Taipei City - Where can you get Western food in Taipei?

My site isn't necessarily built up for discovering Western food in Taipei, but obviously I still go to a lot of westernized restaurants, as Taipei is a capital city and has a diverse array of Western food. 

These are only a pick of a few Western restaurants dotted around the city. Click on the links in the name for a more extensive review.

(N.B. I will only be posting 7/10 and above restaurants)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whalen's 味鄰

Whalen's FB

What to expect: 
'Comfort food' is the order of the day here. Expect generous portions, with all the trimmings.

What not to expect: 
Fine dining. That's not to say the dining experience isn't good, but I mean that you don't have to think twice about which type of cutlery to use with which dish or which sauce to drizzle delicately over which deviled oyster.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul

What to expect:

Paul is a chain restaurant/bakery with many international branches. Expect French styled food which is consistently good each time you go.

What not to expect:

Snails or frogs legs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RAW

What to expect:

Interesting and thought provoking dishes with excellent precision in execution.

What not to expect:

An inexpensive meal. Expect to pay anything between $3,000 - $7,000TWD for a 2 person meal.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BING

What to expect:

Excellent burgers and excellent side dishes.

What not to expect:

Fast food at fast food prices. Expect time and care taken in creating your dish, and a solid price tag to boot.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pond Burger

What to expect:

A slightly Taiwanese take on western food. Good salad and a solid burger.

What not to expect:

Generous portions of fish in your salad.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Take Five

What to expect:

Delicious deli food such as quiches, sandwiches, ratatouille etc.

What not to expect:

Burger and fries.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bencotto

What to expect:

A beautiful date place set in The Mandarin Oriental Hotel with delicious Italian food at great prices.

What not to expect:

Unlike many 'Italian' places in Taipei, this place genuinely feels like it is REALLY 'Italian'.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dazzle

What to expect:

Humbling Indian food with plenty of flavour and a good level of spice.

What not to expect:

Refined plating skills. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April Trip Breakfast

What to expect:
Bowls of cereal and solid breakfast burgers/sandwiches.

What not to expect:
A long lie in, this place is in DanShui/Tamsui

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Purebread Bakery

What to expect:
Delicious croissants likened to the ones sold in France, and bread enough to rival any other bakery in the city.

What not to expect:
Habitually sweet bread like most places in Taipei. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Garret

What to expect:
A lot of variations on flavour.


What not to expect:
Butterkist

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Illy Cafe

What to expect:
A decent enough attempt at a western breakfast.

What not to expect:
Sweet sausage.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

September Cafe

What to expect:
Delicious french toast. With plenty of light inside.

What not to expect:
Small tables, they're all huge!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caliburger

What to expect:
Great fries and deliciously simple burgers with great pickles.

What not to expect:
In-N-Out burger

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mia Cucina

What to expect:
Hearty salads and delicious toasted sandwiches.

What not to expect:

Meat. This place is vegetarian.

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - Cafe Kuroshio

Value for money: 9/10

Cleanliness: 8/10

Service: 10/10

Quality of food: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

It was raining. Then, it rained some more. Then, it rained a shed load more. What to do? Go to a Cafe and relax because it's the weekend (and they have free WiFi)

Haven't we become a bit obsessed with going to cafe's and whittling away time doing work? I still like it, so for the haters out there - close this page (but come back later for posts about my wonderful food reviews).

Now, this cafe isn't going to set the world on fire with new and incredibly challenging dishes/drinks. However, it is going to do exactly what it says on the tin: serve good coffee and cake, in a friendly, comfortable and relaxing atmosphere.

Not sure what a 'Chess pie' is, but hey ho (seriously, though, check your English. If you want to include English in the menu then by all means go for it. But type it out on a search engine or check out a dictionary).

It was still very early when we arrived...

They sound good, right? We had just eaten at Jing Ding so we weren't hungry in the slightest, but, next time I will definitely check them out. 

The menu:

They have a decent variety of different Latte's, actually. Rose Caffe? Interesting. 

And beer, too: 2 thumbs up.

熱貝里斯巧克力

Baileys Chocolate

$150

An interesting caffeine (but still naughty with the added Irish liquor) free hot drink here. It was nice, but not amazing.

美式咖啡

Americano Coffee

$115

To some: boring. 

To me: standard.

I almost always get the straight up coffee with no added milk or sugar wherever I go. I like to taste the coffee, itself (and often the milk can be of questionable quality and doesn't help the coffee beans in any way to shine).

This Americano is quite nice. There's most definitely a good amount of coffee in here with a nutty aroma and taste. It's slightly sour (I quite like this aspect of some coffee) and overall fairly decent.

The bottom line:

Some Cafe's can pretend to be something they aren't. But this one doesn't. There are no frills, nothing elaborate and it's not pretentious in any way. I spent 3-4 hours in here, and felt comfortable doing so.

Cafe Kuroshio on Facebook

Happy eating/drinking!

Taipei City - 徹思叔叔抹茶咖啡 Matcha Ways

Value for money: 7/10

Cleanliness: 9/10

Service: 8/10

Quality of food: 7/10

Overall: 7/10

Matcha ways - pretty good matcha ice cream! $80 #Taipei #Taiwan #eatingintaipei #eattaipei #matcha #Japanese #eat #eating #food #foodie #icecream #tea #dessert #delicious #Sunday #funday #weekend #matchaways #love #ilovetea #photography #photooftheday #picoftheday #green #happy #ilovefood #cheapeats

A photo posted by Eating in Taipei (@eatingintaipei) on Sep 3, 2016 at 11:30pm PDT

We're not looking at the highest quality matcha, nor the nicest atmosphere (fairly busy, inside the department store and facing the main road), but Matcha Ways is pretty good.

The menu is a good size, offering most of what you would want...

We didn't get the cheesecake, this time, but I have had it in the past and it is delicious! 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

抹茶重乳酪起司培 mǒ chá zhòng rǔ lào qǐ sī tǎ 

Matcha custard tart

$50

+

抹茶即拿 mǒ chá jí ná 

Matcha pastry puff

$25

The matcha puff was alright - light pastry, enough filling and not very sweet. But, honestly, I would pay an extra $25 and go for the tart instead.

The pie was pretty good, and gone fairly quickly (always a sign of deliciousness). You can see that the pastry is thin and crispy and that the matcha custard filling is in no way dry - it gets 2 thumbs up!


徹思叔叔聖代 ché sī shū shū shèng dài 
Uncle Tetsu's matcha bowl
$150

I still maintain that the matcha bowl at 平安京茶事 round 1 / 平安京茶事 round 2 is far superior to any other I have tried, to date. However, this one is much less expensive! 

The make up: copious amounts of thick, rich matcha ice cream - pretty good, but the matcha flavour is fairly weak. We also have two sticky mochi balls (not much flavour, but great for texture), red beans (sugary, sweet, earthy, delicious) and some matcha jelly (more bitter than the ice cream, and a good contrast because of this). 

抹茶霜淇淋 mǒ chá shuāng qí lín 
Matcha ice cream
$80

Definitely miles better than a convenience store special ice cream flavour and much better than a few other places I have tried. But, the matcha flavour isn't very strong. It is rich and delicious, but not very bitter.

The bottom line: 

If you want quality, go to: 平安京茶事 round 1 / 平安京茶事 round 2

If you want convenience and still a fair level of quality, then here is your ticket.

Opening Times:
Monday - Sunday
10:30 - 22:00

Tel:
02 2563 6529


台北市松山區南京東路3段337號

No. 337, NanJing East Road, Section 3, SongShan District, Taipei City

B2 and 1F both have places, but this is a review of 1F

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - Campus Cafe

Value for money: 6/10

Cleanliness: 6/10

Service: 5/10

Quality of food: 7/10

Overall: 6/10

Instagram has been blowing up with pictures of Campus Cafe over the past few months, with waiting times for a table 30mins+

Make sure you book in advance - 02 2751 6021

Inside is what I expected, really. But not in a bad way at all. Inside, there is a relaxed feel with lots of soft chairs and an open plan.

Not really into watching TV when I am eating out at a restaurant, with that being said, if they showed some sport I would totally come for that.

There aren't any particularly special beers here, these ones you can find at pretty much any restaurant around Taipei.

Sandwich station

How good does that Oreo Cheesecake look??

I find it a bit strange how any restaurant, quite frankly, can only accept cash.

So what does this mean? This means that 1. You clean up after yourself, 2. No service charge, 3. They turn-around tables better = win win.

I'll be back with my burger brain plugged in to find out if this sign rings true or not. But, it's going to have to go some to beat Bing's Burgers

The Menu

What we ordered:

1. Smoked salmon and sweet potato salad (small) 

$180

2. Grilled chicken penne w/ pesto cream sauce 

$200

3. Mexican jalapeno and garlic chicken fettucini 

$200

4. Philly steak panini with fries 

$250

1. Smoked salmon and sweet potato salad (small) 

$180

How it came ^

Inside the center there was a mashed, cold, sweet potato. The salad was fairly decent, and for Taiwan, that isn't a common occurance. Often Taiwanese tend to turn any vegetable or salad into cooked dishes, so it's good to find a salad every now and then that is worth coming back for - this one is. Even for a small, it is plenty big enough for one person.

2. Grilled chicken penne w/ pesto cream sauce 

$200

Strikingly green, right?

Don't be one of those that complains about the measly amount of cheese on the top - it is just for decoration. Decent chunks of chicken breast scatter the bowl of this green pesto penne dish. It isn't going to wow you for flavour, but it does a decent enough job for a dried pasta.

3. Mexican jalapeno and garlic chicken fettucini 

$200

In contrast, this is a lot drier than the pesto penne above.

Again, there are enough chicken pieces and vegetables in here for me to walk away feeling happily healthy, but it isn't going to live long in the memory. Not like the pasta in Bencotto does.

4. Philly steak panini with fries 

$250

Probably the best thing of the night, was the Philly Steak pannini.

Plenty of well seasoned meat and cheese were crammed inside this pannini (more like a toastie, if you ask me), accompanied by chips (fries) and salad. Avoid those awful cornichons, onions and olives in the bowl, and also avoid the disgustingly fruity salad dressing. But, I am fairly confident in saying that devouring the rest will come fairly easily.

* I didn't take a pic of the Matcha latte*

BUT

I want to talk about their cleanliness in its preparation... It was served at the end of our meal - fine. However, it was served in quite a visibly dirty mug - not fine. In addition, when we sent it back, instead of seeing it and making a new one they proceeded to try and rub the dirt off (very not fine!) and bring it back to us. Little did they know that my eagle-like eyes miss nothing!  

As I saw them doing this, they noticed me watching and quickly disposed of the mug, making us a fresh one. This gets some serious points deducted as far as I am concerned. As, if I hadn't noticed it, we would have been drinking from a dirty mug...

Remember to clean up after yourself when you are finished! I am a big fan of this!

Our bill:

Really, for 4 people dining in a place like this, I think it isn't too bad at all. We all walked away satisfied.

Opening Times:

Sunday - Thursday

11:00 - 23:00

Friday - Saturday

11:00 - 00:00

Tel:

02 2751 6021

Cash Only

Campus Cafe's Website

Campus Cafe on Facebook

Campus Cafe on Instagram

台北市大安區忠孝東路3段203號

No. 203, ZhongXiao East Road, Section 3, DaAn District, Taipei City.

Happy eating!