Tasting Journey #147 - 洛神賦麻辣極品鴛鴦

洛神賦麻辣極品鴛鴦
台北市大安區仁愛路四段27巷16號   
02.2731.3779

This place is recommended by a high school friend of mine whom I haven't seen for over 15 years.
This is the place where we meet up for dinner.

Like all spicy hot pots, you have the choice of 鴛鴦pot, where half is spicy, and the other half is your choice of a different broth.

The ambience is quite comfortable, with friendly service and tables that are spaced just far apart to prevent claustrophobia. 

It is an all-you-can-eat buffet that offered excellent quality beef, pork, and supposedly super fresh shrimp (I didn't get the chance to try the shrimp because I was so full. I was about to explode).  Of course, this came with a price, as it costed around just under $700/person.  Oh, did I mention the haggen dazs ice-cream?

Overall, the experience was quite pleasant.  Compared to many of the popular all-you-can-eat spicy hot pot places such as 馬辣, I would definitely opt for this place no doubt.

Tasting Journey #136 - 欣葉日本料理

欣葉日本料理
various locations
台北市館前路12號6樓
02.2371.3311
http://www.shinyeh.com.tw/store.php?Location=J#Branch_10

Family dinner of 20 people.  Food choices were OK; quality's decent; ambience can be better.
Not much of a dessert selection, but I like how it offered fresh juice.

Buffet is always a good choice if you have a huge group with different preferences or dietary requirements for food.  Honestly, buffet wouldn't be my pick for dinner gatherings as it lacks authenticity and uniquess. Noneitheless, it does the job for a large party.

 

 

Tasting Journey #122 - 曹家屯酸菜白肉火鍋

曹家屯酸菜白肉火鍋
台北市士林區天玉街38巷4號
02.2874.2054

All you can eat pickled cabbage hot pot.

Pickled cabbage hot pot is one of my favourite cuisine because it is light, yet rich in flavour.  This restaurant is fairly local with minimal interior decoration.  No fancy display, nor designed cutleries, the guests that visit are those who are looking to dine for the food, and not for the ambience.

The hotpot is served in a traditional charcoal heated pot.  Sauce includes purree chives, green onion, sesame paste and vinegar.  Apparently, this is how the real Northern Chinese eat. 

 

Quite interestingly, the flavour isn't what I expected.  Typically, in dishes like this, the pickled flavour is so strong that no additional sauce is needed.  However, this hot pot is quite mild like plain hotpot, thus requiring additional dipping sauce to make it flavourful.

The meatball is good.  Unlike typical chinese meat ball, the texture is more like the meatball in a spaghetti dish. 

The quality of the pork slice is average.

Tasting Journey #107 - 天外天無煙燒肉

天外天無煙燒肉
台北市民權東路一段78號
02.2592.3400
http://tianwaitian.com.tw/yakiniku/about.html


Its funny how when we get visitors from the headoffice, they always have recommendations for a place to eat in Taipei.  I'm always interested to try out these "non-local recommended" restaurants, but at the same time, they could be a gem since the visitors were probably brought to those restaurants by suppliers.  These places need to be decent, and of certain quality for suppliers to be bringing their guests to right?

 

The restaurant is clean, well-lit and air-conditioned. I can see why foreigners enjoy this place.

 

天外天 is an all-you-can-eat BBQ place that comes with hot pot and haagen dazs ice-cream.  Buffets in Taipei are quite competitive, and usually come with lots of decent selections.  I'm not sure why there tends to be hotpot at the same time as BBQ here, as this seems to be a trend.  I find that customers usually just focus on the BBQ grill, and the hotpot just keeps boiling empty broth over and over.  Maybe it's a marketing scheme to offer more options, or maybe it's the restaurant's sneaky way of minimizing the amount of meat consumption on the BBQ end.  In addition, like all other BBQ restaurants, they also serve come cooked dishes as an option.

Lots of dessert selection, though my focus is mostly on the Haagen Dazs ice-cream and the meiji popsicle sticks.  Bottomless beer too!  To start off, they serve you their "standard" BBQ package before you start your a la carte orders.  This "standard" package is a tricky way to fill up your stomach.  The meat are sliced too thick, and are hard to grill.  The meat selection in this package is also only so-so.  Luckily, the portion's not large, so there's still plenty of room to go for the more decent stuff.

Overall, the experience is good.... I guess no restaurant can go too wrong, as long as you have the company right?

Tasting Journey #102 - 我 ! 就厲害

我 ! 就厲害
台北市市民大道四段147號
02.2578.6578
http://www.wow-jolihi.com.tw/

 

 

This place is a BBQ & hotpot all-you-can-eat that is strongly recommended by Mandy.  She says she must dine here at least once every time she comes on a development trip.  Is it really that good?

 

First of all, the price ranges from $439, $499, and $639.  At $439, you have all-you-can-eat BBQ;  At $499, you have BBQ plus hot pot, and at $639, you get pricier ingredients.  What's worth mentioning is that this place all serves kirin bottomless beer.  So if you are a beer lover and a meat lover, this is definitely a place worth considering. 

 

 
 We decided to go for the $499 option.  Frankly speaking, I think $439 is sufficient, especially when the meat are quite decent quality, and that the selection is quite abundant.  They have all the typical pork, beef, chicken etc. as well as grilled mushrooms and vegetables, but what is worth mentioning is their grilled ice-cream, marshmallow, and their selection of sweet desserts.

 

The only thing that I would say needs improvement is the seating. The tables are so close, and the leg room is barely there.  Even I find it crammed. 

Tasting Journey #50 - B-One, Sherwood Hotel

B-One, Sherwood Hotel
台北西華飯店

No.111, Sec.3,Min Sheng East Road

Taipei, Taiwan

02.2718.1188

http://www.sherwood.com.tw/dining/b-one.htm

Hotel buffet that offers a great selection of food, including bottomless red wine/white wine/beer.
Food selection includes sashimi, stir-fries, and grills. On the table are wooden clips where you can drop off the clips at stations and they will cook and serve it to your table.

I totally forgot to take photos of the savoury food, but off my memory, they have really good chirashii-don.
Their creme brulee is heaven.

Tasting Journey #49 - 大倉久和 歐風館自助餐廳

大倉久和  歐風館自助餐廳
台北市南京東路一段 9 號
02.2523.1111
http://www.okurataipei.com.tw/?Nsn

$1,500 + 10%

This buffet is well known for its buffet, but it is honestly very disappointing given the poor quality and the selection.  Regardless the high price, I wasn't expecting a buffet as extensive as this to not even find enough satisfactory food to fill my empty stomach.   Not to mention that the ambiance and the interior deco looked more like a burger joint. 

Of all the savoury dishes I had tried, the only note worthy mention is the amaebi sashimi, and sadly, beef sukyaki. Dessert-wise, the only dish that was satisfactory to my taste bud was the panna cota.