chinese: i strongly recommend PARADISE DYNASTY

PARADISE DYNASTY  樂天皇朝

No.68, ZhongXiao E. Road, Sec. 5, 4FL

110台北市信義區忠孝東路五段68號4F 
(02)2772-6545

MRT: Taipei City Hall (exit #3)

Website: Paradise Dynasty Taipei's FB page

Hours: 11AM - 9:30PM / Thurs- Sat 11AM - 10PM

Visit reviewed: 1/18/2016

I first spotted Paradise Dynasty's colorful dumplings on Instagram before I had even heard of it, when Breeze Xinyi first opened and a flood of people started posting the newest food blogger eye candy. Then I did a walk through Breeze Xinyi's restaurant floor when I went to Crate and Barrel there, and it was pretty busy even mid afternoon. So I was excited to try it last week when a friend wanted to lunch there, and somehow managed to snag the private room they have in the back. (Later on I found out why, because there's a steep NT$8000 minimum for 8 people for the private room reservation, which is actually difficult to do because their menu is affordable).

Paradise Dynasty's signature xiao long baos are different colors because they are different flavors, though you can order individual flavors by the basket too. It is  Besides xiao long bao, they also have a full menu of Szechuan and Cantonese dishes from rice, dumplings and noodles, to seafood and vegetables to dim sum and dessert.

I also quite liked the "la mian" or hand pulled noodles -- the dan dan noodles with spicy sesame and peanut sauce (NT$130) and the dry noodles with dried shrimp and scallion oil (which was like a fragrant pork bone broth to spoon into the noodles). 

The Dan Dan noodles here were more spicy and less peanut flavored than versions I've had elsewhere, but I really enjoyed the noodles themselves. Other options for the noodles included double boiled chicken soup, minced meat and mushroom, dumpling with chili sauce, Szechuan hot and sour seafood, or spiced beef.

Looks plain, but surprisingly good. The noodles are smooth and not too soft and the broth is so slurpable.

Paradise Dynasty's most instagrammed dish is their photogenic 8 treasures xiao long bao (NT$320). The flavors are distinguished by their colors- from the center- original (white), garlic (gray), Mala (red), ginseng (green), foie gras (brown), truffle (black), cheese (yellow) and crab roe (Orange). I thought the flavors were good, but the skins broke easily, spilling out the precious "soup" and the pork is better at DTF. Between the truffle xlb here and DTF, I might have to give an edge to Din Tai Fung since DTF's is more aromatic and just peppered with truffle bits. You can also order baskets of a single flavor. 

If you're not sure what the flavors are and the server doesn't give it you, you can request a little placard that states the flavors, as well as lists the order that they recommend you try the xiao long bao from original flavor counter clockwise to the spiciest red mala dumpling.

Cheese soup dumpling 

Truffle xiao long bao 

Scramble Egg white with Fish and Conpoy (NT$240) 

Stewed bamboo shoots in oyster sauce (NT$90)

Pork dumpling with hot chili oil vinaigrette (NT$120 for 6)

Massive bowl of poached beef in Szechuan chili oil (NT$450) with mushrooms, bean sprouts and glass noodles. I accidentally bit into one of the chilis and my whole mouth went numb and tears streamed from my eyes. Had to eat a sweet stuffed red date to counteract it!! This dish is good for spicy lovers- one of my friends drank the soup like it was ramen broth! Lol! I thought the price of this was quite reasonable for the size, though most of the bowl is the chili oil broth. It's hard to capture how huge this bowl was in the photo, I'd say you'd have to hold it with two hands.

Poached chicken in Szechuan Style (NT$280) 

Stir fried la main with pork and black fungus

Crispy garlic pork ribs (NT$280) 

Radish pastry (NT$100 for 3) 

Pan fried Shanghai Pork Bun (NT$90 for 2) This was one of the few things on the menu that I didn't like. I didn't feel like the bottom was crispy enough- save room for other things and get your pan fried pork buns at the night market for less. 

Lotus paste bun with salted egg yolk (NT$80 for 2 pieces)

All in all, I really liked Paradise Dynasty. I had no expectations coming in, didn't know that it was a popular Chinese restaurant from Singapore , opened by a restaurant conglomerate there. Once you get past the gimmick of the rainbow dumplings, there's actually a broad spectrum of Chinese cuisines and  reasonably priced dishes to choose from, to share family style or to even order if you are dining alone. In a weird way, it sort of reminded me of Chinese restaurants back in LA, with the fried crispy pork ribs and the soy sauce covered stir fried noodles. The menu was clear and beautifully photographed and the food we got mostly looked liked the photos in the menu. I can see why the restaurant got an early start with the crowds and lines in Taipei- not an easy feat to accomplish in a city already full of Chinese restaurants.

snapshot/chinese: it's HAIRY CRAB season! i recommend CHAO PING JI

CHAO PING JI 潮品集  

at San Want Hotel, 2 FL
No. 172, Zhong Xiao East Rd., Sec. 4 
台北市忠孝東路四段172號

(02) 2772-2121

MRT: ZhongXiao/DunHua or SYS Memorial Hall


Visit reviewed: 11/5/2015
Previous review: 12/2008

It's hairy crab season!! 

You would think that I would have had enough crab after feasting on Alaskan crab legs and Dungeness crab for three days in a row when I went to Alaska this past summer (yay Disney cruise), but when my friends reminded me that it was time to eat hairy crab, I couldn't say no. Although if you think about it, hairy crab is mostly for those that enjoy crab roe since its body and legs are tiny and thus yield less crab meat. San Want's Chao Ping Ji has different crabs from Shanghai, the ones we ate that day were from the infamous Yangchen Lake. We also had swimmer crabs, which had a fair amount of sweet crab roe and much more meat, and cost less. To be honest, you could skip the hype and just get swimmer crabs, or you could order and eat one of each.  

Don't forget to order some dim sum on the side. My favorites at Chao Ping Ji are the XO fried radish cake, Chiu Chow noodles (pan fried into a flat pancake and cut into slices then served with vinegar and sugar) and the stir-fried green beans with olive leaves. 

Hairy crab season is Sept - Dec, with the peak season now. It's best to reserve in advance since they get shipped in from Shanghai. 

These are swimmer crabs, as you can see from their legs. 

Half a swimmer crab compared to a hairy crab. Yum!! You can see the black fuzz on the claw of the hairy crab, aka mitten crab, named because of their unique claws. Next time I'll take some pictures of how to eat a hairy crab and use the scissors to cut the legs and squeeze the meat out. Served with black vinegar to dip in and ginger tea to offset the "cold" energy you get from eating the crabs.

Where else have you guys found hairy crab in Taipei? 

chinese/dim sum: i recommend SWEET DYNASTY

SWEET DYNASTY 糖朝
No. 201, ZhongXiao E. Road, Sec. 4, Da'an District
台北市忠孝東路四段201號
(02) 2772-2889 

MRT: ZhongXiao/DunHua

hours: 24 hours

$$ (average NT$400+/person)

Kid friendliness: restaurant is on second floor with lots of stairs, though upstairs roomy with room for large parties

Visit reviewed: 12/29/2014
Last review reviewed: 8/2005

I haven't been to Sweet Dynasty in years, and I've always gone with people from out of town, so this was the first time I've been since they moved to their new location near Luxy and Starbucks on ZhongXiao, at the former Shin Yeh Table location. It's definitely amusing reading my old review in 2005 and seeing how much I've improved at taking photos (and how much better our cameras/iphones/easy photo editing tools are now)! I used to just say whatever I wanted, not worrying about the readers or the haters and letting my thoughts just flow. So being a new year, I hope to be able to do the same in 2015- not overthink things, share photos and places sooner than later and hopefully still help you guys find some good places to eat in Taipei.

Sweet Dynasty is a Cantonese restaurant known for its desserts and dim sum and its new digs are roomier, more stylish and perfect for a night of modern Chinese dining. If you have room and enough people, order the soy tofu in the bucket that you can scoop out yourself. Unfortunately, we didn't have room that night for it, so I don't have pictures of it, but maybe another night.

The menu is thick with pages of noodles, congee, dim sum, seafood, rice and stir-fried family style dishes, but if you only have two people like we did that night, you can still find some options. Large photos highlight popular menu items and the menu is in both English and Chinese.

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The wonton & beef brisket noodle soup (NT$200) comes with four rotund pork and vegetable wontons, beef brisket and egg noodles- perfect if you want to have a taste of both wontons and beef, though remember that the noodles and broth are Cantonese style and not Taiwanese beef noodle soup style. Pretty decent sized bowl and amount of wontons and noodles and we finished the bowl.

The shrimp rice noodle (NT$180) came at the same time as the noodle soup and I was slightly surprised to see that it wasn't drowned in sauce.

I always have to order the xian shui jiao or deep fried crispy glutinous rice shrimp dumpling (NT$100) when I see it on the menu, and I'm glad I did. Perfect crisp on the outside, sticky and sweet on the inside of the shell and plenty of filling on the inside. So good, but so bad for you.

I pretty much forgot that the truffle shu mai was coming as it came much much later after we had finished our food. We were pretty much ready for the bill when it finally came.

And it wasn't until we had left the restaurant that I realized we didn't even get the matcha dessert that Clarissa had ordered. It's too bad since I did want to try it, but I was pretty full by the time the shu mai came, so it ended up not being a big deal to us. Trip Advisor has overwhelmingly negative reviews for Sweet Dynasty, but besides the ordering issue, the service was fine for me that night.

With the opening of two Taipei branches of Michelin starred Tim Ho Wan (review coming soon!), all the dim sum joints in Taipei have some fierce competition and should step up their game. But not everyone wants to wait one hour plus for food, so if you're looking for a chill place for some noodle soup and dim sum in the East District (Dong Qu) then you could give Sweet Dynasty a try (even at 4AM since they are open 24 hours, and then you can wander over to 24 hour Eslite bookstore down the street). Thanks Clarissa for dinner and conversation- it's always great to meet other food lovers/writers and I look forward to following your adventures this year.