italian: i strongly recommend TUTTO BELLO

TUTTO BELLO
No. 15, Lane 25, Shuang Cheng St. 台北市中山區雙城街25巷15號
(02) 2592-3355

MRT: ZhongShan Elementary School

website: tuttobello.com.tw Flash only

hours: 12PM- 2:30PM; 6PM- 10:30PM

$$$$ (NT$2500+/person)

kid friendliness: for gourmet kids

visit reviewed: 11/22/2011

When my friend declared that Tutto Bello was her favorite restaurant in Taipei and that I must try it, I knew that I would be in for a treat. After all, it was the winner as "Best Italian" in the Best of Taipei 2008 HungryInTaipei.com Readers' Choice Poll. I also loved Abu, and knew that Chef Abu had worked at Tutto Bello for many years before starting his own restaurant. With Stephanie and Erin's company, we had a lovely lunch with the menu chosen by the owner Samson.

Tutto Bello should definitely be an option for a luxe meal to wine and dine in Taipei. For all the dishes that we had, the elements seemed simple, but they were composed and layered together in such a way that had me devouring the dish and the sauces. And the service matched the atmosphere- it was attentive with personal touches. An extensive wine list of wines from Napa, France and Italy is available too.

The scrambled egg with chicken jus and truffles or the uova strapazzate was creamy and silky, with truffles shaved for each person tableside.

The flavors melded together and the scrambled egg seemed to melt in my mouth. The colorful beet polka dots on the plate were edible, but mostly decorative.

I'm always happy to see foie gras being served especially when it's a sizeable piece. Loved the contrasting textures of the creaminess and crunch of the Pan-Fried Duck Liver Escalope with Crispy Risotto Cake and Mushroom Cream Sauce. My only complaint about this dish was that it was warm instead of hot when I was eating it, but it's possible it's because I was taking photos and waiting for my friend's dishes to come before I dug in. The sauces again were divine.

This pasta dish is the must order of my friend- Hand-Made Linguine Pasta with Pancetta∕Porcini Mushrooms∕Pine Nuts∕“Les Blanc” Almond Oil∕Jabugo Ham Jus (NT$850). The texture and flavors are tumbled together and worked perfectly. Even though the elements appeared to be simple, the taste was memorable.

And then dessert! The chocolate sphere was brought to our table... 

then slathered in warm chocolate sauce...

Molten on the outside and DELICIOUS.  I think I heard truffle ice cream was on the inside, but I was too busy devouring.

Often times, I've been to "nice" restaurants that had expensive menus, but with passable food and even less impressive service. Tutto Bello stands out with its exceptional food and experience, that makes it worth splurging on, maybe even for a post-Valentine's day night out.

CLOSED! chinese/dessert: i strongly recommend SAN YUAN CHINESE CUISINE

SAN YUAN CHINESE CUISINE 三源
(closed and moved to Neihu, renamed Dancing Chili)
at ATT4FUN
No. 12, Song Shou Rd, 5FL
台北市松壽路12號4F
(02) 7737-5088

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: www.ace168.com.tw (Chinese only)

hours: 11 AM - 11 PM

$$ (about NT$400/person)

Kid friendliness: high chairs and kid dinnerware available. lots of kid friendly items on menu

Visit reviewed: 1/29/2012

Whenever I feel like eating out last minute on a weekend, it's kind of a pain. Most places are booked in advance or have crazy lines not worth waiting in. So on a recent weekend, my friends and I figured we'd head to ATT4Fun and walk around until we saw something without too long of a wait. On the 5th floor there's plenty to choose from and we picked the first one that could seat 8 people without a wait. A few doors down, the ramen place had a line of at least ten people, so we vowed to come back to try it out at a less busy time.

With the modern purple touch, Sanjin looks like it might be too fancy or expensive to eat at, but their menu of xiao long bao, dumplings, noodles and other Chinese food are affordable and surprisingly tasty. I'd previously spotted another branch at Bellavita's food court and heard about their chocolate dumplings. Yep, you heard me say CHOCOLATE!

dinner with a view of Taipei 101

Menus is both in English and Chinese thankfully, though a few descriptions still need further explanations. There are a few unique items besides the chocolate dumplings, like spicy oil fried hand cut noodles, or rice cake with kimchi, or handmade steamed buns that look like porcupines. San Yuan's house specialties are marked with a gold character on the left of the items on the menu, and we ended up ordering quite a few of them.

super hot xiao long bao anyone?

The waiter brings appetizer dishes for us to choose from- I think the group settled on edamame, taro and fried tiny fish.

The kitchen works fairly quickly and dishes start arriving- stir fried cabbage...

ketchup fried rice (NT$ which seemed to be more popular with the adults than the kids, contrary to expectations with the sweet tang...

squishy stir fried rice cakes, cooked to the right chewy-ness...

The steamed pork xiao long baos(NT$160) arrive and disappear quickly, one per person with 8 in a basket, so we end up having to add a few baskets... Hot and juicy, it is a crowd pleaser as much as Din Tai Fung.

We also try the house specialty Lee Xue mild spicy xiao long bao (NT$320), but they look exactly the same on the outside as the regular ones. On the inside, the pork is dotted with what seems like super finely diced chilies and a nice kick. There's a "super hot" one with three chilies pictures as well as a "superb xiao long bao" at NT$520.

The other dumplings are just as good... steamed vegetable and pork (NT$160)...

shrimp and pork shumai (NT$180) which floats a shrimp above a juicy pork dumpling (unlike the ones filled with sticky rice at Din Tai Fung)...

Don't miss the handmade steamed small bun (NT$90 for 3), which doesn't describe how adorable these buns are. 

Up close, I admire the handiwork and wonder how they make all the little spikes.

We weren't full, so we ended up adding the Lee Xue spicy oil fried handmade noodle(NT$200). The pan fried knife cut noodles were thick and chewy and had a nice flavor. A bowl for one would make a nice meal.

Be sure to order the steamed chocolate bun (NT$220 for 5) ahead of time and save room. Bite sized, these are like fat mochi dumplings filled with warm, melted chocolate. Try not to fight over them, or order extra.

chocolate + dumpling = mmmmmm

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by San Yuan. Even though we ordered some of the pricier things on the menu, sharing it allowed everyone a taste and it ended up being affordable at about NT$400 a person. IS a good family style restaurant with speedy service and a nice setting, and most importantly, delicious enough to make a mental bookmark to consider another trip back, before it's as packed as the other restaurants in the area.

OTHER LOCATION

Bellavita, B2
28 Songren Rd
台北市松仁路28號B2
(02) 8729-2739

hotpot/taiwanese: i recommend TAI HO DIEN

TAI HO DIEN 太和殿麻辣火鍋
No. 315 Xinyi Road, Sec. 4 大安區信義路四段315號
(02) 2705-0909

MRT: SYS Memorial Hall

$$ (about $500-700/person)

hours: 12 PM - 3 AM

website: www.taihodien.com.tw Chinese only

visit reviewed: 3/3/2011

Tai Ho Dien is a spicy mala hotpot restaurant on Xinyi Road, which is kind of hard to spot with all the MRT construction going on. But it's roomy with two seating sections and easier to get a big table than the more popular mala joints in town. But it's just as good, and a proclaimed favorite of a few of my friends.

My friends can eat mala hotpot all year round, which is perfect for tagging along, and of course, when they discovered I'd never tried Tai Ho Dien, reservations were made.

What I love about mala hotpot places in Taipei is that they come with the dual sided hotpots, so that you can stick to the non-spicy side, or flirt with the tongue numbing heat as much as you feel comfortable. You pay for the soup base and then for the additional dishes- sliced meats, vegetables, tofu, intestines.. Just give me some red meat to swish around and some you tiao to dunk and eat and I'm pretty happy. I like to soak it for just a few seconds to soak up the spicy broth, but not long enough for it to get soggy.

The broths also get continually replenished, so the blood cubes, tofu, chinese cabbage are all-you-can-eat. For mala beginners, you can get xiao la or low spicy, which is already pretty fiery.

Be sure to try the fish and shrimp fishballs which are freshly made and scooped into the hotpot.

We had some sunshine over the weekend, but it's getting cold again - perfect weather for hot pot! There are also locations outside of Taipei in Taichung, Jhongli, Hsinchu, Zhubei and Kaohsiung. Do I have any readers there? Hungry in Hsinchu? Hahahaha.

seafood: i recommend OYSTER BAR at BELLAVITA

OYSTER BAR
at Bellavita
28 Song Ren Rd, B2
(02) 8729-2731

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: bellavita.com.tw

$$$

hours: 11AM- 10PM/ until 10:30PM on Friday and Sat

kid friendliness: bar stool seating only and all seafood menu

visit reviewed: 11/14/2011

Raw oysters are definitely not for everyone, but if you taste a really good fresh oyster, it could become an expensive addiction. I LOVED fried oysters growing up- my mom would fry up a batch of crispy, fat, juicy oysters from a jar from Ranch 99 every time I came back home from college. But it definitely took me a lot longer to want to try raw ones. The first time I probably tried it was ten years ago at McCormick and Schmick's, with some lemon and cocktail sauce. The jelly-like texture and stronger smell still doesn't compete with the fried oyster for me, but I've grown to appreciate the taste.

And while there are a lot of seafood buffets and sushi bars in Taipei, there aren't a whole lot of raw bars. So of course there's one in the euro-luxe Bellavita, aptly named Oyster Bar. The sleek barstool seating winds all the way around, so it's a relatively casual atmosphere with fine dining quality and prices. I've never seen it have more than a few customers (if any), so it's also relatively chill and quiet.

The menu is fairly straight forward- the first page describes the various types of imported French jet-fresh oysters available, while menu also includes seafood platters, maine lobster, caviar, smoked salmon, sea whelks and iberico ham.  To the uninitiated like me, the names like Tsarskaya Oyster No.2 and Belon oyster may not mean much, but we're always learning. You can try them all with a Home Run Oyster Platter (NT$1680 for 6), or ask them to recommend a few to try as I did.

My new friends that I met with decided to each have a Home Run Oyster Platter and some bubbly from the Wine Bar right next to the Oyster Bar. I wasn't sure if I was going to be full from just oysters, so I decided to have them choose 2 oysters for me and an order of crabcakes.

We were served a complimentary appetizer- the tiny cup of chicken consomme opened up my appetite.

Oyster Bar chose Royal Oyster No.3 (NT$300) and Escaille Oyster No. 2 (NT$320) for me and plated it with little labels, which the food blogger in me appreciates. It's hard to describe the taste, but they tasted creamy and smooth, almost sweet. Enjoy it while it goes down- one slurp is worth a whole meal at about US$10 a pop.

The deep fried crab meat cake with sea urchin tartar (NT$360) were different than the traditional kind one might expect, deep fried and plated standing, but they were full of crab meat inside and the sweet, paper thin, dried apple was an interesting touch.

My friends' Home Run Oyster Platters plated beautifully.

If I were to come back again, I'd bring a few friends to share the Deluxe Seafood Platter that includes a maine lobster, sea shrimps, six oysters, clams, whelks and cuttlefish (NT$3980).