Tasting Journey #86 - 左咖啡 Dousan Cafe

左咖啡 Dousan Cafe
台北市延壽街139號
02.2760.2992

Hidden away in midst of a residential area, Dousan Café is located in the 民生社區. I had the pleasure of trying out their coffee because a friend of mine works in that area.  It was 11pm, the area is dead quiet, but all the tables in the café is still occupied.  It must be good.

First thing I noticed is the service.  As soon as I walked in, the remaining open table still had cups and plates from the last round of customer.  The server quickly came over, greeted me, and told me that he will clean the table right away.  Not only did he removed all plates/cups, he mopped the table, went to clean his rag, came back, and mopped the table a second time.  This to me, is a dedication to detail and service.  Awesome.

 

Next comes the menu.  Four pages of endless coffee selection from all different parts of Africa, S. America...etc. - places with names that I've never heard of.  Each coffee selection came with an icon that explained the degree of acidity, and a description that explained the taste - coffee that tasted like chocolate or berry or... flavours that I would not associate coffee with.  Again, a level of detail that you don't see in typical coffee shops.  What's even more amazing is that once you've placed your order, the server comes over with your coffee bean in a glass cup.  He then covers the cup with a lid, twirls the grounded bean around, and asks you to take a sniff at it.  Amazing. 

What adds to the uniqueness of this coffee shop is that the coffee is served in a glass jar. I'm not sure what the intention is, but I'm assuming they want you to pour it into your ceramic cup little by little to fully enjoy the coffee.  Interesting.

 

Now comes the dessert.  The brownie's OK - not sure if they've forgotten to heat it up so that the center chocolate flows down the side of the brownie like a volcano.  However, the strawberry tart is unbelievable.  At the base of the strawberry is mango paste.  The tartness and the richness of the mango well compliments the acidity of the strawberry.  Very tasty.  If I were to provide one suggestion on this dessert, I would say that the pastry shell could be a bit more buttery, as it easily falls apart when you cut into it, meaning that it is a bit too powdery like flour.  A must-try when you visit.  A perfect dessert for someone who doesn't like crazy sweetness in dessert.

Tasting Journey #85 - 西堤牛排 Tasty

西堤牛排 Tasty
various locations
www.tasty.com.tw

Tasty had a collaboration with Red Cross where if you donate blood within a certain time period, they would give you a 50% off set menu voucher.  It was expiring end of this month, so we went to utilize this benefit.

Tasty is owned by a big food corporation who also owns other sub-restaurant chains such as 王品 or 陶板屋...etc.  If I'm not mistaken, Tasty is a more affordable version of 王品, a restaurant chain known for decent steaks. 

Tasty only offers set menus of 8 courses at an affordable price of $599+10%.  The service is excellent, and the ambience is great.  Presentation is also well thought out.  A perfect place for important dinner of some sort. 

 

Of the 8 dishes, worth mentioning is the dessert. I had the chocolate pocket - the hazelnut chocolate sauce is wrapped and deep fried in wonton dough. The dish is served with vanilla ice-cream where the intent is to pop the pocket, drizzle the chocolate sauce over the ice-cream, and serve like a sundae.
Interesting idea.

You can't go wrong with selecting this place for dinner.  I would definitely come back here again if I'm looking to host a dinner with elders or a nice quiet dinner with friends.

Tasting Journey #84 - 咖啡弄 Coffee Alley

咖啡弄 Coffee Alley
Various Locations
台北市信義區松壽路12號3樓
02.7737.0700
http://www.coffee-alley.com/

Apparently this place is owned by someone who used to work at Melange Cafe.  However, unlike the European style cafe, Caffee Alley gives more of a contemporary atmosphere.  The presentation is not as nicely decorated, and the portion is slightly smaller too.  I do have to say that the waffle is still decent, although Melange Cafe's is still unbeatable.  I had the Americano, and it was so-so. Not strong enough to even call it black coffee.

Tasting Journey #83 - 穗科手打烏龍麵

穗科手打烏龍麵
two locations: 中山國中MRT & 忠孝敦化MRT
台北市忠孝東路四段216巷27弄3號
02.2778.3737

I heard of this place a few times, but never had the urge to try it out because I am not a fan of udon.  Recently, a friend of mine came to visit and wanted to check out another hand-made udon place. I suggested this one to her, knowing that is supposed to be popular and good.  It turns out that it's owned by the same group.

Although not a fan of udon, I figured what the heck, there's got to be some non-udon dishes that I can try out there. So off we went to this place for lunch.  I had ordered their cold udon, and surprisingly, the noodle used in this dish is of much thinner string than what we would typically expect in a udon dish.  Perfect.  The noodle is amazing - very chewy. The sauce is light and is made of ponzu sauce that made it very refreshing to the taste.  An excellent combination.

We also ordered a few side dishes to try.  The black sesame tofu I find interesting, but not that pleasing. The texture unique and the sauce is made of some type of fermented bean curd.  Noteworthy mention is their tomato - pickled with plum wine and plum, it is soooooooooooo tasty. My eyes lit up when I bit into it.  Unbelievably refreshing and appetizing.  Lastly, from my 2nd visit to this place, I ordered their vegetable dish - 龍鬚菜 with gomae sauce, also quite good.

 

Tasting Journey #82 - 米朗琪咖啡館 Melange Café

米朗琪咖啡館 Melange Café
台北市中山北路二段16巷23號
02.2567.3787
www.melangecafe.com.tw


Found this place through ipeen.com.tw, and later found out that this is an extremely popular afternoon tea place known for amazing waffle desserts.

 

Its original store is near 中山MRT station. Two doors down is its second store b
ecause the original store is overflowing with people wanting to get in.

 

The café is huge - first floor and basement.  Lots of antique style interior decoration, and lots of coffee-related equipment such as siphons, roaster, bean bags...etc.  A bit cluttery but the dim yellow light well-compliments the wooden brown furniture that fully portrayed the bustling old western-style vibe.

I ordered its signature Melange Coffee, as well as its strawberry waffle dessert.  Presentation is beautiful, the waffle portion is huge.  Plates and cups are also very European style.
Coffee is a dark roast, and I find it a bit strong to drink it black. However, it could serve as a perfect compliment to the dessert.  Waffle is amazing - crispy and rich in flavour. They're also not stingy at all with the strawberry and strawberry sauce.  This cost me $330 in total, but is a $330 dollar well spent.

 

This place also serves sandwiches...which could be a great brunch or afternoon tea place with girl friends.  The sandwiches are decent.

 

 



Tasting Journey #81 - 好滴 Drip Cafe

好滴 Drip Cafe
台北市忠孝東路四段553巷26號
02.2764.8181
www.facebook.com/dripcafetaipei

Walked by Drip a few time when visiting the 松山菸酒廠, and noticed that there’s always a huge lineup.  I thought it must be a popular place since amazingly, almost all restaurants require lineups on weekends in Taipei. 

This time round, I stopped by at 7:45pm thinking that coffee shops wouldn’t be so popular since it’s already quite late.  I can see there is still a lineup outside the café. No big deal, I can wait, it shouldn’t take too long.

I walked in, and asked the waitress to put me on the waistlist for 2 people.  He looked at the waitlist board, and suggested that we come back next time because their last call is at 9pm, and it doesn’t seem like we’ll make it to a table ta that time. Unbelievable right?

 

I decided to ask for a take-out. I’ll just drink coffee outside by the street. It’s fine. I mean, if it’s that popular, then it’s gotta be worth it right?  

So I ordered an Americano just to taste the flavour of the bean.

It is smooth with very mild acidity. More like a light roast. Totally OK to drink on its own as an Americano.

 

 

Tasting Journey #80 - 北倉洞 韓式料理

北倉洞 韓式料理
台北是長安東路二段169號之7
02.2777.2592

Popular Korean restaurant that required lining up for an hour. Not sure why.
No modern deco, most likely a restaurant that has been around for ages and favoured by all age group.
The restaurant comes with bottomless side dishes (maybe this is what's attracting returning guests?), and family-style service.
Flavour-wise, I'm leaning towards thinking that it has been Taiwan-ized for local preference, hence not leaving me with a lasting impression urging for more. I really had to think twice (in reality, three times) of what I actually ate... and this was only last night.

We ordered a set menu for 2 people, a ba bim bob, and a tofu pot. The waitress said we had ordered too much, but she guessed wrong. We cleared all dishes, not to mentioned we had quite a few refills of the side dishes. Worth mentioning is the restaurant's generosity with the refills of the side dishes. The entire meal costs us $500/person.

Tofu pot was very flavourful. The BBQ pork was OK - the pork quality wasn't that great. Ba Bim Bob could have a bit more kick to it - the spicy sauce was spicy, but you don't get the rich red colour. I find that the seafood pancake tasted only OK - a bit soggy, though Mark said that this is his favourite seafood pancake because it's so thinly fried. Hm.. I should take him to 韓國館 (check out my Tasting Journey blog #58) next time...