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)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Take Five

What to expect:

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

What not to expect:

Burger and fries.

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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'.

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Dazzle

What to expect:

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

What not to expect:

Refined plating skills. 

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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

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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. 

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Garret

What to expect:
A lot of variations on flavour.


What not to expect:
Butterkist

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Illy Cafe

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

What not to expect:
Sweet sausage.

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September Cafe

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

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

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Caliburger

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

What not to expect:
In-N-Out burger

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Mia Cucina

What to expect:
Hearty salads and delicious toasted sandwiches.

What not to expect:

Meat. This place is vegetarian.

Happy Eating!

Taipei City - URBN Culture

Value for money: 9/10

Cleanliness: 10/10

Service: 10/10

Quality of food: 9/10

Overall: 9/10

Some great vegetarian food right here at URBN Culture on KeeLung Road. This is the kimchi mayo burger, which was delicious. They have fries good enough to rival any in Taipei #challenge #Taipei #Taiwan #eatingintaipei #eat #eating #food #foodie #foodporn #foodgasm #instafood #instapic #ilovefood #ilovetaipei #blog #blogger #foodblog #picoftheday #photography #photooftheday #foodpic #taipeieats #vegetarian #vegan #soy #kimchi #mayo #fries #delicious

A photo posted by Eating in Taipei (@eatingintaipei) on Sep 9, 2016 at 6:13am PDT

You're hit with colour and liveliness from the moment you walk in.

The art on the wall is from a popular artist invited up to decorate this place, from Taichung. It's fun!

The layout is a lot like Beer and Cheese just up the road. They could perhaps do with a description about the flavours and differences...

Upstairs:

The atmosphere certainly feels comfortable, I could whittle away a few hours sat in the window watching the rain, that's for sure (but that's not me, I'm here to eat!).

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To the table:

This was quite a nice change from the boring warm water usually served at the table. This water was infused with both rosemary and lemon, adding almost a tea-like flavour with a nice citrus twist.

酪梨費塔三明治，濃濃的酪梨醬，淡淡的薄荷，鹹鹹的費塔起司，擠上一點酸酸的檸檬汁，真食材，無添加也非常好吃！ Avo-Feta Open Toast, minty, lemony, salty.. It's all there, perfect match for the avocado. #urbnculture #urbnlicious #iloveurbnculture #restaurant #craftbeer #stagetime #taipeirestaurant #taipeifoodie #taipeieats #taipeifood #taipeicraftbeer #taipeibrew #taipeiart #taipeimusic #taipeistagetime #taiwangoodbeerweek #taiwan #taipei #taipevegetarian #taipeivegan #vegetarian

A photo posted by URBNculture (@urbnculture) on Oct 12, 2016 at 7:29am PDT

The menu:

What we ordered:

Fried Wanton with spinach and mozzarella
炸菠菜起司餛飩 
zhà bō cài qǐ sī hún tun
$180

How cool and delicious do these little beauties look?

Served on a sweet and sticky chilli sauce, these fried spinach and cheese wantons were a good way to start the meal. Plenty of filling is packed inside, and the outside remains deliciously crunchy but not too thick.

Raw Pad Thai 
泰式沙拉(麵) 
tài shì shā lā (miàn) 
$280

I do love a good pad thai. This one is raw, so it isn't cooked in any way - quite different to the pad thai I usually indulge in. However, it still worked well. There are plenty of peanuts lending a hard crunch and plenty of finely sliced raw veggies allowing a softer crunch.

It was good but it wasn't as good as it looked.


Plant-based burger with Kimchi Mayo
全植泡菜美乃滋 
quán zhí pào cài měi nǎi sī hàn bǎo 
$320

Yum yum yum! And not just the burger, but the fries are absolutely awesome. They are worth coming back for, alone.

The burger has lots of layers of fresh flavours, but the patty is a bit too soft for my liking. 

The kimchi mayonnaise is 100% vegan and tastes delicious! Why wouldn't you get it?!

Ganache
甘納許 
gān nà xǔ 
$180

Definitely a top dessert, right here!

If you ever want to indulge in chocolate naughtiness in a vegan way, this is the one for you. However, be aware, it is big! This took two of us to finish it. 

The salt on the top complimented the dark chocolate and pulled out more flavours. The ice cream in the middle added good texture and made it feel even more naughty. Finally, the bottom layer of chocolate was soft, chewy and a great way to end the mouthful of chocolaty goodness.

Definitely save room for this!


Flight of 3 beers: Founders Rubaeus Raspberry

Not my choice order, and I wouldn't order it again. It has a strong raspberry flavour and tastes quite sweet. Basically, I am not a fruit beer fan, at all. If you are, then maybe you will like it.

Heretic Chocolate Hazelnut Porter

This was good, but didn't set my world alight. It's like a lot of porters out there: dark caramel and coffee flavour.

Modern Times Blackhouse Stout

My favourite drink of the night - much deeper in flavour than the porter and a smoother and more refined finish than the porter, too. Delicious.

URBN on Facebook


URBN culture on Instagram

Opening Times:

Every day 

11:00 - 00:00

Tel:

02 2378 8322

台北市大安區基隆路2段252號

No. 252, KeeLung road, section 2, DaAn District, Taipei City

Happy eating!

Taipei City - MiaCucina

Vegetarian food is something that I haven't had a great amount of exposure to living in the UK, however, I have had more than my fair share of exposure to such food in Taiwan. There are over 8 million Buddhists currently living in Taiwan (statistics taken from the Taiwan government). With some branches of Buddhism practicing vegetarianism, there is a large demand for vegetarian food on the island.

MiaCucina  is a chain vegetarian restaurant in Taipei, with stores near ZhongXiao FuXing MRT, ShiLin and TianMu. 

We went to the branch near ZhongXiao Fuxing MRT, it's based in a really convenient location, and just 5mins walk from the MRT station. 

The restaurant is kept neat and tidy inside, however, a gripe of mine is that the chairs are fairly uncomfortable.

The vegetables and fresh food on display looks amazing. It is a fantastic array of bold, bright colours and is very pleasing on the eyes! 

 

Fortunately, the menu is in English as well as Chinese. The menu is vast and presented well, however, I chose not to add the pictures here because it is around 14 pages long. If you would like me to email the menu to you, then let me know via Email, Facebook or Twitter. 

The cake selection looks great, but we were already booked in for afternoon tea, so decided to check out the main courses this time, but we will be back! 

What we ordered:

1. The Cowboy salad (small)

2. The Caprese panini

3. Roast tomato and cheese bread with toasted flatbreads

4. 5th Chakra tea

The salad has just about everything: avocado, carrot, iceberg lettuce, raisins, red beans, chickpeas, roasted yellow and red peppers, plum tomatoes, salted potato chips, red onion, cheese and also a tangy ranch dressing. 

The combination of flavours is great, the ingredients are wonderfully fresh and it certainly counts as your 5-a-day, all in one bowl. The pepper has been roasted then the skin has been peeled off, it is a lot sweeter because of this and a pleasure to eat. The lettuce has a good crunch and helps compliment the saltiness of the chips. 

2. The Caprese panini

Mozzarella, tomato and pesto make up the inside of this toasted sandwich. The mozzarella cheese is quite rich, but the balsamic dressing on the outside cuts through the heavy taste and makes brings the panini together really well. It is served with 3 potato wedges which are also seasoned very well. 

3. Roast tomato and cheese bread with toasted flatbreads

 We over-estimated the amount of bread being consumed on this trip, but this dish was also great. There is a raisin and cranberry bread on the outside, with a hot cheese and tomato dip in the center and also a crunchy pita flatbread on the right side of the plate. The raisin and cranberry bread was great and had little flecks of sweetness interspersed within the bread. 

The cheese dip is rich and smooth, and combines wonderfully with the crunchy pita flatbreads. Sharing with friends - this plate is brilliant. However, as an order as well as the panini, it was perhaps a bit too much bread. 

4. 5th Chakra tea

The Chakra tea is a brilliant end to a meal, feeling instantly settling and light. Within the tea, there is: licorice root, marshmallow root, echinacea purpurea root, orange peel, cinnamon, ginger root, fennel seed and cloves. It's calming, settling and delicious. It is not at all bitter, has a sweet after-taste and a slight spice. 

Overall, I was very impressed by MiaCucina. The service was good, the food was fresh and delicious and it is very varied. Gone are the nut roasts of the past, in are the fresh salads and paninis. I will certainly be coming back, probably for more of the tea and and cake idea next time. 

Best dish: 1. The Cowboy salad (small) - The salad dressing was sharp and complimented the sweet vegetables very well. I love raisins for the sweetness in a salad and the pulses added a good earthy flavour. 

Dish I wouldn't order again: 3. Roast tomato and cheese bread with toasted flatbreads - It was quite expensive compared to the other dishes and we should've really ordered something different as it was a bit of a bread overload. This is not a reflection on the dish in any way whatsoever. The dish itself was great, but if I have to choose a dish not to order again, it would be this one. 

   

台北市大安區復興南路一段107巷11號

No. 11, Lane 107, FuXing South road, Section 1, DaAn District, Taipei City

https://www.facebook.com/Miacucinafx

Happy Eating!