new in town/exploreTaipei: i recommend ATT4FUN 4TH FLOOR CAFES

ATT4FUN 4TH FLOOR
12 Song Shou Rd
XinYi District, Taipei

MRT: Taipei 101 or Taipei City Hall

website: ATT4Fun's FB page

hours: 11AM - 10PM

$$

Kid friendliness: lots to eat and see, surprisingly roomy walkways for strollers and families

Visit reviewed:

It's exciting to that a retail space in Taipei can redesign and innovate its space into an entire floor of eateries and Instagram worthy corners. Note to other malls- Why not have a little fun with it? Instead of just plopping a bunch of restaurants on one floor, they created a whimsical walk into a wonderland full of cafes and dessert shops.

I've seen hints of the Alice In Wonderland theme before, at Love Lovely, but here it's in full scale with rabbits guarding entrances marked Midnight and Afternoon, white Roman numerals marching along the tops of the hallways near the ceiling and even a projection of a blond haired, blue dress wearing Alice upon a misty steam, creating a hologram effect usually seen after hours at Disneyland.

This is the entrance to Midnight-

After each entrance with a black or white rabbit, there's a centerpiece display. On the Midnight section, it's a cascade of champagne glasses under a ceiling full of bubble glass lights, with a slightly creepy dressed in black mannequin in a canoe that you might see at Venetian or some new hotel in Las Vegas. The first time I walked through the fourth floor, I just looked and looked, in awe of all the details and so many things to take photos of.

New cafes and restaurants in the midnight section include- Opa! Greek Cafe, Movenpick, Cupid On, Carousel, La Mere Poulad . In the afternoon section, NOLA Kitchen, Cutty Sark, Love One and more... Here's a little peek.

Tommy's waffles

OPA Greek Tavern 

Carousel Cafe 

La Mere Poulard

Movenpick Cafe

Afternoon entrance with the white rabbit

NOLA Kitchen

Cutty Sark

Love One

Cool little layout map I spotted on a different floor.

With so many cafes and restaurants on one floor, it's a good destination for when you can't decide on what to eat, so if one places is crowded, you just wander to the next one until you find one that looks good or has seats, if you are in a hurry.

On the 6th floor, Belgian Beer Cafe closed before I had a chance to write it up (some good dishes, but uneven service and expensive for the portions, especially the ridiculously small appetizers), and was replaced by Fat Angelos (which moved over from Bellavita and looks like Belgian Beer Cafe except with a new sign and red checkered table cloths).

The 5F also went through a revamp, with the closure of BANNCHAN and San Yuan (so sad. no more chocolate xiao long boas with the 101 view) to make room for a Mr. Onion, Dubu House and Bite 2 Eat. A lot to shop and eat at ATT4Fun, with Gap and Zara Home to browse downstairs and the new Quiznos and Pizza Denise to grab a quick bite.

CLOSED/korean: ARI TOFU HOUSE

ARI TOFU HOUSE
No. 31, Lane 280, GuangFu S. Rd,
台北市光復南路280巷31號
(02) 2721-3033

CLOSED a/o 2014

MRT: SYS Memorial Hall

website: Ari Tofu House's FB page

Visit reviewed: 4/13/2013

I have gotten so behind on food blogging that sometimes restaurants close down before I have a chance to write about them. I'm going to post about some that I wish were still around, partially to document the constantly changing Taipei food scene. Very sad to see Ari Tofu House had closed. It was usually busy, but not too crowded to take us when we dropped by last minute when I was feeling like some spicy Korean tofu stew and some kalbi. In the same alley as Osteria by Angie, Amigos and Fifteen Pizza, this area near Sun Yat Sen has fierce food competition. If only someone would open a good all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ in Taipei. 

RIP Ari Tofu House.

snapshot/dessert: I strongly recommend ICE CREAM PEANUT CANDY SPRING ROLL at SHENKENG OLD STREET

This past week has been full of firsts for me, in a big way, as well as the first time exploring some of the mountain sides and ocean cities on the edges of Taipei.  It was also my first time to Shenkeng Old Street or Shenkeng Lao Jie, which is famous for having a row of restaurants and stands serving up stinky tofu, spicy tofu, fried tofu, bbq tofu, duo hua dessert tofu, almond tofu and tofu ice cream! Shenkeng is about a half hour drive outside of Taipei, on the southeast past the Taipei Zoo and Muzha, so you could combine the two for a day trip.

Before entering tofu street, I spotted this ice cream peanut wrap vendor with the bright green sign and block of peanut candy across from the entrance of the Old Street, and you know me, I had to stop to get one. 

One wrap is NT$40 with a choice of pineapple, taro, plum or vanilla for your three scoops, or there's a rainbow sherbet type swirl action going on if you don't specify a preference. Just to be clear the ice cream here is NOT made with tofu, since it sits outside the tofu street zone. Haha.

A layer of freshly shaven peanut candy, a layer of ice cream, another douse of peanut candy bits and a  sprinkle of cilantro and then the thin wrap is folded in and rolled. ICE CREAM BURRITO for a little over a dollar!! One of my favorite Taiwan street snacks!! Peanut ice cream wrap, spring roll, popiah, burrito, run bing- call it whatever you want because it's essentially the same thing, just with ice cream inside it!

At first bite, I noticed that there seemed to be a hit of salt in the peanuts' sweetness, and the owner confirmed that they do make their peanut candy differently with the addition of salt. It totally accentuates the flavors the same way that we love anything salted carmel. The ice cream is the perfect temperature- creamy and melt in your mouth and you get the crunch from the peanut candy. Hit up one of the restaurants for stinky tofu and then come here for a palate cleanser! 

SHENKENG LAO JIE 深坑老街

chinese/vegetarian: I recommend YANG SHIN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT

YANG SHIN VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT 養心茶樓
No. 128 Songjiang Road, 2F
松江路128號, 2F
(02) 2542-8828

MRT: SongJiang/Nanjing Station

website: http://www.ysvege.com/" target="blank"> ysvege.com

hours: Mon-Sun 11:30AM - 2:30PM, 5:30PM -9:30PM

$$

Kid friendliness: high chairs available, some room for strollers, kid friendly dishes

Visit reviewed: 2/23/2014 & 6/15/2014

My mom is a vegetarian, so I'm always on the look out for good places to take her. So when a friend suggested Yang Shin for their vegetarian dim sum, it was a great find. The entrance is slightly hidden, even though the sign is quite prominent. You enter through Nozomi bakery and then make your way to the second floor through the hallway and into the large dining hall. 

Even at an early 5:30PM dinner shift, the restaurant is completely booked and we are warned that we must finish dinner by 6:45PM for seating their next 7PM dinner reservation. So since they have to turn the tables over, food and service is fairly brisk. So be sure to make reservations early- they had no tables available for walk in customers. 

Can you imagine- this whole banquet full of families excited to be grubbing on vegetarian food?! Haha.

While we were most excited about the vegetarian dim sum, there is a huge menu of Cantonese appetizers, dishes and Chef specials to try out. So the more people you have, the more things you can try. If you love mushrooms, tofu or greens, this is the place for you.

Almost 30 dim sum dishes (NT$68-128) to choose from, while most other dishes are in the NT$300-500 range.

Some of my favorites that I recommend ordering and have ordered on repeat visits were the Cantonese barbecued vegetarian ham pastry (NT$108)- with endless flaky puff pastry layers that meld into the sweet, red sauce and "cha siu" inside.

I liked the baked cheese cabbage (NT$128), which is covered with a blanket of hot cheese hiding creamy chinese cabbage underneath, cooked until it's fork tender.

I usually order xian shui jiao whenever I spot it on a dim sum menu, so I had to try its vegetarian cousin here. The egg shaped deep fried stuffed mushroom dumpling (NT$98) tastes almost like deep fried mochi with a crispy shell and is soft and chewy in the inside, stuffed with bits of mushroom.

Fried pumpkin vegetable hand roll (NT$80 each) with crispy ribbons of crunchy fried pumpkin and julienned cucumber gives a nice crunch. They also have avocado and asparagus hand rolls.

Family favorite of Cantonese chow mein (NT$240) with lots of bok choy, bamboo, baby corn, and wood ear mushrooms. I always like to get a mix of the crispy noodles and some of the soggier parts drenched in sauce.

Deep fried spring rolls (NT$98 for 3)

Deep Fried Pastry with Shredded Turnip (NT$108 x2)

Fried sesame balls

Not the healthiest meal since we ended up ordering a lot of fried foods and dim sum, but Yang Shin's dim sum versions were close enough that you didn't miss the real thing.

I wouldn't order these next dishes again, they were a bit too out there for me-- 

Pinenut and vegetable cheese roll (NT$180 for 4) - the waitress encouraged us to order this, but I did not like it.

I can't remember if I liked the stir fried rice cake- I think there was something about the flavor that I didn't love.

The almond tofu was surprisingly too sweet- the milk it came in was almost syrupy sweet and the almond tofu itself was sweet as well, and I would have preferred to have the traditional peaches and pears in it rather than watermelon and kiwi.

Vegetarian food doesn't have to mean just salads and pasta/pizza/risotto adorned with mushrooms, which is what my mom usually ends up eating when she eats out with us. So we've happily been back to Yang Shin a few times, usually getting a huge table in the back of the restaurant.

Now those of you with gluten free restaurant questions? That's a tougher problem to solve in Taipei.