western/brunch: I strongly recommend THE DINER at ATT4FUN

the Diner
at ATT4Fun
No. 12 Song Shou Rd.
(02）7737-5055

MRT: Taipei City Hall

hours: 10AM - 12AM

kid friendliness: high chairs available. dining area on second floor, stairs only.

visit reviewed: 10/26/2011 and 11/23/2011
previous posts: 12/2006 and 6/2007

Has it really been that long since I've last eaten at the Diner? I'd been scared off by the crowds and waits, and found other brunch and burger options around town. But the lure of the Diner in the Xinyi area was too convenient to resist. Even a few days after opening in late October, the newest branch of the Diner was already packed full of customers. Although it's in the ATT4Fun building, it has its own storefront entrance, across from Vieshow theaters. Don't go inside the main building looking for it, otherwise you'll make a huge circle around it.

I was surprised by how huge the menu was, with more brunch (Frittatas, Baked Egg Rancheros, Baked Egg with Oxtail?!) and main dish items (Po Boy Sandwiches, Turkey Reuben, Pulled Pork sandwiches, Fish and Chips) than before, since I hadn't visited the Diner in such a long time. But it turns out this expanded menu is only for the ATT4Fun location.

With the big windows, the space is airy and bright with more space than the other Diners, especially the basement located Dunhua Diner. 

I was a little overwhelmed by the new menu, and ended up ordering a Spinach salad (NT$310) which had bits of bacon, chopped hard boiled egg and blue cheese crumbles. The vinagrette was light and slightly sweet and I quickly polished off the sizeable salad. Other salads available are caesar, cobb, nicoise and grilled steak.

My friend's Burger with blue cheese looked good...

as did my other friend's All American breakfast plate (NT$280), though the hash browns could have been more crispy.

Save room for dessert- the Diner has slices of pie, scoops of ice cream, carrot cake slices, as well as their massive chocolate brownie with ice cream. The bill is paid downstairs at the register after the meal.

I got the chance to try the pancakes I was craving on a return visit. On a weekday morning, it was nice and cozy, not too crowded with our food coming out fairly quickly. I probably gasped when I saw the banana and chocolate pancakes breakfast (NT$330) piled with whip cream and chocolate. The pancakes were fluffy and not too dense, and dotted with chocolate chips too, but I definitely couldn't finish the stack by myself.

The bacon was crispy and the potatoes o'brien were well seasoned and good. You can get the pancakes or french toast with or without the eggs/breakfast meat/potatoes too. Hey! I just realized when writing this up that they left off my mushrooms. Oh well.

It's great to finally have a brunch place in the Xinyi area, though it's kind of insane how far in advance you have to make weekend reservations.

OTHER LOCATIONS

No. 145, Rui-An St.
(02) 2700-1680

No.6, Lane 103, Dunhua S. Rd., Sec. 2
(02) 2754-1680

CAFE CAFE
No. 2, Lane 147, Alley 5, Keelung Road, Sec. 1,
(02) 2764-1680

CLOSED! dessert/drinks: DAZZLING CHAMPAGNE DINING BAR

CLOSED! a/o 2014

DAZZLING CHAMPAGNE
No. 28, Songshou Rd.
(02) 2723-0068

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: dazzlingdazzling.com/champagne or Dazzling Champagne's FB page

$$-$$$

hours: 6PM - 2/3AM

kid friendliness: have seen kids out quite late at night in Taipei, but would not recommend that you bring them to a bar!

visit reviewed: 10/22/2011

If you haven't noticed, I'm sort of obsessed with food. But ask me where to party or go drinking or dancing, I'm not an expert. But it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy going out once in awhile for a girly drink or two.

And on all things girly, Dazzling has cornered the market with an eye for design, branding and food. With each expansion of the Dazzling food empire, the black silhouette logo clearly stands out- from the cute Dazzling Cafes to Dazzling Thai to Dazzling Shabu Shabu and now Dazzling Champagne, a lounge bar/club by night, lit up in a purplish pink glow and seating area that would fit afternoon tea if it wasn't 11pm at night.

We were bummed to not see the truffle fries we liked at Dazzling Sunshine on the menu nor the honey toast. From 5:30 PM- 9:30 PM, you can order from their dinner menu which includes soups, salads, pastas, risottos and entrees like stewed beef cheek or duck confit. I believe you can also sit in their dining area without a minimum charge. After 10 PM, it's snacks and drinks.

Besides the food menu, there is a separate elaborate drink menu where each girly cocktail has a girly name to go along with it. The funny thing is when the waiter deliver the drink, they ask "Where's Christina?" or "Who's Janet?" and you realize that they are talking about your drink and not asking for someone at your table. One of the guys at our table ordered the lone guy drink- the "Johnny."

Thanks to my friend's phone rescue light, I was able to get some photos without the lavender hue.

cheese plate NT$620

deep fried onion rings NT$350

creme brulee NT$180

chocolate lava with ice cream NT$180

While the special cocktails were a lot of fun, we were all surprised that the tastes were a little off. Maybe too syrupy or strong, but even my mojito was missing something. I sadly only took a few sips and passed it to my friend. (For better mojitos in Taipei, try Dan Ryan's or Haleakala.)

mojito

And when we saw a honey toast drifting off to another table, we waved down our waiter to order one. Apparently it's an off the menu item, but it only makes sense that Dazzling Champagne serves the trademark honey toast that made the brand so famous. Some of my friends had it for the first time tonight and were quite excited to try it.

strawberry honey toast

I found it not as dry as the one as I had at Sunshine, but you still needed the ice cream and whip cream to give it sauciness.

It was fun to hang out past my bedtime that night with friends, feel like a grown up and people watch, but still looking for other places with cocktails that taste as good as they look. But if you're craving honey toast at midnight, now you know where to go.

CLOSED/revisited/bakery: I still strongly recommend WE LOVE COOKIES

WE LOVE COOKIES
No. 17, Lane 283, Luo Si Fu (Roosevelt) Road, Sec. 3
(02) 2369-5555
CLOSED

MRT: Gongguan & Taipower Bldg

website: We Love Cookies Facebook page

hours: 5 PM - 10 PM; Closed Mondays

$

Kid friendliness: buy extras for yourself because the kids will eat them all

Visit reviewed: 11/20/2011
Previous Visit reviewed: 8/17/2011

Finally caught We Love Cookies during their open hours again and spotted a new refrigerated display case for cupcakes and lots more options.

The first thing I had to try? Red Velvet whoopie pies!!

Cupcakes and mini cheesecakes are NT$50, whoopie pies NT$25, cookies are still 5 for NT$100. Flavors of the day were carrot cake, mint chocolate chip, passion fruit, Bailey's and banana cupcake with chocolate frosting. Cookies are not usually available until after 5pm, but will be warm and fresh from the oven.

The Bailey's cupcake had Bailey's irish creme liqueur in the frosting, as well as coconuts and pecans. The cupcake was moist with a few chocolate chips inside.

The cookies are still chewy and delicious even a day or two after buying them- my favorites are still the chocolate brownie dusted with powdered sugar and the cornflake cookie with dried cranberries.

Oh and the red velvet whoopie pies were good! Moist with cream cheese frosting in between the cake cookie layers, it was the right amount of sweetness and tasted like it could come out of any trendy bakery in LA.

Still no official sign for the storefront as We Love Cookies shop is a still a "work in progress", but look for it in between the Sababa or the instant ramen shop, a few alleys behind Tai Yi Milk King, across from Taida. Perfect for picking up some desserts for the next holiday potluck.

CLOSED! japanese/sushi: NAKAYOSHI SUSHI BAR at A8 MITSUKOSHI

CLOSED! a/o summer 2012. It's now a Hi Sushi

NAKAYOSHI SUSHI BAR at
A8 XINYI MITSUKOSHI, B2
No.12, Song Gao Rd.
(02)2720-5123

MRT: Taipei City Hall

hours: 11AM - 9:30PM

$-$$

kid friendliness: only bar seating, mostly raw items

visit reviewed: 11/7/2011 (all photos with iphone 4G)

I'd been wanting to check out conveyor belt sushi in Taipei for awhile and while grabbing a quick lunch with a friend before shopping, we settled on this sushi bar in Mitsukoshi food court for lunch. Slightly disappointed to see that there wasn't much sushi circling around, since that's the fun of eating at a place like this, but the chef quickly told us we could order off the menu.

The menu is helpful with pictures and names in English, Chinese and Japanese. I've been slowly learning the names of sashimi that I like, and it's handy to have a reference when the chefs usually use the Chinese names here. 

We started out with the bi mu yu or aburi engawa, which is a thin muscle in the dorsal fin of a flounder. They ask if we want it torched and we say yes, since that's how I've usually eaten it at other places and it's quite fatty and slightly chewy, so it tastes better torched. 

My friend and I end up deciding to share a large sushi platter (NT$420) which the chef puts together.  It's a good assortment of things, with salmon, tuna, amberjack, scallop, cobia, anago, engawa, crab, ikura and uni. The sashimi slices were a decent size and while not the best I've had, not the worst. One thing that definitely separates the great sushi places from the mediocre is the rice. And the rice here is too soft. And the fish was soft, unlike the firmer fresher sashimi in my favorite sushi bars, and the uni was not as sweet.

At first I didn't know what this small black spout was at the counter of each seat, but my friend explained it was a personal hot water spout for hot water or tea, if you grabbed one of the tea bags that were set out. You just push your cup against the button and steaming hot water comes out. No need to flag down a busy waitress. 

We tried some of the rose rock salt from the conveyor belt. There's also wasabi and ginger circulating.

One of our favorite things was this creation we spotted off the menu, ikura and uni wrapped with ika or squid. Salty with the ikura roe popping as I chewed.

Disappointed with this special on the menu- Mentaiko with cobia sounded promising, though watching the chef make it, the mentaiko was more of a mayo paste tubed on top and then he used some butter when he torched it. So the butter flavor totally overwhelmed the natural flavors of the fish and roe. First time I'd ever tasted sushi with butter and I really disliked it.

The system for determining the bill at kaiten sushi is pretty genius- calculate the cost by the color and number of empty plates you've stacked up and do the math, or let the waitress do the math. With only two pieces of sushi on each plate, it can stack up pretty high if you're hungry.

Our bill for all this ended up being NT$980 for 2 people, or about US$15 a person.

Where is your favorite kaiten sushi conveyor belt place in town? I know a lot of people like Sushi Express since it's what you've been voting for (!), but I'm curious to know if there's other places I must try!

hungryintaipei October/November restaurant round up

-California Pizza Kitchen finally opened up in Taipei! At Vieshow Xinyi foodcourt area. Soft opening in November through their official opening mid-December. Curious to see how much of the menu they'll bring over.
-Sadly, Burger Stop closed last week after one and half years of great burgers and shakes.
-Macho Tacos opened a second, roomier location in Shida
-Raw Sushi, near Marquee, closed and being replaced by Uptown Kitchen and Bar which looked like it was opening late November
-French bakery Lalos opened in the 101 Food Court and Michelin starred chef STAY on the 4th floor of 101
-Many restaurants opened up at ATT4Fun including the Diner, Coffee Alley, Whiple House, Ramadan Thai, Bangkok Jam, as well as other Chines, Japanese and Korean restaurants
-Looking for something more unusual? Opened in the last few months- Bollywood Pizza, featuring Indian sauces on pizza, or Tajin Moroccan near Tonghua night market
-Happy 1st anniversary to Wendel's DaAn Branch and DN Innovacion, both celebrating their one year anniversary
-Found out that Lugar Home Bread Bar still has one location open
-Spotted closed Burgerhood and closed Mary's Hamburger, DaAn branch
-Small cooking studio opened a few months ago in Bellavita food court. Classes available only in Chinese but varied cuisines
-Dean and Deluca at Breeze Center closed a few months ago, in its place, Trine and Zen, kept the deli counter and coffee shop space with local goods taking up more space.
-And weirdly also at Breeze, the Romankan Yokohama tonkatsu sandwich place also morphed into a different tonkatsu sandwich name. Same stuff, same location, different signage and name.

Any other restaurant info? Share and post it in the comments below!

my kitchen: hello kitty cornbread

When I was growing up, my mom and dad somehow did a good job instilling the holiday spirit in us, so much so that I have to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas even though sometimes it seems non-existent in Taipei. One thing I'll always remember is that they would put their own little Chinese touches, like stuffing the turkey with sticky rice instead of making stuffing, and it made the holiday that much more memorable.

So even though this year I had my turkey and fixings at a restaurant with friends, if I were making turkey and sides at home, I'd make it a little more fun by making these Hello Kitty cornbreads that I made earlier this year.

I bring my cornbread mix from LA (by the boxful) and picked up this Hello Kitty silicone mold earlier this year when I went on a mini spree at my local Sanrio. Best purchase ever!

Grease the mold beforehand with butter or oil, then fill the mold about half way full. After getting them gently out of the mold, you can brown them face up in the oven a little longer to get the contrast for the faces.

I've also tried biscuits and cake mix in this mold, but cornbread seems to have the best texture and firmness for seeing the Hello Kitty face. You could also use a larger Hello Kitty Cake Pan if you didn't want to keep making little cornbread cakes or can't find this silicone mold.

american/revisited: i still strongly recommend LAWRYS

LAWRY's
No. 105 Song Ren Rd, B1
(02)2729-8555

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: lawrys.com.tw

hours: Lunch M-F 11:30 AM -2:30 PM / Sat, Sun and Holidays 11 AM -3PM
Dinner Sun-Thurs 5:30 PM - 10 PM / Fri, Sat, and Holiday eve 5:30-11PM

$$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs and kids sets available

visit reviewed: 11/13/2011 (all photos from iphone 4g)
previous visit reviewed: 11/2007

Last year, Lawry's moved from its location at the cavernous Living Core Mall (the one that looks like a giant ball) to the basement of a office building across from Neo 19. I was excited to see it move to a location closer to me because I love prime rib and I wouldn't have to navigate the confusing elevators and stairs to its previous location.

'

The current location's entrance is through the back of the odd looking office building, down the stairs. 

Everything is the same, from the spinning salad with buttery croutons and tiny slivers of beet, served with cold forks to the tableside carving of your prime rib. This year will be Lawry's ninth year in Taipei.

In Taiwan, when they ask how well done you want your meat, it's on a scale of 1-10, with 5 being medium and 10 being well done. My prime rib was a 3, or medium rare.

This was a Lawry's cut, (NT$1750) but they said it was a little bigger since there was a fatty tendon in the middle. Or maybe it was because the chef could tell I was very hungry. The next time I would ask for less au jus, or for it on the side, because it was kind of salty. And I love Lawry's creamed corn, (NT$360) even though I know it's just sugar and heavy cream and overpriced. Have to order it here.

On the most recent visit, they also served warm french bread rolls which were much tastier than the slices of room temperature bread they used to serve. I was tempted to ask for another basket and smuggle it home.

I always find it amusing that every other person is celebrating their birthday or anniversary at Lawry's. I think it's because they ask you when you make the reservation, "are you celebrating a birthday or annivesary?" and you probably get a free dessert. So you hear happy birthday being sung every ten minutes during your dinner to the tables where heart shaped balloons are floating. Or maybe I'm cynical and it really is those people's birthdays and they love Lawry's prime rib too. 

For lunch, they also offer a Taipei cut, which is smaller and cheaper than the California cut, which amuses me for some reason, as well as prime rib sandwich and hamburger. They also offer a to-go basket for Thanksgiving which I tried last year and had some good turkey.

Can't believe Thanksgiving is TOMORROW already!!! Where is everyone doing Thanksgiving this year in Taipei?