not taipei: Seoul, Korea

Even though I've found some great Korean restaurants in Taipei, you can't compare them to the real deal in Korea. I got to visit Seoul for the first time a few months ago for a very BRIEF trip, but I still got to explore a little bit and eat some good food.

First of all, how come there is a Krispy Kreme in Seoul and not in Taipei??

Someday soon, maybe. And how awesome and random that they were handing out FREE donuts when we walked inside- of my favorite- the original glazed donut, hot off the roller/fryer. It seemed to be good for business, as people still left with boxes of other donuts and we were licking our fingertips of the sugar.



As we wandered around Myeongdong (the Ximending in Seoul), I spotted international brands left and right, not only for clothing, but also for eateries, as well as a few cute little bistros and even a breakfast diner that we've seen pop up recently as well in Taipei. I even spotted a Coffee Bean and the Japanese tonkatsu chain Saboten which is popular in Taipei.



There's also quite a bit of street food- fried delicacies, tempura, spicy rice cakes.



I just didn't have enough time to browse and buy everything. I headed straight to my favorite stationary shop in Korea- Artbox- to get a new stash of unbearably cute bags and notebooks (you can find the stuff in Taipei, but it's much cheaper in Korea) and then it was time to meet up with my relatives for dinner.

We ended up at a bbq place called Itaewon Restaurant (on the street of the same name). Let's just say I left full and happy. With lots of meats to grill and a cold neangmyun to slurp down. You know they mean business when their url is
kalbi.com.kr. Ha ha.






Surprisingly, they can even do a decent Western breakfast. Granted, it was the Grand Hyatt in Seoul, but I've had some really bad experiences with Western breakfasts in Asia (specifically China!) The blueberry muffin was especially moist and I wanted to pocket a few for the road.



KRISPY KREME
1~3 FL New Seoul Building
Myeongdong 1-ga 59-21,
Jung-gu, Seoul
02-775-1470

ITAEWON RESTAURANT
112-5, Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul
02-794-7311

GRAND HYATT SEOUL
747-7 Hannam 2-Dong, Yongsan-Ku,
Seoul, South Korea 140-738
02-797-1234

dessert/american: i strongly recommend THE DINER's pecan pie

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

website: thediner.com.tw

hours: M-F: 10AM - 11PM
Sat/Sun: 9AM - 11PM
Closed alternate Mondays w/ other location

$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available and some couch seating. kids meals avail too.

Visit reviewed: 7/18/2008
Previous reviews: 12/17/2006 and 6/5/2007

Did you know there's a new Diner in town? And you have to wait here too for a table. SIGH! Otherwise, you can round the corner to Carnegie's for a meal (which I have yet to try, but I heard their breakfasts are decent).

Okay, so actually the branch has been around for awhile, opened after the Diner expanded their original location. For the first month or two before the word of mouth spread, we were able to get a seat without too much of a wait. But now the word is out, so you should call at least a day ahead for reservations during meal times. There's table seating upstairs on the first floor and more loungy type seating and room for big groups downstairs in the basement. While I waited for my table inside during the typhoon rainy weather, the servers rushed past me with plates of hot pancakes and burgers, balancing them while they went downstairs.

The burgers/breakfasts are still good. Check out my previous reviews for pictures and details about the all day brunch options as well as burgers.

But today I want to declare my love for the Diner's pecan pie ala mode (NT$90). Served warm with vanilla ice cream, it's sticky, sweet and tastes ultra decadent as the crushed and whole pecans and carmelized sugar melt in your mouth. The slice is big enough to share, sort of. I shared mine with a friend after we had burgers, but once I took a bite I wished I could have eaten the whole slice by myself. (I also took a bite before I took the picture above).

The apple pie (NT$80 plus NT$40 for ice cream) and brownie (NT$150) ala mode are great as well especially when served warm, but the pecan pie ala mode is the best deal!

OTHER LOCATION:

No. 145 Rui An Street
(02) 2700-1680

PS I really like how they designed their map. I wish I had the time to design something similar for all the restaurants I've reviewed.

food court: BREEZE at TAIPEI MAIN STATION

Indian Fans
Yokohama Station
Sababa
Sweetberry &
Little South Gate at

BREEZE at TAIPEI MAIN STATION
3, BeiPing W Rd, 2F
(02) 6632-8999

website: breezecenter.com Chinese only

hours: 10 AM - 10 PM

$-$$

Kid friendliness: lots of options, relatively new and clean.

Visit reviewed: 2/22/2008

If you're looking for a casual place with something for everyone, or you don't have a lot of time but want to have a tasting menu of Taipei eateries, you should head to Breeze at Taipei Main Station. And with all the MRT lines going through the Main Station, you could stop by before you head home or off to your destination.

Essentially, it's a GIANT, full circle food court, with four main sections filled with lots of familiar eateries- Taiwan "Night Market" Chinese food; desserts/bakeries; Curries, and even a whole food court of eight different beef noodle soups shops to choose from. I guess you could have your own Iron Chef tasting if you wanted to. I'll have to give that a try next time.

When we went, we walked around the whole thing to see what our options were, and then settled on trying out the section that seemed to be where all the non-Chinese/foreign options were- curry from Indian Fans, Sababa chicken pitas and Yokohama Station's fried pork tonkatsu and omelette rice.



The Plata Sababa was reliably tasty (with hummus and roasted eggplant) and I introduced Sababa to my friend who enjoyed it. (Although I think the prices at Main Station are slightly higher than their other locations (maybe because of rent) or maybe they raised prices overall?)




The bite of omelette rice and tonkatsu I had were forgettable.




For some reason, my friend got some food from Indian Fans.The flatbread from Indian Fans didn't even look like naan, and the curry was watered down. I usually love Indian food, but the offerings on menu were not appealing to me- it seemed more adjusted to Taiwan flavors. I didn't see any tikka masala or saffron rice. This old Taipei Times article reinforces my gut reaction about the place. I'd rather eat at the other mall court staple, Indian Palace.



There is a lot of seating for each section with wooden benches and you can even take your food from one section to the next if you really want to eat something different from your family/friends.



Of course, you have to save room for dessert.




The desserts section is a white, brightly lit mod area with options like Xiao Nan Men (Little South Gate) do-hwa, Meet Fresh, Pinkberry knock off Sweetberry, Beard Papa or Oishii cream puffs, Movenpick, Mr. Donut, or various bakeries. There's also Starbucks or Mr. Brown coffee if you need a caffeine burst.




The pink and green branding of Sweetberry was just TOO similar to Pinkberry to not be a shameless knockoff. See the same shades of pink and green and similar font in exhibit number 1 from dessertbuzz.com! It's laughable that they even made the logo pretty much the same (but it's a heart). I guess since no one has heard of Pinkberry here, they thought they could get away with it. But I have!


exhibit number 1


exhibit number 2

The expensive price for the extremely small portion (NT$80) and even smaller portion of fruit was a big disappointment. The flavor was appropriately tart (like Pinkberry) and yogurt-like, but I was shocked at the lack of strawberries. I'd stick to the Xiao Nan Men do-hwa or soy tofu custard. If you want frozen yogurt in Taipei, then you'll have to head over to Yogurt Me.



Next time, I'd like to try Minder Vegetarian restaurant and some of the other desserts as well as the Beef Noodle Soup (Niao Rou Mien) section.


View Larger Map

american/sandwiches: GORDON BIERSCH

GORDON BIERSCH
Shin Kong Mitsukoshi A11, 2F
11 Songren Rd

(02) 8786-7588

website: gordonbiersch.com.tw

hours: 11am- 12midnight

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available. crayons. lots finger foods

Visit reviewed: 6/13/2008

You may or may not have heard about this new addition to the "Western Chain Restaurants" (or now known as "WCR") that have made their mark in the Xin Yi area in Taipei in the recent years. Gordon Biersch is a restaurant that I first heard about because of its garlic fries. So imagine my surprise when I saw its familiar sign on the second floor of Shin Kong Mituskoshi where there used to be random shops.

I went there opening week (it was packed at 1pm) and again the following week (not so packed at 12pm).



Why so long for the review? I wanted to figure out how to fairly describe their opening week kinks (and there were lots). I wanted to think about how GB is different than the other WCRs.

It's got an across the board menu filled with appetizers, salads, burgers, pastas, pizzas, grilled meats similar to TGIF, but has yet to work out its growing pains in training its servers to (1) bring you drinks right away and keeping them filled; (2) understand English requests/questions/orders and (3) bring you bread/soup etc right away to keep you happy/munching.

Service was on the slow and confused sides on both visits- with our first visit experiencing a missing pasta dish that ended up having to be reordered and coming about an half hour after we'd all started our food. And the Linguine Marinara ended up being too acidic for my tastes (though my friend thought it was ok).

Another annoying thing is that on the lunch special menu, it says in English that one of the options is lemonade. But apparently, that isn't an option according to the servers. They have lemonade, it just isn't complimentary as a drink with the lunch special (even though it's printed on the menu). And there is no option to upgrade the lunch special sodas/ice tea/coffee to something like lemonade (which turned out to be VERY sour).

But if you like BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, then you should definitely try the one at Gordon Biersch. I don't think you could get one anywhere else in Taipei (please correct me if I'm wrong).



And if you go at lunch and ask them to switch out the potato chips for garlic fries (it might take a few tries) and get the business set lunch that comes with soup OR dessert and drink, then it's not a bad deal at NT$250. With a sprinkle of coleslaw and tender pulled pork bathed in tangy sweet bbq sauce on a bun, it's better than quite a few pulled pork sandwiches I've had in LA. And the garlic fries-- good, but hopefully you get a batch that is not overfried.



And if you're tired of the same old spinach salads from Mac Grill or Quesadilla Explosion salad from Chili's, then you should try the Grilled Chicken Cashew salad here.

GB also has a selection of award winning beers and even a beer sampler (NT$230) of shot glasses for you to try if you can't decide on which one. Personally, I'm not a beer drinker, so I can't report how it is.

From the lunch special, the various creamy soups (potato? mexican chicken?) go down easy like reheated Campbell soups and the chocolate cake is a good size for lunch (not too big, not too small). Chocolate-y enough though not as rich as the cakes from Mac Grill or Chili's.





But there were a few other things on the menu I might want to try if I go there again.. crabcakes, hummus, a couple of their other salads, fish and chips. BTW- if you end up with a menu with English titles for the foods but the descriptions in Chinese, you can ask for an English menu. Most of the WCRs have separate Chinese/English menus that you need to request if you are NOT an obvious Not Chinese Menu Reader like me (aka Chinese American who went to Chinese School for six years but can still only recognize first grade level characters). har har. Okay, my Chinese comprehension has gotten better than that since I've been here so much, but I'd still like my English menu.




View Larger Map

snack/chinese: ALMOND TOFU

You've probably seen the jelly in a cup, even with fruit suspended inside. But I bet you haven't seen this! Pre cut almond tofu with fruit IN A BAG! :)

One reason that I enjoy living in Taiwan is that it is a SNACK city. There are always lots of different kinds of snacks everywhere- hot, cold, on the street, in 7-11, cute, practical, salty, sweet. I'll try and take more pictures of the various snacks or types of snacks that are more unusual, though you can find lots of them in Asian supermarkets, like Ranch 99 or Nijiya or Marukai or even Famima!, in the states now.

I was really really tempted to buy it, especially since I really like almond tofu. But I didn't know if I wanted to spend NT$109/US$3 on it... even though it probably could have filled a couple of bowls.

I was uploading pictures for new reviews and spotted this. So while I'm procrastinating and typing this at 1 in the morning, I kind of wish I had bought it so I could have it as a cold snack. But then again, maybe it's better that I didn't. *Sigh. Oprah says no eating after 9pm (or however many hours before you sleep).

Maybe I'll head over to Shin Kong Mitsukoshi's supermarket in A4 tomorrow to give it a try. Do you think it'll taste good?

my kitchen: pasta salad

I think it's so funny I buy all these drool worthy recipe books (ALWAYS with the pictures. I can't stand those recipe books without pictures) and then when I end up making something, it's usually spur of the moment and without a recipe (I guess more Nigella style than anyone else).

One day, I definitely want to plan ahead and make a whole set dinner from NIGELLA EXPRESS or HOME FOOD, but it's always seems so much more convenient to eat out in Taipei. Especially when certain ingredients seem harder to locate here than back at Ralphs in LA, or where ever.

Anyways- I always felt that cold pasta salad is great for summer, especially these hot days we've been having here. I just tossed up some bowtie and spiral pasta leftover from the night before, halved grape tomatoes, cucumbers and shrimp with some drizzled in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), red wine vinegar and salt/pepper.



Yum!

I don't like pasta salad with mayonnaise overload because I don't like mayo, but I haven't seen a lot of American/Italian style cold pasta salad in Taipei to begin with. So you just gotta make your own, right?

bakery/snack: i recommend CHOCOLATE MUFFIN from STARBUCKS

STARBUCKS
near Zhong Xiao E Road and Dun Hua S Road intersection

website: starbucks.com.tw Unfortunately, Chinese only

$$

Visit reviewed: 7/24/2008

I swore off all the baked goods from Starbucks after my terrible experiences with their cakes the last year. But then when I was craving chocolate chip cookies, my cousin surprised me with chocolate muffins from Starbucks.

I was hesitant to like it, but once I sank my teeth into them (yes, she got me TWO), I was happy. It is definitely like eating mini chocolate cake and I always love the TOP of the muffins.

So I was craving a chocolate muffin yesterday, but they were sold out.

I ended up trying their *new* Banana Walnut Muffin (NT$60). It seemed smaller than the chocolate (but it's probably the same size) and tasted like you'd expect it to- dense, banana/nutty, sweet- but didn't live up to the "must eat" addictiveness of the chocolate muffin, therefore not worth the high price tag, unless you are in a pinch for breakfast at your business meeting at Starbucks.

Plus reminded me a bit of the Costco banana muffins (while the Costco chocolate muffins were not as delicious as the Starbucks chocolate muffins) SIGH!

At least they redeemed themselves from the terrible pastries I had the last time.

So I definitely recommend their chocolate muffin- moist, with chocolate chunks, devoured in one sitting with only some regrets afterwards, and then wanting to eat another one! I'll try to get a picture of it next time!

CLOSED/food court/mall food: LIVING MALL food court

Food Court at
the LIVING MALL (CORE PACIFIC CITY MALL), B1
No. 138, Bade Road, Sec 4
(02)
(Living Mall closed entirely in 2019!)

website: livingmall.com.tw English and Chinese

hours: 11AM- 9:30/10:30 (fri/sat)

$

Visit reviewed: 6/28/2008

While there is nothing too exciting about the Living Mall's food court, I guess I should mention that the Living Mall itself is shaped like a huge ball. The shape can be seen clearly from the outside (or even from the 89th floor from 101) as well as the inside, with its funky design and circular floors, allowing you to peer down on the floors below. (A funny article about it here.

The first time I went to the Living Mall, I was reminded a bit of the Luxor in Las Vegas, another huge, unusually shaped structure that sort of makes you admire (or not) it at first sight, but then you just get used to it.

But anyways! Back to the food- there are a collection of restaurants upstairs (I've only been to Lawry's for their prime rib and creamed corn) as well as a movie theater there, but as I circled around the food court to find something to eat, nothing looked especially exciting. There are a selection of the typical Chinese wonton noodles, oyster omelette, stuff over rice, the ubiquitous Subway, I ended up choosing a bimbimbap from the Korean place.



While there was a decent amount of beef, you couldn't customize the vegetables- it came with the cucumber, bean sprouts, green beans and hot sauce. It fed me and was ok.

My friend got a wonton soup that was also pretty mall food-ish.



A looong time ago, I got a corn dog near the movie theater that was pretty decent, but I don't know if the vendors are the same anymore.

More memorable was our trip to Tai Yi later on in the evening. I tried out the mango milk ice (with tang yuan), I decided I liked the red bean and tang yuan milk ice better. Plus it's half the price of the mango shaved ice.




Mmm, looking at the shaved ice is making me hungry. I wish someone could make a shaved ice delivery service. That would be awesome!

PS
Finally figured out this Google Maps thing, sort of... I've been slowly adding restaurants to it when I have time, but it's a lot of work! It's cool to see the locations of all the different restaurants relative to each other though.

If you find it helpful, let me know!



View hungry in taipei restaurants in a larger map

View Larger Map

CLOSED/korean: i strongly recommend HAPPY KOREAN CUISINE

HAPPY KOREAN CUISINE
No. 1, Lane 99, Xin Yi Road, Sec 3
(02) 2703-9237
(updating in 2019. closed years and years ago)

hours: Lunch: 11:30AM- 2PM;
Dinner 5:30PM- 8:30PM
(closed every second and fourth Monday of each month)

$$

Kid friendliness: VERY! high chairs available plus a little play area in the corner with play kitchenette and toys.

Visit reviewed: 4/15/2008

I can't tell you how happy I am that we found this restaurant that was recommended by a friend. Every dish we ordered was delicious, the service was friendly and it was very affordable.

The English and Chinese menu has lots of pictures and everything from bimbimbap (a mixed vegetables rice) which the beef was slightly sweet and tender like bulgobi to the cold noodles I love to tofu stew to bbq meats.



Located in a little alley not too far from AIT, it's a good spot to hit up after you've been waiting in line all day. Or even if you're not near AIT, if you've been looking for a good casual Korean restaurant in Taipei.



I wasn't sure what to think when it was not crowded during the first time we went, on a weekday lunch, but the complimentary fresh panchan was a good sign- I always love it when japchae is included.



Little touches like that were continued throughout everything we received- the bimbimbap in a stone bowl (NT$190) had a bit of seaweed strips on top;



the cold noodles (NT$160) (which you can get with or without the soup) had thin slices of both radishes and pear in the soup which made a great layer of sweet and savory combination that was already in the vinegary soup.



On the second time we went, on a weekend, I made a reservation with a large group and thankfully I did because it was packed full with families. To be honest, the service was slower since they were busier and the seafood pancakes weren't as good (not as crispy) as the first time, so maybe try it out when they are less busy if you want to ensure the best experience.

They also offer vegetable pancake for the vegetarians out there- as well as vegetarian bimbimbap or cold noodles or tofu stew (which some Korean restaurants have few or no vegetarian options).





We also spotted a little playarea in the corner for kids to play which is such a great idea and makes the restaurant especially family friendly.



Until now, I had been fulfilling my cravings for Korean food at the food court at the various malls or doing the bbq beef at Mindong which is only open in evenings and also packed- but now this is a place that will top my list.

Especially with the "naengmyeon" or soupy cold noodles being a perfect way to beat the Taipei heat! It's the best version of it I've found at any of the Korean restaurants in Taipei.