Bunny Chows in Taipei @ Toast Bar and Bistro

A friend of ours from Church recently opened a wonderful new eclectic restaurant in Taipei called the Toast Bar and Bistro. Last night (18 August 2012) us, some friends, Queenie's Mom and our niece Charlene went for a delicious meal there. The food there is truly awesome. But for me, the really special part, was the chance to have an incredible Bunny Chow in Taipei for the first time in 14 years. Don't know what a Bunny Chow is? See the picture below!

Could this be Taipei's first ever Bunny Chow?

Osaka 09 Pt. 03: Lunch in Tennoji Subway Station

We found this super little restaurant in the subway station near Tennoji park. They served the awesome Japanese style omelets and other fried up goodies. It was delicious! Added to that the waitresses and the other guests were really friendly too.

Japanese Omlet/Pizza

Dinner Tonight - Rib Eye Steak in Taipei

Tonight we had dinner in the The Red Kitchen. I chose to have the rib-eye steak, well done of course. It was really delicious.

Rib Eye Steak

Queenie chose just to have the salad bar which included chicken pieces, savory biscuits with liver pate, lots of fresh salad, boiled eggs and lots of fruit.

Some of the Salad

The meal, as always, was delicious. We still highly recommend the food their. You can find them at:

No. 1, Alley 2, Lane 118
Hoping East Road, Section 2
Tel.: (02) 2377-6186

Overseas Dragon Restaurant in Hsin Tien

Bitan by Night

We have blogged before riding to Hsin Tien (see Cycle Trip to Bitan (Hsin Tien). It has now become a fairly regular route and since I don't ride to work anymore I try to substitute by taking ride to Bitan once a week at least. Its a good 24km return trip from our house in Taipei, long enough to get some excercise and short enough not to get too exhausted. In the evening (especially during the week) its always beautiful and there are hardly anybody on the river side park roads. Also, the weather right now is great and perfect for riding.

On the way to Bitan

So anyway, I have started riding there on a fairly regular basis and started to eat at a restaurant called the "Overseas Dragon" pretty close to the Hsin Tien MRT stop. Its a standard Taiwanese fast food dumpling restaurant. There is always a line outside so it is fairly popular, its clean and the food tastes great.

Overseas Dragon Menu

My standard dinner include beef dumplings, sweet and sour soup, cucumber and cold soy bean milk.

Cucumber

Beef Dumplings

Sweet and Sour Soup

Of course they sell other things. They have adverts scattered all over the wall.

Overseas Dragon Advert

Overseas Dragon Advert

The best part was the meal was only NTD120. Not bad for dinner. It was a great dinner, a great ride and all and all a great time.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

English Breakfast

This morning we went to the Pot Pie Cafe for an English Breakfast. Not as big as the Carnegies version but still has all the good stuff and is enough to keep you full all day. Highly recommend their breakfast!

Fire Chicken and Vodka

Russian Restaurant in Taipei

Queenie and I recently decided to visit our local Russian Restaurant called Salt and Bread located on Tun Hwa South Road. We have walked by the restaurant many times but never made it inside. From the outside the Salt and Bread looks really small and when we went in the front section was completely taken up by a birthday party. But the waiter guided us to the back and what seemed to be a labryinth into the basement, which was very big and had an amazing amount of seats. So the front of the restaurant was deceptive as to its true size.

Inside Looked Quaint

Queenie next to the Christmas Tree

The atmosphere in the basement was pretty good. There were a few end of year parties going on and people were having fun. Of course when we got the menus we were a little surprised at some of the prices but, because neither of us were terribly hungry, decided just to order a main course and a couple of beers.

Set Menu for NTD1000

Qeenie order some pork wrap dish and I decided to go with the flaming (fire) lamb and this is where our troubles started. After ordering the food they came back to me saying the lamb I wanted was out of stock and in fact most of the really traditional Russian foods had been sold out. It was only 7:30pm and I was surprised they were sold out so soon. Eventually the maitre d' came over and offered to prepare the same dish but with chicken instead of lamb. I said it would be OK.

The waiters did feel bad and gave us a complementary dish which neither Queenie or I could figure out. The dish seemed to be some kind of green, sweetish sticky gello-type thing (I should really not be reviewing restaurants) and rather than be swallowed, slithered down our throats. They also offered us two pieces of bread. When we asked for more they said they couldn't give us any because we did not order the set meal!

What is this?

I was starting to think this restaurant didn't really have anything on offer for us and that the staff were too constrained by management. To he honest, the staff were super friendly and really did try to help us out as much as they could. But we just got the idea they were to constrained by the rules and regulations of the place.

The beers arrived first. Of course they never had any Russian beer so we had to settle for some German beer (which was probably a good thing right!). After that Queenie's food arrived. Actually it didn't taste bad at all, it just didn't seem to be enough for the NTD400 price tag (or somewhere around there).

Queenie with her food

My food arrived soon afterwards. I guess they had cooked it mostly in the kitchen but they bring it out on a platter and set the chicken alight with a huge two-second flame leaping into the air. Of course once the flame died down life went back to normal. Now, although the Chicken didn't taste bad either, it just didn't seem that special. Maybe if they had done the lamb in that way it would have been better, but it was chicken.

Fire Chicken

Fire Chicken on the Plate

Well, the highlight of the restaurant was the -20C ice-box they have in the restaurant. After dinner we decided to pay and incredible amount of money for a couple of shots of vodka and for the chance to experience extreme tempratures. Once again the guy serving the vodka's in the box was very polite and friendly and the ice box to be honest wasn't such a bad experience. Queenie had a small sip of some sweet vodka (NTD350 per shot) and I got a shot of traditional Russian vodka (NTD250 per shot). We hung out in the ice-box for about 10-minutes afterwhich we were really feeling cold.

Looking into the Ice Box

Inside the Ice Box

Us in the Ice Box

Vincent, the Ice Box Barman

Queenie and her Vodka

Paul and his Vodka

The Temperature inside

The great thing about leaving the ice-box was that even though Saturday was a very cold night in Taipei, we felt incredibly warm. Who would've guessed?

Conclusions: The staff was incredibly friendly, the food was delicious enough but for an NTD2,000 meal for two people, we felt a little cheated. The restaurant itself was well decorated and they even had a Christmas tree. Will we go there again? Maybe, but I don't think it will be any time soon.

Saturday Morning Donuts

Mister Donut Front Entrance (From Restaurants)

One of the biggest temptations at my new office is the Mister Donut on the corner of Fuhsing North Road and Minchuan East Road. Ever since I started eating their donuts (which was after I started working at Purple Labs) I have been tempted to walk into the store everyday to buy a morning donut. Fortunately I am able to resist most mornings.

A few weekends ago Queenie and I decided to take Rochelle out for the day. We started her off at Mister Donut. I have previously taken donuts home before and both Rochelle and Queenie loved them. And since it is not too much of a stretch to get to Mister Donut (at the end of the Mucha Line), we thought we would give it a try.

Well of course they have a great collection of donuts.

Mister Donut Selections (From Restaurants)

We chose the donuts shown below:

Our Donut Choices (From Restaurants)

Queenie and Rochelle seemed to enjoy their donuts.

Queenie and Rochelle (From Restaurants)

And Rochelle had a great time:

Rochelle Enjoying her Donut (From Restaurants)

Goto have a drink to wash it down (From Restaurants)

Queenie seemed to have a good time too!

Queenie Likes the Donuts too (From Restaurants)

And I did too:

So does Paul (From Restaurants)

While we were at Mister Donut, this family with a strange kid came to sit next to us. The kid was strange because he kept asking me what I was doing. I thought it was especially strange when he stood up and tapped me on my shoulder to ask me what I was doing. He might have been strange, but he was a friendly chap and we enjoyed chatting with him.

The kid at the next table (From Restaurants)

All in all Mister Donut is a great place to take a child (as a treat). Children can be noisy in the restaurant, and they definitely like the food on offer. They have a decent selection of donuts and the donuts are not too bad. Mister Donut is also easy to get to (at least the one we went to) and there are a few other branches in Taipei (but don't ask me where).

Mykonos - A Taste of Greece in Taipei

(All of us in Mykonos)

Mykonos is a great Greek Restaurant that used to be near Yong Kang Street, close to Ta An park. We used to go there fairly often as their Greek food is really great. One day three or four years ago we went along for our monthly dose of Greek food and the restaurant had vanished without a trace. No advertising, no news of what happened. We naturally thought they had closed down, as so many restaurants in Taipei do. It so happens they moved. They first moved to An He Road and have now moved to Si-Wei Road. We found the restaurant quite by accident a few weeks ago when we went for a random walk in our neighborhood.

We were pleased to find them. The food is still great. The menu seems to be almost the same as what we remember and we think the venue is much better. Its more spacious than before and outside is more pleasant. We have been back three times now. Tonight we went to Mykonos with Doug and Pamela, two of our long term friends in Taipei. We also took our niece Charlene with us and we had a great time.

(Doug and Pamela)

(Queenie, Paul and Charlene)

The decor in the restuarant is great, they have painted some of the walls with Mediterranean scenes, have some traditional musical instruments on the wall, some great photos of Greece and other interesting pictures. The restaurant is really spacious, the chairs comfortable and they even provided a high-chair for Charlene. The staff are also super friendly and very helpful.

The food we ate tonight was great. We ordered a hummus platter, lamb chops, mushrooms and a Greek salad. All the food was wonderfully cooked. Of course Doug and I washed it down with a couple of beers and finished the meal with some baklava. The whole meal set us back NTD2,300. Not bad for four people in a pretty good restaurant in Taipei. Some of the food is shown below.

(Greek Salad)

(Mushrooms)

(Lamb Chop)

So, if you feel like a little Greek fare in Taipei, head out to Mykonos. You won't be disappointed. The contact details are below:

Address: No. 19, Lane 76, Si-Wei Rd.
Phone Number: 2704-2960

If you do get down to Mykonons, please let us know what you think too.

A Barbecue on the Silk Road in Taipei

Hi All,

(Taly and Queenie outside the Silk Road)

Eat as much as you want BBQs are a dime a dozen in Taipei. Head off in any general direction and you will find a Korean BBQ, Japanese BBQ, Mongolian BBQ, Taiwanese BBQ etc. So we wouldn't normally write about all-you-can eat BBQs, but the Silk Road is different. The food is authentic Xin Jiang (Western most province of China) food. The meat and dishes are all prepared as the Uighar people would with unique spices. Today was the second time we visited. The first time we went was last year for Paul's birthday and not much has changed.

The restaurant interior is very rustic with wood panel walls in some parts and Uighur costumes, interesting pictures of Xin JIang and local musical instruments hanging on the wall. Some parts are made to look like the inside of a Nomad's tent. We though the decor was great. The one draw back is that they use stools and not chairs. Sitting on a stool for 90 minutes is not very comfortable. But that is typical of the BBQ stores here.

(The Interior)

The eat as much as you want option costs about NTD500 per person. For this you get to order anything on their menu. Once ordered, the meat arrives on a big platter with the spices. The waiter explains how to apply the spices to the BBQ to make sure the food has the correct flavor. The spices are the same spices used in Xin Jiang and the food certainly tasted similar to the same style BBQ meat we ate in China.

(Taly and Meichi cooking)


(The Meat)

We also highly recommend the goat milk soup. The portions are big and are a great compliment to the meat and spices. And although we couldn't figure out what the deserts were made of, the deserts were delicious none the less. Another unique offering is their version of Xin Jiang coke, which is pink. Although we didn't try it this time (its too filling) we do recommend it if you have the space and a sweet tooth.

(Meichi and the Goat Milk Soup)

So today we had a great time chatting with Taly and Meichi, cooking BBQ meat in a different way and eating some very special foods. We highly recommend this restaurant. We have been there twice and have not been disappointed. Although, it should be said, this kind of BBQ should only be done about once every six months as it is a lot of meat.

(Taly and Meichi)


(Queenie and Paul)

So if you can't get to Urumuqi, go have an adventure on the Silk Road and let us know what you think.

The contact details are below:

Address: No.8, Alley 6, Lane 136, Roosevelt Rd. Section 4., Taipei

Telephone: (02) 2366 0345

Website (all Chinese): http://www.nomadizing.com.tw/

See our Taipei and Taiwan Travel Guide for more restaurant reviews