tea, English style in Taipei.

With a wide offering of teas, coffees and drinks, Rose House's signature rose tea and fruit teas are a refreshing and tasty accompaniment to conversation at the table. However, they want to maintain that atmosphere for all their guests, so it's not the most kid friendly place.

While having lunch with a friend with a relatively new baby, the server actually asked my friend to take her baby outside if he started crying when he started quietly fussing at the end of our meal. We were quite surprised because the baby had not made any noises past our table and also a squirmy toddler at our table that we thought that they would have complained about first. I think if the baby actually did start to cry, my friend would have automatically walked him around outside, but to have the server approach us first was definitely a surprise, especially when there only a few scattered guests inside. I guess I could understand that they would want maintain their quieter setting for those who came to sip their teas in silence, but it was still the first time it's ever happened to me at any restaurant around the world.

While you should go to Rose House for their teas, they also offer various sandwiches, meat dishes and curries for lunch which seem more Taiwanese than English. But then again, I've never been to England.

My friend said his pig knuckle dish was just okay, as was my steak. My other friend's baked risotto was made with white Jasmine rice rather than Arborio, but she said the cheese and sauce made it tasty enough.

There are quite a few locations and I tried to find an English source for the addresses, but you will have to check the website.

OTHER LOCATIONS (thanks to Google Translator and some elbow grease!)

No. 95, Nanjing East Road, Sec 2
TEL: (02) 25603112
Sunday - Thursday Hours: 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Friday - Saturday Hours: 11:00 AM to 11:00 PM

No. 5, Nanjing West Road
TEL: (02) 25235170
Hours: 11 :00 AM - 11: 00 PM

No. 3, Zhengzhou Road (at Chengde Lu Avenue intersection)
TEL: (02) 25585399
Hours: 11 :00 AM - 11: 00 PM

Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Mall (Xin Yi), B2
No. 12, Songgao Road
TEL: (02) 87809932
Hours: 11 :00 AM - 9: 30 PM (weekdays)
11 :00 AM- 10: 00 PM (Friday and Saturday holidays)

No. 9, Lane 450, Xinyi Road
TEL: (02) 87896606
Hours: 11 :00 AM - 10: 00 PM

No. 11, Chongqing South Road, Sec 1
TEL: (02) 23121282
Hours: 11 :00 AM -11: 00 PM

Shihlin shop
No. 604, Zhongshan North Road, Sec 5
TEL: (02) 28338464
Sunday - Thursday Hours: 11:00AM to 10:00 PM
Friday - Saturday Hours: 11:00AM to 11:00 PM

Yongkang shop
No. 3-1, Lishui Street
TEL: (02) 23948202
Sunday - Thursday Hours: 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM
Friday - Saturday Hours: 11:00AM to 11 PM

NTU/Shida shop
No. 1, Lane 86, Shida Road
TEL: (02) 33651977
Hours: 11 :00AM-11: 00PM

Tienmu shop
Dayeh Takeshimaya Mall
No. 55, Zhongcheng Road, Sec 2, 4th Floor
TEL: (02) 28345848
Hours: 11: 00AM - 9: 30PM (Mon-Thur, Sun); 11: 00AM- 10: 00 PM (Fri, Sat)

No. 218, Ruiguang Road
TEL: (02) 77202070
Hours: 11 AM - 10PM

No. 19, Jinhu Road
TEL: (02) 27927205
Hours: 11 :00AM -11: 00PM

Taipei Tienmu shop
No. 15, Lane 14, Chungshan North Road, Sec 7
TEL: (02) 2872-3630
Hours: 8 :30 AM - 10: 00 PM

TEAROOM
at Miramar Mall
No. 20, Jingye 3rd Road, B1F
TEL: (02) 2175-3023
Hours: 11: 00 AM - 10: 00 PM

TEAPUB
at Miramar Mall
No. 20, Jingye 3rd Road, 1F
TEL : (02) 8501-1360
Hours: 11: 00 AM - 12: 00AM (M-Th, Sat); 11: 00AM -1: 00AM (Fri, Sat)

italian/taiwanese: GERGE's/GIORGIO's

No. 8, Lane 640, Bei An Road
Dazhi, Taipei
(02) 2533-0698

$

Visit reviewed: 12/14/2007

See, I told you I was catching up on old posts... but three posts in a row with ZERO comments. I'm so sad. :(

If you want to try the epitome of localized "Italian" food for Taipei, this is it. We all know that many many, let me repeat, many restaurants here adjust their food to the Taiwanese tastes, but some places (many of them the local pasta places) were never meant to be for people other than the locals. From the typos to the flavors to the baked pastas/rice dishes, I had to just go with the flow that night. I have to say though that the service was very friendly and it was pretty full of Taiwanese families enjoying the night out.

First off, the name of the place is "Giorgio's." Or is it? On the sign outside, it is. But on the menus and business cards, it's "Gerge's."




What the heck? They can't even get the name of the place spelled right? Or maybe someone took over the store and renamed it, but was too cheap to redo the sign outside. Note the clues: on the outside sign, it's pasta and curry, on the business card, it says, pasta and gratins. Who knows, it makes me laugh out loud.

Second, who wants some "scurf and tart"? It can be yours for NT$400...



While I didn't get the fancier set menu, we got pasta/gratins to which you could turn into a set menu which included a small salad and the typical mystery slightly watery chowder and choice of tea/coffee for an additional charge. The rest of menu is in English and Chinese, filled with mostly pastas, a few gratins and soups/salads.



Third, my spaghetti with pork chop and tomato meat sauce (NT$120) was so strange tasting I couldn't get past a few bites. I watched everyone eat up their baked gratins and I was sad that I happened to feel like red sauce that day. I don't know what it was about it- it was a bit too acidic or had some weird spice in it? It wasn't sweet like bolognese and it wasn't salty like plain meat sauce. The pork was okay, but tasted like sweeter pork chop that you might find on rice, so the two flavors didn't really match at all. But after mentioning it to the servers, they quickly took it away and offered to replace it with something else of my choice, free of charge.



I got a baked gratin with penne, chicken and mushroom (first picture) and I liked it... it was cheesy and hot, the pasta with cream sauce was probably put in there just before they topped it with cheese and baked it, but it was better than a frozen dinner and it was a LOT better than the meat sauce. Overall, I wouldn't go there again on my own, but if my relatives said, hey, let's go back to that Italian place, I would know that I'm not really getting Italian food, but I'd go along for the ride and stick to the gratins.

Other location:
No. 6, Lane 93, Shi Da Road
(02) 2369-9136