chinese/vegetarian: I recommend YANG SHIN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT

YANG SHIN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT 養心茶樓
No. 128 Songjiang Road, 2F
松江路128號, 2F
(02) 2542-8828

MRT: SongJiang/Nanjing Station

website: http://www.ysvege.com/" target="blank"> ysvege.com

hours: Mon-Sun 11:30AM - 2:30PM, 5:30PM -9:30PM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available, some room for strollers, kid friendly dishes

Visit reviewed: 2/23/2014 & 6/15/2014

My mom is a vegetarian, so I'm always on the look out for good places to take her. So when a friend suggested Yang Shin for their vegetarian dim sum, it was a great find. The entrance is slightly hidden, even though the sign is quite prominent. You enter through Nozomi bakery and then make your way to the second floor through the hallway and into the large dining hall. 

Even at an early 5:30PM dinner shift, the restaurant is completely booked and we are warned that we must finish dinner by 6:45PM for seating their next 7PM dinner reservation. So since they have to turn the tables over, food and service is fairly brisk. So be sure to make reservations early- they had no tables available for walk in customers. 

Can you imagine- this whole banquet full of families excited to be grubbing on vegetarian food?! Haha.

While we were most excited about the vegetarian dim sum, there is a huge menu of Cantonese appetizers, dishes and Chef specials to try out. So the more people you have, the more things you can try. If you love mushrooms, tofu or greens, this is the place for you.

Almost 30 dim sum dishes (NT$68-128) to choose from, while most other dishes are in the NT$300-500 range.

Some of my favorites that I recommend ordering and have ordered on repeat visits were the Cantonese barbecued vegetarian ham pastry (NT$108)- with endless flaky puff pastry layers that meld into the sweet, red sauce and "cha siu" inside.

I liked the baked cheese cabbage (NT$128), which is covered with a blanket of hot cheese hiding creamy chinese cabbage underneath, cooked until it's fork tender.

I usually order xian shui jiao whenever I spot it on a dim sum menu, so I had to try its vegetarian cousin here. The egg shaped deep fried stuffed mushroom dumpling (NT$98) tastes almost like deep fried mochi with a crispy shell and is soft and chewy in the inside, stuffed with bits of mushroom.

Fried pumpkin vegetable hand roll (NT$80 each) with crispy ribbons of crunchy fried pumpkin and julienned cucumber gives a nice crunch. They also have avocado and asparagus hand rolls.

Family favorite of Cantonese chow mein (NT$240) with lots of bok choy, bamboo, baby corn, and wood ear mushrooms. I always like to get a mix of the crispy noodles and some of the soggier parts drenched in sauce.

Deep fried spring rolls (NT$98 for 3)

Deep Fried Pastry with Shredded Turnip (NT$108 x2)

Fried sesame balls

Not the healthiest meal since we ended up ordering a lot of fried foods and dim sum, but Yang Shin's dim sum versions were close enough that you didn't miss the real thing.

I wouldn't order these next dishes again, they were a bit too out there for me-- 

Pinenut and vegetable cheese roll (NT$180 for 4) - the waitress encouraged us to order this, but I did not like it.

I can't remember if I liked the stir fried rice cake- I think there was something about the flavor that I didn't love.

The almond tofu was surprisingly too sweet- the milk it came in was almost syrupy sweet and the almond tofu itself was sweet as well, and I would have preferred to have the traditional peaches and pears in it rather than watermelon and kiwi.

Vegetarian food doesn't have to mean just salads and pasta/pizza/risotto adorned with mushrooms, which is what my mom usually ends up eating when she eats out with us. So we've happily been back to Yang Shin a few times, usually getting a huge table in the back of the restaurant.

Now those of you with gluten free restaurant questions? That's a tougher problem to solve in Taipei.

chinese/dim sum: i recommend PARENTS RESTAURANT

PARENTS RESTAURANT
200 Dunhua S. Rd., Sec. 1
(02) 2772-8888

hours: 11:30am - 9:30pm

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available. lots finger foods

Visit reviewed: 8/12/08 & 5/19/2009



Parents Restaurant is a classic Cantonese and dim sum restaurant, hiding in plain sight near the busy Dun Hua and Zhong Xiao intersection.  Just look for this bright red signs and all the purple flags.



Without crowded windows like nearby City Star Dim Sum, you might never find the equally busy dining hall in the restaurant's basement.



The huge menu in English and Chinese has everything braised, fried, clay pot, stir fried or dim sum that you could want and a picture for each and every dish. 




The prices are average ranging NT$70-$150 for dim sum and around NT$200-NT$400 for main dishes, though anytime you eat dim sum, the dishes add up since it takes a lot of siu mais to get full, so it can run about NT$500 for lunch per person. There are no carts, so you just order off the menu and when they are busy, orders can be on the slow side to come.

You MUST get the desserts. My favorites are the mini egg tarts or "dan ta" which come piping hot, with hot out-of-the-oven soft custard centers and layers and layers of flaky crusts, and the almond tofu which comes in a bowl of firm, thick cubes accompanied by a bit of peach and fruit. Just be sure to order the egg tarts before you are done eating, as it takes about 10-15 minutes for them to bake them and bring them out, otherwise you'll be waiting with nothing to eat like we were. And they are tiny, so you want to order more if you like egg tarts! One could probably eat all three in a sitting, if you really wanted to!




The dim sim regulars are a good bunch- siu mai, shrimp rice noodle or "xia chang fun",  sticky rice in bamboo leaf, fried glutinous ball or "xian shui jiao". 





The things I wouldn't order again are the pineapple shrimp because the mayo sauce was too sticky and there was too much and made the dish gross and the BBQ pork siu which was not crispy or flaky as it should be.



The main dishes we got were also good- fried oysters, the noodles, omelette egg with pickled vegetables, tofu claypot. There are two different types of noodles you can get- a harder chow mein or a soft stir fried one. Both are good, although the crispy fried noodle has a lot of gravy.







If you couldn't tell, I combined two visits into this review, so thanks to my friends A and J for introducing me to this restaurant! If you think you will go there a lot, you can also sign up for a VIP card, which gives you a 10 % discount and other coupon specials. It's good to have a couple good dim sum places up my sleeve now since in the beginning I was running into a lot of bad ones.


View Larger Map

dim sum/chinese: i strongly recommend CHAO PING JI

CHAO PING JI
at San Want Hotel, 2 FL
No. 172, Zhong Xiao East Rd., Sec. 4
(02) 2772-2121 ext. 2200, 2201

website: sanwant.com English, Chinese and Japanese

M-F
Lunch 11:30am - 2:30pm; Dinner 5:30pm - 9:00pm

Saturday~Sunday
Lunch 11:00am - 2:30pm; Dinner 5:30pm - 9:00pm

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available and lots of kid pleasing dim sum options

Visit reviewed: 12/22/2008
Previous review: 5/2007


rice noodle sauteed with XO sauce

After a few impromptu visits to Chao Ping Ji without my camera, I finally had it on me, with the battery charged, ready to capture the har gow in all its close-up beauty. Quite a few of my friends declared Chao Ping Ji the best dim sum in town and it seems that the readers of this blog agree- as it won "Best Dim Sum" award in the 2008 Best of Taipei Reader's Choice Poll.



All the dim sum favorites- har gow (shrimp dumpling in translucent wrapper), siu mai and luo bo gao (pan fried radish cake)- quickly got snatched up by chopsticks. If you're looking to try some new things, you should order the you tiao chang fun or rice noodle with fried doughnut in the center and the rice noodle sauteed with XO sauce.


rice noodle with you tiao

Between the goose and the chicken, the goose is moister and more unique.


goose


chicken with potato chips

I probably wouldn't order the oily crispy taro thing- I can't even remember was it taro or mushroom?



Everything tastes fresh and flavorful. Everything you'd expect from a hotel restaurant and more- the extensive menu is in English and Chinese. The decor is elegant and restaurant is family friendly, with private rooms available. It was pretty packed all the times we went, so call ahead for reservations, especially if you have a larger group.

dim sum/chinese: CITYSTAR 24HR HK STYLE RESTAURANT

CITYSTAR 24HR HK STYLE RESTAURANT
No. 216, Dun Hua S Road, Sec 1, 2nd FL
(02) 2741-2625

website: citystar.com.tw Chinese only

hours: 24 hours

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available

Visit reviewed: 3/25/2008

I guess you could call Citystar the Denny's of dim sum restaurants, it's open 24 hours, it serves food that's not awesome and not awful, and you even might have to wait for a table in its diner like atmosphere where families and students and friends gather.



I totally didn't expect to have to wait for a table around 2pm, but I guess its location and window facing the busy street makes it visible wanting some fast afternoon snacks. We waited about 15 minutes for a table to free up and get seated.



The plasticky menu pictures everything they have, so there's no carts to wave down. They also have a non-dim sum menu featuring family style Cantonese dishes, but we were here for dim sum (NT$55-160). After the servers take your order, they punch it in a computer station that's kind of fascinating to watch.



One of my favorites- "xian shui jiao"- is a deep fried puff of salty contents of shrimp, ground meat and vegetables and a sweet glutinous rice skin. It's not always available at every restaurant, but this was one of the better dishes. I would actually go back and just eat this and almond tofu.



Everything else was, ehhh, ok. I was with my dad who was visiting from LA and grandma who lives in Taipei-- my grandma and I agreed that the dim sum at Brother Hotel was better. Couldn't pinpoint why to my dad who hadn't been, but funnily enough my friend invited me to join them at dinner at Citystar that same night with a big group of his co-workers (I didn't go, but he said that he felt the dim sum was okay as well).



So it's a good choice if you have a lot of people to order a lot since they do have some bigger family style tables and share or if you're by yourself and just want a few dishes- fast and easy, even in the wee hours of the morning. You can even people watch by a window seat on the busy street below.




I did enjoy the almond tofu, but then again it's hard to go wrong with almond tofu!



OTHER LOCATION

No. 166, Zhong Xiao E Road, Sec 4, 2nd FL
(02) 2777-1717