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!
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.
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