salad/desserts: i recommend SAVOUR CAFE

SAVOUR CAFE
No. 115 Xinyi Rd Sec. 4
台北市大安區信義路四段115號
(02) 2701-2498

MRT: Daan

hours: 11:30AM - 10PM

$$ (NT$400+ per person)

website: Savour Cafe's FB page

kid friendliness: quiet atmosphere, but kids may like sandwiches and desserts. i wonder if there is a drink minimum for kids.

visit reviewed: 4/12/2016

I've probably passed by Savour Cafe hundreds of times and never noticed it since (a) I'm usually on the other side of Xinyi so it's blocked by the bus stop stands in the middle and (b) the glaring MUCHO sign down the block and the red Eclat boutique hotel around the corner are more eye catching. But if you were walking down the street, you could definitely spot the cafe with the white and gold sign. 

Inside, they make the most out of their narrow space, with a few tables and throw pillow type seating and the "kitchen" and counter in the back. There are quite a few solo patrons working on their laptops and all of the customers are women (except my lunch date). Makes sense considering the light fare on the menu. By mid afternoon, all the of the tables were filled.

There are pretty much only four things on Savour Cafe's menu- a caesar salad, a baby spinach pumpkin salad, a basil chicken panini or a spicy duck breast panini (NT$180-200). The good- the salad that I had come for was delicious, especially since I had been needing a place to fill the void that the loss of Les Bebes' veggie salad left. The bad? They have a mandatory drink minimum and every drink price is jacked up to at least NT$140-180.

UGHHHHHH. I hate drink minimums. I would much prefer a restaurant have a minimum charge. I even asked the server, what if I ordered dessert? But the answer was still no. The drinks to choose from include coffee, tea, au lait, juice, soda, slush or milkshake. After reluctantly mulling over the menu for a few minutes, I tried to pick a drink with the least damage calorie wise- rose tea (NT$180).

Service was fairly quick- the paninis came out around the same time and before the salad that we were going to share. Each panini is cut into three slices and came with a few potato wedges and small salad. Both sandwiches tasted like something I could make at home, which was a good sign, meaning that I liked the flavors and the combination of elements in the sandwiches.

Spicy Duck Breast Panini (NT$180) with pan fried duck breast, jalapeño, tomato, cheddar cheese and mozzarella.

The spread with our mandatory drinks- rose tea on the left and mixed berry soda (NT$180) on the right. I probably wouldn't order the rose tea again- it was floral but not rose, and tasted like watered down tea. Luckily my friend treated me to lunch so I wouldn't lament the fact that I was forced to pay NT$180 for watered down tea. Sure makes for a pretty photo though! (lol, read with sarcasm)

Baby spinach pumpkin salad (NT$180) the salad was plentiful to share between two people (along with a sandwich each) and I liked how they added various almonds and nuts to give the salad a contrasting crunch. The dressing was a bit on the sweet side, but I thought it went well with the baby spinach. The grilled pumpkins were caramelized and tender. I wouldn't mind eating just the salad by myself, with dessert.

Toffee banana tart (NT$160) 

Whipped cream and toffee caramel sauce slathered atop frozen banana slices and cookie tart crust. Like if tiramisu and banana split had a baby. I wasn't going to order this, but I had to ask them about the red velvet cake, and then looking at instagram, it seemed quite a few people raved about the desserts. After finishing the whole thing myself, I could see why- the icy banana slices taste like ice cream and the thick toffee sauce gives it a sticky sweetness. So so good- I might have to try making it at home. They also had red velvet and cinnamon apple cake on the menu, but were out of red velvet. 

So would I come back to Savour Cafe and acquiesce to their drink minimum again? The toffee banana tart was so good that I'm thinking that the red velvet has a good chance of being good as well, so yes. Next time, I'll skip the teas and get coffee to go with my dessert instead. 

revisited/middle eastern: I still strongly recommend SABABA PITA BAR

SABABA PITA BAR 
No. 17, Lane 283, Section 3, Roosevelt Rd
台北市大安區羅斯福路三段283巷17號
(02) 2363-8009

MRT: Taipower Building or Gongguan

website: sababapita.com 

hours: 11:30 AM to 9:30PM

$-$$

CASH ONLY

Kid friendliness: kids might like chicken pita and french fries or meatballs

Visit reviewed: 5/21/2015

Previous visit reviewed: 6/6/2007

When craving hummus, baklava or pita sandwiches in Taipei, I've always headed to Sababa, tucked behind one of my favorite Taiwanese shaved ice spots Tai Yi Milk King. Everytime I'm in that area, I notice a bunch of cafes and restaurants I want to try. What's great is that since Taida University is across the street, most of the eateries in the neighborhood are priced to be student friendly, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sababa had kept its portions generous while having very budget friendly prices.

Sababa's menu had expanded a lot more than I had remembered, but it had also been years since I had last eaten there. Besides the popular falafel pita and soulvaki pita sandwiches, egyptian cigars and salads, there were also now Mama's meatballs, roasted Iranian chicken plates and crispy fish fillets (which are only at this branch).

Sababa's space is casual, cozy and can get crowded, but service and food can be fairly quick.

Sababa Pita Bar's menu has starters, salads, plates, pitzas and 11 types of pita sandwiches, with plenty of lamb, chicken, beef, fish and vegetarian options from NT$160-410. Combination plates are a good way to go to try different flavors. 

I strongly recommend getting the Plata Sababa  (NT$260) which has hummus, baba ganoush (mashed roasted eggplant), falafels and hard boiled egg, as well as plenty of pita slices to dip and devour. I ended up also getting the Meatballs pita (NT$220) which turned out to be two half pita sandwiches so you could actually share it, if you wanted to try different things. The meatballs were huge and perfectly sauced with a Arabian spiced tomato sauce, but a tad softer than I would have liked, but still very delicious. (Probably better that they were slightly soft than too hard and overdone). The pita didn't fall apart despite holding the juicy contents, and was perfect with a bit of hummus and cheese. I was definitely ambitious when I ordered this for myself, and packed the leftovers to eat for dinner.

Sababa used to have more locations, but the ones at Taipei Main Station and Yong Kang Street closed down and this location in Gongguan has the largest menu. Sababa Bakery Kitchen branch at Heping has a slightly more limited menu than here, but offers half pitas at NT$75-100 and salads, stuffed pitas, platas, shashuskas and baked pitzas NT$100-210 (link to menu here). Or you can look for their stand at the Gongguan night market with 5 pita sandwiches to choose from for NT$75-95 (although if you want meatballs, you'll have to come to this location). It's definitely worth trying and great to know they've maintained the quality over the years, since it's nearly impossible to find delicious Mediterranean eats in Taipei. I'm getting hungry just looking at the photos and it definitely won't be as long until my next visit. 

OTHER LOCATIONS

Sababa Pita Bakery

No. 9, Alley 54, Lane 118, Heping E. Road, Sec. 2

台北市大安區和平東路二段118巷54弄8號

Gongguan Night Market stand
No. 18, Alley 286, Roosevelt Road, Sec. 3
台北市大安區羅斯福路三段286巷18號

CLOSED! brunch/dessert: i strongly recommend LES BEBES CAFE

  

LES BEBES CAFE  貝貝西點
No. 10, Lane 295, DunHua S. Rd, Sec. 1
台北市大安區敦化南路一段295巷10號1樓
(02) 2784-7460

CLOSED a/o 2015

MRT: ZhongXiao/DunHua

website: Les Bebes' FB page

hours:  M-F 11:30AM- 9PM; weekends 10AM- 9PM (saturday until 10PM)

$$

Kid friendliness: no high chairs available. Kids will love cupcakes and minis, and pastas and finger foods available

Visits reviewed: 5/10/2013, 9/4/2013, 1/2014 & 2/13/2014; 4/4/2014

I love Les Bebes' cupcakes. Love. So I definitely had to check it out when I heard last year that Les Bebes had opened up a new cafe/bakery in the DaAn district near DunHua/RenAi (neighboring Bianco and the also new to eastside Season). And I've gone back again and again, and finally finished up writing this post to share with you.

The bright, sunny vibe that was at the original cupcake shop is echoed and expanded at the cafe location. Even though the cupcakes are front and center of the shop, there a whole menu to be eaten at the cafe's roomy seating hidden in the back.

Don't mistake it as "just a cupcake shop" as my friend recently did and miss out on the great food.

It's been almost a year since my first visit to Les Bebes Cafe and with Les Bebes' founder Elaine at the helm, I feel like it's grown so much and the menu is constantly evolving and getting refined. There's a new brunch menu I'm especially excited about, with fried chicken and cornbread.

The lunch menu focuses on salads, sandwiches, pastas and a new brunch menu, while the dinner menu has more risottos/pasta and entrees like cajun spiced salmon or roasted spring chicken. Cupcakes anytime of the day. While the menu is on the pricier side, everything is made in house with quality over quantity with flavor profiles and combinations that you might find at fancier restaurants.

Everyone gets a complimentary mini espresso cup of the soup of the day to start and always leaves me wanting more. I think these were beet soup, pumpkin soup and pea with mint. 

I love how the salads at Les Bebes Cafe have a mix of hearty, housemade ingredients that are hard to find in Taipei, where you usually just find caesar or greens with japanese vinaigrette. 

What to order? The Provence salad (NT$410) is a MUST ORDER. With balsamic glazed roast vegetables piled atop the plate with a dash of buckwheat salsa, there's a lot of contrasting textures and flavors that not only tastes good but is good for you. The pumpkin is so sweet with a caramelized skin, there's roasted peppers, tofu, baby corn, bamboo, mushroom, zucchini, even roasted baby cabbage. I haven't found a roasted vegetable salad like this anywhere else in Taipei, so I order this every time I come. It's also vegetarian friendly and deceptively filling, even if you share it.

Be sure to try the grilled baby romaine and the meaty mushroom. SO good.

I crave this salad.  I have to order this every time, which makes it hard to try new things on the menu, but bring friends and share plates.

I also liked the Tomato Confit Salad (NT$430) with sundried tomatoes, house pickled tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and tomato confit as well as slices of tender roasted pork loin hidden underneath the Mizuna greens and arugula. Crispy lotus root slices instead of croutons. 

My dad's ahi tuna salad with couscous and poached egg LBB Signature Salad (NT$440) comes with a light citrus dressing.

It's funny to note the difference from the first visit in May 2013 where the egg was scrambled (photo below) instead of poached. 

The new brunch menu is definitely worth trying. I loved both the crispy Fried Chicken and Cornbread (NT$430) and the Petite French Toast (NT$400), which comes with two options.

Two pieces of fried chicken with ultra crispy skin, a few potato wedges, salad and a nice hunk of cornbread. Don't forget to spread the maple butter on top of the cornbread. Yum.

The Petite French Toast (NT$400) with bacon, banana and salted caramel drizzle is practically a dessert. The french toast is cut into sticks which makes it easy to share and dip into the airy salted caramel whipped cream. Every piece is topped with bacon and banana and perfect for those who enjoy the savory sweet combination. The other french toast option includes a side of hash brown sausage and brown butter apples.

As someone on Instagram commented, almost looks like a stack of bbq ribs! 

I also love the pastas here - they aren't too heavy and while they are on the smaller side, they are pretty filling.  Both the olive pesto seafood and the sausage carbonara are delicious. The rosemary sausage carbonara farfalle (NT$400), which has layers of flavors with the arugula, fresh parmesan cheese and sausage along with the creamy carbonara sauce. It's a kid friendly dish if you pick out the dots of red peppercorn or order it without.

The seafood olive pesto farfalle (NT$400) had a briny savoriness that was different from typical basil pesto and perfect with the clams and chopped squid. It was my first time seeing pesto made from olives and I loved it. And the fresh parmesan shavings atop- try to scoop some into every bite.

The appetizers tended to be on the smaller side for the price (NT$120-280), so I'd skip them and save room for cupcakes instead. But if you were to order them- my favorite out of the bunch was the smoked salmon & roe dip (NT$260), my least favorite the fried calamari (NT$270) because of the size for the price.

Bread and taramasalata dip (NT$260)- focaccia slices with creamy smoked salmon and roe dip

Bread and vegetable dip (NT$180) 

The house made LBB potato chips (NT$150) are addictive with the house made shallot aioli. 

Calamari (NT$270) - much smaller than expected portion for the price. 

I also was pleasantly surprised by the Cranberry Cheese Chicken sandwich (NT$400). It isn't something that I'd typically order off the menu at first glance, but I'm glad Les Bebes' owner Elaine suggested I try when I met her the second time I visited. It's like Thanksgiving in a sandwich, though it's house cured chicken rather than turkey. The creaminess of the camembert cheese married with the crunch of the apple slices and walnuts alone would be great and then you get the sweetness of the cranberry sauce and the spiciness of the arugula- it's great.

My friend's Chili Burger (NT$490), the chili unexpectedly on the side. One of the more "guy" things on the menu.

Some unique coffees to try that sound almost like cupcake flavors- like Iced Lemon Coffee, Pink Rose Salt Latte or Honey Banana Coffee. 

Always so hard to decide which flavors to get, but my favorites are the popular red velvet with cream cheese frosting and the chocolate with peanut butter frosting. There's also a a few unique flavors with matcha green tea, earl gray, carrot cake, salted caramel banana chocolate, chocolate cream pie and lemon pie.

Cupcakes come in regular and babycakes sizes and come in adorable boxes to take home once you pick them out. Otherwise you can pick some to eat with your meal or for afternoon tea. But you find yourself, like me, coming back for the food and not just the dessert. Salads and cupcakes, what's not to love.