breakfast/western: i strongly recommend ANTIPODEAN

THE ANTIPODEAN
No. 4, Lane 26, Gangqian Rd, Neihu District, Taipei City, 114
(02) 8751-0027

MRT: Gangqian

hours: 9AM - 6PM

price: $$

visits reviewed: 9/19/2016, 12/15/2016

My must orders: acai bowl, avocado breakfast plate, raspberry tart

Down a typical residential Taipei alley in Neihu is a small bright blue sign with a kangaroo logo. Turn left and when you're greeted by an even bigger pop of color with cerulean blue benches and a huge sign you'll have discovered Antipodean. It's a great place to grab a quiet breakfast since it opens at 9AM, or a group of friends for lunch to share salmon avocado toast, big breakfast plates and my favorite acai bowl (of the moment) in Taipei.  Dare I say an avocado toast and acai bowl wave has been rolling through Taipei the past year? Add this cute cafe in Neihu to the list, @theantipodean does it quite well.

The brunch menu is short and sweet, but avocado lovers will be happy to find that you can either have it mashed on toast (with smoked salmon and arugula), sliced on a breakfast plate (with baked beans, eggs, hash browns, mushrooms and a baked half tomato), or baked with spicy chorizo. 

Someone asked me the other day to recommend good coffee shops #☕️ to be able to work in, with free wifi and an outlet for a laptop. I recommended a few, including @theantipodean. Do you guys have any favorite coffeeshop offices? 

Water, cups and utensils are self serve. 

Lots of pretty corners to choose from for those with the patience to pose for selfies or pose their food. 

Having been to the Antipodean several times, my go to order now is the Avocado big breakfast (NT$320) since it has a little bit of everything, and you can DIY your avocado toast with the slices of sourdough they give you. The scrambled eggs are fluffy and creamy, baked bean slightly sweet, roasted mushrooms and tomato to feel healthy.

If you're looking for meat in your morning, then the Antipodean Big Breakfast (NT$320) swaps out avocado for bacon and sausage.

I'll always remember the Antipodean as the first place I ever tried an acai bowl (only a few months ago. I know totally behind the times), and though I've only tried a couple afterwards, I still like Antipodean's the best. The consistency and iciness of the acai smoothie is just right and their house made granola gives a nice sweet crunchiness. Even though I had a little bit of sticker shock the first time as their bowl is NT$380, the size is larger than the other places I've had it and they do not skimp on the fruit. Deflect the cost by sharing with friends. 

Loved the thin slivers of almonds, the caramelized granola and the fat slices of bananas, strawberries and blackberries (Yay!! Loveeee blackberries). Can you believe this was my first acai bowl EVER? Underneath the layer of crunch and fruit are creamy, icy spoonfuls of acai berry smoothie. 

I think I was always a bit intimidated by not knowing what it would taste like (and how do you pronounce acai anyway?!) but if you like yogurt bowls, you should enjoy this. 

Avocado toast hiding under the smoked salmon. I do love it with the arugula. (NT$320 for 2)

Founded in April 2016, the name of the Antipodean is a nod to its founder's Australian roots, and calls itself a third wave Australian inspired coffee shop. It does remind me a bit of Woollooomoolo in the early days with their breakfast plates before they raised prices and made portions smaller, and made certain menu items exclusive to weekends. The owner is quite friendly and you might catch him behind the counter to strike up a conversation. I've been wanting to keep Antipodean to myself since their space is limited, but I've already seen a flurry of instagram posts with their bright blue table and carefully placed dishes since I first posted it, so I might as well post my write up for my friends who have been asking me "what's good there?" 

vegan/salads: i strongly recommend OOH CHA CHA

OOH CHA CHA 自然食

No. 207, Nanchang Road, Sec. 2

Zhongzheng District, Taipei 

(02) 2367-7133

MRT: Guting

website: oohchacha.com

hours: 10AM - 9PM

$$ (about NT$300/person+)

kid friendliness: depends on how healthy your kids are. saigon bowl with tofu and potato wedges might be a good place to start. 

visits reviewed: 6/19/2017 & 5/12/2016

must orders: Saigon Bowl, Wild Mushroom Bowl, vegan Bacon Cheeseburger, garlic kimchi

IT'S BEEN AWHILE SINCE I've been to Ooh Cha Cha, a vegan cafe in the alleys near Guting MRT stop. But I've just come back from Seoul, where I've eaten a week's worth of bbq meats, kimchi, crab, octopus, and my body is calling out for some veggies. Even at 1PM, Ooh Cha Cha is busy with diners multitasking on their laptops and I've managed to grab the last table before I have a chance to glance at the menu and order at the counter. 

Opened four years ago, Ooh Cha Cha offers vegan bowls, salads, toasts, burgers and desserts. Last year I dipped my toes into the vegan scene in Taipei and was amazed with the range of restaurants I found once I fell into the rabbithole.  It's always exciting to discover more choices and options for food. Even better when you can eat clean and healthy. 

In the sunlit cafe, tables seat about 10 people and there's a small corner where solo diners can grab a seat along the wall when there's no tables left. Ooh Cha Cha also can pack orders to go and I've spotted it on Ubereats, so that's also an option. Two people walk in while I'm waiting for my food and get told that "there's no more seats." But if it were me, I would still place an order while I'm waiting for the table to clear up because tables become available pretty soon after the people walk out the door and the food takes just as long to be prepared. 

Ooh Cha Cha dubs itself a "plant based cafe" and promises no refined sugar, along with the typical no animal products, no dairy (eggs, milk, cheese) that a vegan cafe would avoid. The menu includes a good assortment of toasts, salads, burgers, bowls as well as smoothies and desserts. Diners can also add on things like tempeh, kimchi, baked potato wedges or eggplant bacon to customize their dishes. From the last time I visited, Ooh Cha Cha has smartly changed their sandwich rolls to toasts, which are (a) more on trend and photogenic and (b) more tasty as you focus on the toast topping rather than just taste the bread.

Get a closer look at their menu on Ooh Cha Cha's website. 

I upgrade my meal to a "set" by adding NT$100 and getting a drink. I opt for the Fruity Punch, which has strawberry, organic apple, mango, seasonal greens and orange juice. It doesn't have the pop in color or taste as my last drink, which had beets and apple, so I think I will stick to that next time. But because they don't add additional or refined sugar, I know I'm not drinking empty calories. 

I get a bit hangry as I wait almost 30 minutes for my food, and I remember the last time I also waited quite awhile. I can see that my plates are almost ready and I walk over the counter hoping that it's ready, and the server mentions that the tofu is grilled to order, so I ask for my plate of side dishes first. 

The beet hummus resembles a raspberry sorbet, especially with its bright pink hue, creamy texture and scoops topped with nuts, so it's an odd sight next to the sliced balsamic mushrooms and golden garlic kimchi. If you've been craving LA's Lemonade, where you can order different deli counter-like veggies to put together as a meal, I think I might have just found a vegan surrogate. 

My dish arrives to the table shortly after I've given the counter my "I'm so hungry I will pass out" look. I always forget the name of this dish, but I just remember that my favorite is the one with the tofu, and then I see that it falls under "bowls" on the menu, even though it's more of a plate. 

The Saigon bowl has non-GMO lemongrass tofu, organic quinoa with pesticide-free brown rice, pickled daikon and carrots with cucumber, a small salad with local organic greens and spicy almond butter sauce. It's so satisfying as I mix it together and add the mushrooms and kimchi and start inhaling my food. I notice everyone who leaves has eaten their plates clean also. I end up wishing I had some thin slices of toast or something to eat with my hummus, so I end up packing most of it to take home. 

You can see Ooh Cha Cha's menu from my first visit, over a year ago, and there's only been slight changes with the rolls being taken off, replaced with toasts and with double the number of burgers from three to six options. Most of the smoothies are still the same.  All of Ooh Cha Cha's sauces, spread and patties are all made in house from fresh vegetables, nuts, dried beans and seeds. 

Saigon Bowl and a side of garlic hummus and beet balls. 

Bacon cheese burger with spicy "nacho cheese" made from cashews. (NT$280) The patty is made with mushroom and beans, while the bacon is made from eggplant. I enjoyed this burger and was pleasantly surprised by the extra kick that the cheese gave the burger.

Raw cheesecake. There's also vegan beer available and an assortment of hot tea, coffee and even fair trade hot cocoa.

Sometimes people mistake eating clean or eating healthy for needing to eat bland, but I think vegan restaurants in Taipei like Ooh Cha Cha, Miss Green, Green Room and Plants challenge and dispute that. The founders are passionate about educating customers that vegan food can be both nutritious and tasty, and worth paying a little extra for.  Check out my interview with Ooh Cha Cha's co-founder Mai Bach here. 

Something like a tofu salad could come out flavorless, but by creating different layers of flavors and textures with the pickled veggies, the lemongrass, the spicy almond butter, the meal is more than just throwing a bunch of veggies on a plate. It ends up being something I crave and know that the ingredients are sourced mindfully and cooked with care.. Who else has been looking for something like this in Taipei? 

snapshot/revisited: i still strongly recommend THE DINER

THE DINER

(XinYi 信義) at ATT4Fun
No. 12, Songshou Rd
台北市信義區松壽路12號
(02)7737-5055

website: http://www.thediner.com.tw

MRT: Taipei 101

Previous review: 11/2011 and 12/2006

My must orders: pancakes and omelettes, fried mushrooms, chicken wings, quesadilla, burger

[TAIPEI- XINYI] New brunch spots may come and go in Taipei, but the Diner is the granddaddy of them all. Plus it's open before 10AM and sometimes you need to squeeze in some banana pancakes and be done by the time the cafes are even open. Portions and tastes are American style and delicious, consistently so even after all these years, (unlike some spots that reach peak success and then lose customers when the food quality starts to slide, or the portions start to shrink (i.e. Bakery 49, 1Bite2Go, California Pizza Kitchen). And even though I hadn't been to The Diner in awhile, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they keep adding to their menu to compete with the newer trends and places while keeping their signature favorites. 

The latest menu for The Diner - they even have a page for their healthy options and acai bowl (though it wasn't available when we went).

Vegetarian options at the Diner-- wow, they upped their game and even have zucchini spaghetti and sweet potato quinoa salad. 

Greek omelette with potatoes o'brien. Subbed avocados for the feta, and had the feta on the side (for my friend with the dairy allergy) (NT$280). So good, I think I inhaled my half.

Banana chocolate pancakes- dessert for breakfast, American style (NT$180 a la carte). A short stack and covered in banana slices. Perfect for sharing along with an egg dish.

DINER's other locations

(NanGang 南港)
No. 166A Jingmao 2nd Rd
台北市南港區經貿二路166號A棟2F(中國信託金融園區)
(02) 2788-3330

(DaAn 瑞安)
No. 145 RuiAn St.
台北市大安區瑞安街145號
(02) 2700-1680

(Hsinchu 新竹)
No. 73, GuanXin Road
新竹市東區關新路73號 
(03) 579-8188

american: I recommend SPROUT

SPROUT 初芽
No. 33, Zhongshan N Rd, Sec 7, Tianmu
台北市士林區中山北路七段31號
(02) 2876-6080

MRT: Shipai

hours: 8:30-21:30

website: Sprout's Facebook page

price: $$-$$$ (NT$300-500/person)

kid friendliness: kid's menu and dishware available 

visit reviewed: 9/30/2016

Avocado and spinach grilled cheese sandwich. Roasted vegetable quinoa salad. Lemon ricotta pancakes. Feta spinach turkey burger. Spinach and turkey lasagna. The menu from Sprouts, a casual and busy cafe in Tianmu, reads like a menu from a restaurant in LA and one of the hardest things to do at Sprout is to decide which dish to try first. 

Serving up brunch, salads, sandwiches, pastas, smoothies and desserts, Sprout joins the latest wave of Taipei restaurants offering up American menus that were nearly nonexistent here just a few years ago. Pricing is on the higher side, but reasonable considering the portions, especially for the salads. Quite a few vegetarian friendly dishes as well as some unusual hot plates like jambalaya or Hungarian chicken.  Reservations recommended, especially for weekends. Customers are expected to place orders and pay first at the register, get a number and grab utensils, plates, cups, water, condiments at the self serve station in the center of the room. 

Self serving station

I was torn between a lot of things on the menu, but I decided to try the prime rib roast with caramelized onions sandwich (NT$400) and add the tomato soup and iced green tea for an extra (NT$120). The sandwich came with a choice of a side dish, which you can see at the counter, and I was happy with the roasted vegetables, though I wished the portion was slightly bigger.

Loved the tomato soup as it had the right amount of creaminess, sweetness and tomato sourness and it was a satisfying portion to lead into the meal. Hard to find a good tomato soup in Taipei, and I would definitely order this again (maybe along with the green monster grilled cheese sandwich).

I used to always order the french dip at 1Bite2go, but they've recently taken it off the menu. The prime rib sandwich version at Sprout might be even better than 1Bite2Go's,  as it came with a fat tomato slice and pickled onions on the side, along with the caramelized onions that were already with the beef. The provolone and horseradish also add some depth to the flavors, so you almost don't need the au jus, though I still found myself dipping pieces of the fluffy ciabatta into the sauce.

I enviously eyed the heaping bowls of salads my lunch meeting friends ordered- the mexican chicken and avocado salad (NT$360) came with chicken, corn, baby tomatoes and avocado on a pile of lettuce  and the roasted vegetable quinoa salad (NT$340) had a touch of crumbled feta cheese atop the roasted bell pepper, zucchini, carrots and tomatoes. Some of the restaurants in town have salads on their menus, but when it comes, there's no lettuce in sight, so it's great to see these American sized portions so you could potentially share dishes or pack half the salad to go for later. 

Scallops and salmon pasta in pesto sauce (NT$530) 

I wished I had saved room to try some of their desserts on the menu, like the caramel banana cream pie or the apple and maple cake, but I will have to make a return visit to try them then. I also wanted to try the breakfast smoothie bowl, which you can choose any smoothie and make it into a bowl topped with bananas, berries, chia seeds, coconut and granola. (NT$150 + price of smoothie) Otherwise, you could always swing by Dairy Queen which is right next door for a blizzard or ice cream sandwich.