Tasting Journey #156 - El Cielo

El Cielo
台北市大安區延吉街137巷26號
02.2731.7007

We are on a hunt for our company's Christmas Gathering place, and we came across this lounge bar that had great rating on ipeen.com.tw.

Maybe because we came during a weeknight, there were no crowds. We were the only guests for the entire evening - more servers than guests.  The service wasn't great, and their upper floor wasn't open so we weren't able to see what the restaurant is really like.

Part of the reason why we thought this place would be a good choice is because it offered meal-type dishes such as pasta, and at the same time, a bunch of finger-foods such as nachos, wings, grilled items.  To our disappointment, most of the options are not available till after 9pm.  In other words, our only choices were pasta, pasta, and pasta. 

 

Their drink menu seems quite interesting.  We ordered a "gentleman" and a "perfect lady".  The Perfect Lady was very light, and fruity. I barely tasted any alcohol in it.  On the other hand, the Gentleman was bold.  It had a very strong taste of vodka.  Noticeable dinstinction between men verus women. hehee....

The pasta dishes aren't bad, though I have to say that the sauces were all very heavy in cream and cheese.  Some may like it, others may prefer to taste a bit more of the natural flavour of the ingredient.  Of all the dishes we ordered, the mushroom risotto is by far the best.  My mentaiko (roe) pasta dish had too much mayonaise that it tastes like a sweet dish rather than a savoury dish.

Overall, I think the experience was fine. I probably wouldn't go back given the price point and the service, well more correctly, the LACK of service received at El Cielo.