american/japanese: i recommend ROBIN's GRILL TEPPAN LOUNGE

ROBIN's GRILL TEPPAN LOUNGE
at Grand Formosa Regent Hotel, 2 FL
41 Chung Shan N. Road, Sec 2

(02) 2523-8000 ext 3930

website: grandformosa.com.tw

hours

$$- $$$

Visit reviewed: 5/16/2007

Definitely a place for a special occasion as the prices are a splurge (at least NT$1000/person and average up to NT$3000 a person for set menu dinner) and the service and food can make you feel quite special. From the origami tuxedo napkin to the manager Robin (for whom the restaurant is named) coming by and saying hello- there are little touches at Robin's Grill Teppanyaki that set it apart from other grill places in Taipei. The grill side also has a self serve salad bar as well as a dessert bar that is included in your set menu dinner.

The french onion soup was gorgonzola-ish, beef onion brothy-licious and flavorful while the asparagus appetizer was quite bland and flat for what I expected.

I'd recommend getting the rib eye steaks alone over the surf and turf, as my filet mignon was not as delicate and melt in your mouth orgasmic as my fellow diners. The lobster was also quite ordinary and a bit overcooked, so save all your stomach and plate room for the steak. Whatever cut of prime choice rib eye my friends had that day was probably some of the best red meat I've ever had in my mouth. I was extremely jealous after tasting it in contrast to my own steak because my dish tasted unfocused, like the chef was too busy preparing the lobster AND the steak that he made two so-so dishes instead of one spectacular dish, which their's were. It was worthy of the night out.

The souffle is also beautifully presented, but not as sweet or moist as the ones I've tasted from Joyce East, so unfortunately it wasn't as tasty as it looked. Luckily, we fufilled our sweet tooth with coffee and vanilla ice cream from the dessert bar.




I do want to check out the Teppanyaki portion as I've heard good things about it. They also have large private rooms for parties and families for the teppanyaki part. I know that the regular steak places around town are Ruth Chris (which I haven't been to in Taipei)- so be sure to add this one to your list if you are craving a good rib eye in Taipei. And I think if you were celebrating a special occasion and you told them while you made your reservation, they would be sure to make your night even more special.

chinese: CHAO PING JI

CHAO PING JI
at San Want Hotel, 2 FL
172, Sec. 4, Zhong Xiao East Rd.
(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

$$

Visit reviewed: 5/11/2007

Six large private rooms make it a convienent place for group parties and family celebrations- very helpful and accomodating service, but both hits and misses for mutli-course dishes served. Dim sum a stand out- would like to return during lunch for dim sum in the future.

The evening got off to a bumpy start as we tried to squeeze in extra seats to an already crowded, very large table of over 25 people. But the servers switched out the chairs and moved out the place settings without any complaints and as quickly as they could. It's possible we might have gotten annoyed furtive looks at another restaurant, but I didn't feel anything of the sort as we all settled in.

This was a group company dinner so the menu and prices were already pre-set. Some of the dishes I thought were very tasty- such as the bamboo wrapped sticky rice - but some of the others were just overdone- just as the sweet and sour spare ribs.

My pictures are in the order that the food was served. Despite really enjoying all the other restaurants at San Want, I found myself quite underwhelmed with the food overall at Chao Ping Ji. It might have been because it was a "group menu" and maybe one of the less expensive ones- however, I don't think that should be an excuse for not serving the best at that price range.

The starter appetizer was not bad with the tofu and goose. The shark fin was watery and piece-y.



The fried shrimp was a bit hard to eat, but tasty with vermicelli used as a wrap instead of batter or egg roll skin.



The mushroom tasted better than the abalone in this dish, and the spicy XO scallop seemed a little burnt. Or maybe I don't like XO sauce- I believe I did not like a previous experience with XO sauce at another restaurant.




The spare ribs looked promising and had a nice sweet glaze, but with one bite, it was obvious that they were too tough to chew with the meat cooked dry rather than being tender. Around the room, I could see waitresses taking away untouched plates from the table as it seemed many others felt the same way.



Despite the sauce on top, I found the actual fish itself to be a bit bland. I just was not having any luck with the seafood here.



The sticky rice and the "char siu sau" was the saving grace of the dinner. It brought the flavor and yum factor that had been missing all night (or maybe I was especially hungry at that point). The char siu sau was flaky and the bbq pork inside was sweet. The sticky rice, well really, how can you mess with sticky rice? I quickly devoured my portion and eyed the others on the table, but didn't say anything.




By the time the tapioca dessert came, I was ready to head home.



Taipei Fun says that Chao Ping Ji was "voted as one of the best Chao Chow restaurants in Taipei" so maybe I'll have better luck ordering ala carte or dim sum next time.

CLOSED/french: i strongly recommend PAPILLON

PAPILLON
at San Want Hotel
No. 172, ZhongXiao East Rd, Sec. 4
(02) 2781-7063
(no longer a french restaurant)

Breakfast 6:30-9:30 am
Lunch 11:30 am-2 pm
Teatime 2:30-5 pm
Dinner 6-9:30 pm

website: sanwant.com

$$$

date visited: 12/25/2006




I didn't know what to expect since I had never heard much about PAPILLON, but I was pleasantly surprised- even amazed by the beautiful presentation and exquisite tastes of dinner that night. I had been invited along on a company dinner to sample a set dinner menu for the PARIS Je'TAIME film, which turned into a lovely quiet holiday celebration.



Located in the back of the lobby past the elevators of the San Want Hotel, the entrance is very unassuming and we were seating in a large elegant private room. The private rooms are for set menus only, while they have ala carte and buffet options outside. Papillon also services the all day buffet which has an entrance on the right front hand side of the hotel lobby.

They started us off with a cheese wonton that has served warm and crispy with a soft cheesy center, which whetted our appetites.





The experience was everything a fancy French restaurant should be- decadent, romantic, beautifully presented, mouth-watering and good service. Each dish had a combination of textures- soft and crunchy, sometimes sweet and salty. The sighs of happiness could be heard around the table.

The appetizer was a plate of mini-bites of seafood and jelly. I am not a big fan of jelly, but it was so beautiful to look at. The seafood was also propped up with tiny pillows of mashed potato. The flavors were enhanced by the diced mangos and apples in the center which also provided mini-bursts of crunch and sweetness.





The tuna tartare was almost like a spicy tuna roll with a base of rice at the bottom, but without the spicy and seaweed. I didn't think I would like it, but each bite was addictive- the tenderness of the tuna with the equally soft rice and the crunch of the salad above.



The waiters then delivered to us each a slice of bread that they said was shipped in from Italy especially for the holidays.. It was a sliver of a very large loaf and some googling revealed it is probably panettone bread.



The cauliflower soup was light, creamy and again perfectly flavored- served cappuccino style. I gave my smoked salmon sliver away because I don't like smoked salmon. It would have been cool if they had served them in cappuccino cups with little handles so we could have drank the soup that way.



I can't remember the last time I had lobster THIS good. While the menu said "lobster stew," it was actually broiled and tender and sweet and flavorful. I savored every bite and chewed slowly even though it was quite a sizeable portion. The fried wonton flower that it came in was slightly sweet and weirdly, it made a great partner to the lobster and the wisps of saffron sauce.




i could probably eat way too much of this

Practically after our friend at the table mentioned that they often served a refresher before the main dish, the waiters brought out a zesty lemon sorbet scoop for us to cleanse our palates for the filet mignon.




While I definitely enjoyed the filet, it was not as hot or as rare as I would have liked it. I asked for a 5 to 6, on the scale of doneness, and I guess I should have stuck to a 5. In Taiwan, they ask you for a number, 1 being raw and 10 being well done- most of the time the waiter will recommend medium or a 5. I also might have taken too long taking pictures. The vegetables on the side were also delicious, but my favorite was the eggplant.




can i order more lobster?

While our stomaches and tastebuds were reeling from the overload of flavors and courses of the night, the desserts arrived. Again, we ate with our eyes first, and we all oohed and aahed over the prettiness and girliness of this chocolate mousse. While I love dessert and I love chocolate, I don't really care for mousse, so unfortunately, this was one of my least favorite dishes of the night. But I definitely polished off all of the handmade vanilla bean ice cream.




But it was still amazing to look at-- as far as food porn experiences go, this one was definitely lived up to its appearance- it was orgasmic tasting as it looked. I was surprised, but I guess I should have been- another restaurant in the same hotel, Sumie, has been a favorite of ours for always having beautiful and original presentation of their delicious food.

I hope my pictures captured most of the experience- it was very low "romantic" light- so I bumped my ISO up to "High," turned on my digital macro, upped the exposure and adjusted the white balance. I didn't realize until dessert that some of the pictures are a little too purple, so adjust your food porn glasses accordingly please.

So the next time you need to go out for an anniversary, birthday or celebrate something special, take a seat at Papillon. (Did I say how much I loved the lobster?) In the meanwhile, I'm definitely trying the buffet next.

breakfast/brunch/buffet: CAFE at HYATT TAIPEI

CAFE at GRAND HYATT TAIPEI
No.2, Sung Shou Road, 1FL
Taipei, Taiwan
(02) 2720 1234

Breakfast 6:30am - 10:30am
Lunch 11:30am - 3:00pm
Dinner 5:30pm - 10:00pm

$$$

date visited: 11/16/2006

(Can I just say how much I LOVE my new camera?? It's a Canon Digital Ixus 800 and only a few days old and I've taken so many food close up photos already. Hope you enjoy the new and improved photos.)

porridge closeup

The buffet at the Hyatt doesn't come cheap at NT$650/person, but it does offer a large array of both western and eastern style breakfast and brunch. From scrambled eggs, omelettes and eggs made to order and sausage/bacon/ham to dim sum and congee/porridge with all the sides such as pickles, thousand year old egg, dried pork, mushrooms, peanuts, and more to lots of doughnuts, pastries bread and made-to-order pancakes, french toast or waffles station with honeycomb honey- you shouldn't leave hungry.

porridge with chinese pickles, mushroom, dried pork, 1000 year old egg and chinese doughnut

I started out with the bowl of porridge- they have plain or the one with spareribs and bamboo. After getting all the sides and tasting it, I had wished I just got the plain one. Either the bamboo or the meat made it taste a bit sour, and I just found something off about the flavor overall.



Next I had some corned beef hash and fruit. The fruit was very fresh and naturally sweet, unlike the overly sugared fruit from Pearl Liang in the Hyatt on the 2nd floor.



While the waffles weren't as crispy as I'd have liked, I was happy to have found the station since it was hidden away near the front of the entrance, sort of disjointed from the rest of the buffet area, which has a natural flow. I could have even left without eating anything from it, but I asked my mom where she got all the pastries from. When I found it, I was so excited- you could choose to have freshly made waffles, pancakes or french toast, with honey from a honeycomb or various syrups and toppings including whipped cream or chocolate sauce. I tried a little of both the french toast and the waffles and added my own bananas.

jam

french toast and waffles.. i added fresh bananas

For a hotel buffet, it's got a lot to offer. But the wide variety of selections of Chinese and American brunch options doesn't come cheap. At hotel prices similar to Vegas all you can eateries at over NT$600 (or US$18), you'd either have to be very hungry or looking for the convienence and ambience.


tea
jam

revisited/japanese: i strongly recommend SUMIE

SUMIE NOUEVELLE CUISINE JAPANESE
4th Floor, 172 Chung Hsiao East Road, Sec 4
(In San Want Hotel)
(02) 2781-6909

$$$

date revisited: 10/11/2006

I felt bad that my pictures from my initial review of Sumie doesn't do their food justice, so I tried taking some better ones from my last visit there. But unfortunately, I deleted a lot of them because I thought I had downloaded them to my computer already and I didn't. Boo hoo. So here are the few and I promise to bring you more. I usually always get the set menu (unless I'm not hungry and then you should try and split the set menu with someone else)- which is constantly changing, but usually includes (and not in this order) the steak or lamb chops, sashimi, an appetizer, a salad, a seafood dish (for which I like to request the strange sounding but delicious tasting fish jaw), a soup, sushi and dessert.


This crab and edamame over fig was almost like a mini-sculpture plated on top of a giant leaf. I've never had fig before, but I'm glad I tried it- it was sweet and soft, and almost sexy.




I cannot tell you how much I LOVE the lamb chops at Sumie. They are tender, juicy, perfectly flavored and is a must for anyone who has yet to eat lamb or likes lamb chops, although once you've had their lamb chops I don't know how you could eat it anywhere else. It's so satisfying to gnaw on, in the most ladylike way I can, thoughtfully wrapped with aluminum foil to keep the messy to a minimum.

Next time, pics of the sashimi and other artfully arranged dishes.. I promise I won't delete them from my camera until I post them! I still look forward to going to Sumie everytime we feel like nice, sit-down Japanese food, especially in comparison to the food from other nice, sit-down (translation: pricier) Japanese restaurants I've tried since.

Read my previous review from August 14th, 2005.

bakeries: i recommend POZZO

POZZO BAKERY
at San Want Hotel
172 Chung Hsiao E Rd, Sec 4
(02) 2772-2121 ext. 2126

open daily: 7AM- 10PM

$

visit reviewed: 9/28/2006



Pozzo is a bakery located next to the entrance of San Want hotel on the busy Chung Hsiao East Road shopping street. It's a great place to stop by for a snack or to pick up some bread for the next day. With a varying assortment of breads and pastries, today I chose to get (from left to right) squid ink garlic loaf, custard filled tart, coconut raisin bread, and a doughnut for under NT$150. Hey, I haven't had a doughnut in awhile!


I wish I could have had hands free to take more pictures inside the shop (maybe next time!), but it was brightly lit with wall to wall baked goods as well as customers. The front of the store near the window had the desserts with cakes, custards and tarts.

The custard tart was huge and the milky filling reminded me of a softer egg tart filling. The garlic squid ink bread had little bit of garlic butter spread in top of the center and a pleasant garlic taste after you had finished eating the bread- though it's not garlic bread, but rather the flavor of garlic infused in the bread. I shared some with a friend, and he wanted to eat more. The doughnut was good- nothing out of the ordinary and nothing bad to say. I didn't eat the coconut raisin bread, but it disappeared quickly as well.

The hours are pretty good for early and late birds, and the signs are all English and Chinese friendly. I would definitely go there again and try out some of the other offerings, and pick up some more garlic squid ink bread.

japanese: SUNTORY at Far Eastern Hotel

SUNTORY
at Far Eastern Hotel, 7th FL
201 Tun Hwa S Road Sec.2 ,
Taipei 106

Tel: (02) 2376-3241

L 11:30AM - 2:30PM
D 6PM- 9:30PM

$$-$$$$

kid friendliness: high chairs available

visit reviewed: 9/26/2006

I am always drooling over food- whether it's meals made by a TV chef or a photo on a food blog- I think it's true that you eat with your eyes first. So from the minute I saw a picture of the "Fried rock lobster glazed in caramel with Japanese mountain pepper" in the Weekend section of Taiwan News last week (Sept 22, 2006) and the accompanying article about the "zen-like" beautifully presented and delicious Kaiseki set course, I started daydreaming about eating there.

photo by Keye Chang, Taiwan News

It was also perfect for this month's Dine and Dish, LIKE A VIRGIN, where I would be trying new things all around- a new restaurant and my first food blog event ever, hosted by the Delicious Life, which happens to be one of the very first food blogs I've ever read and started me into a spiral of must-read list of daily drool-worthy blogs.

Imagining the morsels of LOBSTER! glazed in CARAMEL! doing a happy dance on my tastebuds kept a smile on my face all the way to the restaurant when I finally made my way there. I called in for a same day with a reservation for 5, and was actually even able to get a private room in the left side of the restaurant once we were there since it was on a slower weeknight. The entrance on the right included a giant wall size fishtank lit an unnatural shade of bright blue and the decor is elegant modern Japanese, even with rock gardens and mini-fountains on the way to the restrooms.

We sat down with the menus and I started to get nervous.. there were a few set courses on the menu, but the Kaiseki course (NT$3000 ~ US$100) reviewed in the paper had a Tempura Red Snapper instead of Rock Lobster. Even the slightly more expensive Chef's set menu (~NT$3300) didn't have it. A million thoughts raced through my mind- (1) They changed the set menu already (2) I only read the article a week ago! (3) Maybe they ran out of rock lobster? (4) Maybe if we ask really nicely they'll make it for us? (5) Maybe it's on a even more special menu onesheet that the waitress forgot to give us? (6) Maybe the chef changes the menu everyday?? (7) Why the heck did the paper focus on the rock lobster if it wasn't even going to be here!!!

We asked the waitress about it and after some back and forth with her and the kitchen, she said that the only thing was the lobster in the Autumn menu (pointing to a placard on the table) but the shell was fried, but not the lobster. If I could do it again, I would have said, okay, let's order that, maybe it's the same thing. But in the moment, I pictured morsels of rock lobster tempura and didn't want something that wasn't what I drooled over. Now that I have the photo in front of me, I think that was what it was and I'm super sad that I didn't get it.

Instead, I ended up making my own quasi-set course by ordering things that appealed to me off the menu to share with the table, and there were quite a few things. Pecan and Soy Paper Crusted Fried Oysters, Mushroom and Asaparagus Salad, Dragon Roll (Tempura Prawn and Avocado), Eel and avocado, fish chin, and Mushroom soup. I will say that the pictures don't capture the food and ambiance with justice, as it was very dark so I had to use my flash and when I didn't, it's harder to see with the diim lighting.

The mushroom soup: I thought it was an interesting twist to serve mushroom soup from a tea kettle. You pour the broth into the two tea cups and drink, and then can scoop out the mushrooms to eat afterwards if you want. The broth was flavorful and deep, but the mushrooms had all the flavor sucked out of them. Two other people in the party said that they thought it was salty, but I didn't think it was.


The asparagus mushroom salad: I wished the tangy, sweet dressing that came on the mini-bed of lettuce was on the rest of the salad, since the mushrooms and asapargus tasted sort of plain in comparison. Even as a mushroom lover, I felt tasted a bit slimy. I also didn't know what to do with the accompanying piece of bread- it was stale and hard as a rock. I don't know what the orange crunchy shreds on top were, but they gave the salad an overall nice bite.


The pecan crusted oysters: These were a lot more dense than I expected, although I guess I should have expected the slivers of pecans to make the deep fried dish a lot heavier. I like my deep fried oysters big, like these were and I haven't had them in awhile, so I was excited. The pecan and soy paper add an interesting texture to the soft body of the oyster, they gave each person a tonkatsu dipping sauce that was not bad.


the Rolls: Both rolls were okay, although, the avocado was barely noticeable in both. I was also very surprised to see the prawn/avocado roll was entirely fried, rather than just the prawns. Not only deep fried, but with onions- again, it made the dinner a lot heavier/greasier than I was expecting.



Several people ordered the set menu- a tempura set menu, the beef set menu and a vegetarian set menu. Here are a couple glimpses of what I saw. I also didn't take a picture of the fish chin- though it was a lot of meat, I found it slightly fishier than I would like and not as crispy.





My overall impressions- it's definitely an upscale restaurant with upscale prices to match, but I think that you can get just as good food for half the price at other upscale Japanese restaurants such as Sumie. Like any relationship, I think I end up comparing all my experiences to your first- which in my case is Sumie, which has various set courses, but one at NT$1500 is mouthwatering and filling and so beautifully presented. I wasn't blown away by the food that I had at Suntory, and maybe it's because I didn't order the chef's special set menu, but I don't think that you should have to order the most expensive thing on the menu to be blown away. I liked it better than the often stuffy Peony Japanese restaurant, but I didn't get what I hoped for when I read the review in the paper. Sometimes the fantasy is better than the reality, but you don't know until you try it.