western/french: BUTTER CAFE & CREPERIE

BUTTER CAFE & CREPERIE 法式輕食餐廳
No. 122-1, ZhongXiao E. Rd, Sec. 4, 2F
台北市忠孝東路四段122-1號2樓
(02) 8772-3832

MRT: Zhongxiao/DunHua

website: Butter Cafe's FB page

hours: 11 AM - 10 PM

$-$$ (about $350/person)

Kid friendliness: roomy, lots of options on menu

Visit reviewed: 1/5/2012

I had high hopes for Butter Cafe & Creperie. I spotted the sign when riding a taxi near the Zhongxiao/Dunhua intersection and made a mental bookmark.

So imagine my surprise when the crepes are not really the main thing on the menu- there's pasta, risotto and way in the back of the menu, crepes. I suppose it's easier for a cafe to survive if it's diversified in its menu offerings, but somehow it makes the cafe seem like its catering more towards local customers, and maybe local tastes. No one during lunch around us seemed to be eating crepes until we were leaving, I spotted one table with a dessert crepe.

The space is fairly large and not too crowded. The entrance is not directly on Zhongxiao, but at an angle spotted easily from the main street. The upstairs takes to the Hi Sushi as well as Butter Cafe, like a fork in the road.

We order a few savory crepes and sweet crepes and one pasta to share in case it's not enough for the four of us. One slice of dry garlic bread comes for the solo pasta dish.

And then we wait. Hungry. At least half hour passes before anything else comes to our table and the lunch hour is counting down. One of my friends has to leave for another meeting and ends up having to leave before the dessert crepes come out.

Finally, we cheer when the first hot crepe comes and I have a mini flashback to the galettes from the now closed Mamm Goz. The La Complete crepe with ham, cheese, egg, mushroom (NT$220) ends up being my favorite for the savory choices, with lots of cheese and diced fillings (though the egg atop is a tad bit undercooked for me, so let them know if you like your egg more well done).

The bright bluish purple dressing on the salad is a sweet yogurt type dressing to the salad- kind of an alarming sight, but harmless.

Also note that the mushrooms are shiitake mushrooms and not regular white mushrooms.

Order the sweet potato fries if you like sweet potato fries, they are fried to a perfect crisp and addictive! The portion is small, but satisfying.

My friend's La Piano- smoked salmon, sour cream crepe with salad (NT$240) wasn't my thing, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of sour cream. The kitchen sends out one dish at a time, with gaps of time in between. Not a problem during a brunch, but a problem if you only have an hour for lunch.

The Seafood spaghetti in tomato basil sauce was decent and a good size.

The hard apple cider (NT$60) here is served chilled and in a champagne glass, not warm and in a mug as my friend expected.

The vegetarian Ar Men crepe with tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms and cheese (NT$180).

The Banana, strawberry, nutella crepe  (NT$120) is an impressive sight, but at the first bite, I'm not in love. Why? The crepe is not hot... not even warm. I don't know if it's because they premake the crepe and assemble to order, or if they take a long time to decorate it and it cools? But it just doesn't give my tastebuds that same gooey nutella justice that I was hoping for. Those not picky about temperature could still be satisfied as an afternoon tea snack.

The stewed apple, salted butter caramel crepe with sesame ice cream (NT$140) is even more confusing. I appreciate that they might have tried to be creative by pairing sesame ice cream with apple, but the flavors work against each other instead of together. Why mess with the classics of apple, caramel and vanilla ice cream? This crepe is also cool to the touch.

Bittersweet flashback again to the yummier dessert crepes at Mamm Goz and the search for dessert crepes continues. I have another contender I'm going to try soon that should be promising! I'll keep you posted!

ramen/japanese: i recommend RAMEN SANJI

RAMEN SANJI 麵家三士
at ATT4FUN
No. 12, Song Shou Road, 5FL 
台北市信義區松壽路 12號 5樓
(02) 7737-5188

MRT: Taipei City Hall

website: ramensanji.com.tw 

$ (about NT$200/person)

Kid friendliness: lots of kids spotted, lots kid friendly menu options

Visit reviewed: 2/3/2012

When I saw that Ramen Sanji had lines out the door when I was window shopping for a place to eat, it definitely piqued my curiosity. Was it worth waiting in line for, or was it just another Taiwanese "we love to line up no matter what" place?

It looked promising, but I ended up at its neighbor San Yuan that night instead. So when I needed a place to eat after the Taipei Book Fair, I wandered over to ATT4Fun. It was a late lunch so there was no line- we just waited a few minutes for them to bus the table.

We ended up getting a nice corner seat with a window view of 101.

table spices and sauces

The menu unfortunately is only in Chinese and Japanese, but there are lot of bright looking pictures (that look all like the same bowl of ramen). I interrogated our server and the gist is basically- the first page is a shoyu pork bone broth that has varying pieces of grilled fatty pork, with options of 1 piece, 2 pieces, 4 pieces (the NO. 1 bowl at NT$250), or chopped up pieces; the second page has the more unique black sesame flavor, bonito flavor or spicy flavor pork bone broth; the third page (not pictured) has the noodles separate from the broth which is served in a smaller bowl for dipping and includes a garlic miso broth;

and the last page has the appetizers and additional topping choices. There's also sets available with Kirin Ichiban beer.

I end up getting the original broth with ramen 2 pieces of char siu (NT $190) and not too long later a steaming bowl comes to me. Being pork bone broth, it's slightly oilier and heavier than the miso broth I usually order (with the post meal thirstiness that you get sometimes). The ramen is nice and al dente and the portion is just right. The elements set it apart from the other chains I've eaten at before- I love the egg has the soft boiled, custardy yolk and the char siu pork is served hot with a nice chargrilled flavor. Even though it's a tad fatty, I end up eating it all anyways.

My friend's screaming red bowl of spicy ramen looks good too. One small spoonful of her broth into mine gives my bowl a nice punch, but there's no way I could drink her whole bowl.

The fried chicken (NT$120) here is also heavily seasoned. Good, but the batter is a bit thick and I preferred the version I had other ramen places.

Even at 1:30PM, Sanji is packed with ramen slurping customers. There aren't a ton of ramen options in the Xinyi area and the ones I can think of are all in food courts, like Ajisen ramen at Xinyi Eslite or Ramen Kagetsu ramen in Vieshow food court. Sanji has a nice noodle shop feel without being too expensive.

And after we pay the bill, Sanji's regular line has formed at the door with ten or so people in the middle of the afternoon. I'd definitely come back, especially if I spotted there was no line.

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.