The Village (小農莊法式餐廳)
1F, 12, Lane 13, Tienmou W. Rd., Taipei (北市天母西路13巷12號1樓); tel:2873-1579. Averae meal:NT$300(lunch); NT$700(dinner). Open: 11am-midnight. Credit cards accepted. English menu.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING
Rarely does one find independently-run restaurants of the quality found at five-star hotels. The Village, however, is one of these rare pleasures. The chef Huang Chia-tsai (黃嘉財) catered at the Ritz Landis Hotel (亞都飯店) for eight years before opening his own establishment four years ago with his wife Chang Hsiu-lan (張琇蘭). With his abundant experience, Huang creates dishes that are both unique and superbly flavorful. It's believable when Chang says the restaurant has never needed to advertise.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
Contrary to Chinese cuisine that is often over-seasoned or over-cooked, Huang says he tries to preserve the original flavor and textures of the meat and insists on the best ingredients available. Whether the dish be lamb chops, seafood or steak, Huang is capable of bringing out the best aspects of the taste. For example, bouillabaisse Marseillaise (馬賽燴海鮮), a seafood platter served in a porcelain pot with salmon, large shrimp, squid, and mussels, is marinated in the classic Provencal liquor Pastis de Ricard. The result is a pleasant, mild and natural-tasting dish. Another outstanding offering is the roast lamb with mustard herbs (香草烤羊排), which is accompanied by a succulent beef gravy and mint sauce
Also highly recommend is the pumpkin vegetable soup (奶油南瓜湯). This soup, which is decidedly rare in Taiwan, is dense and wonderfully sweet and creamy, making it perfect for a cold winter night. Huang says the soup takes six hours to prepare and one taste will clearly reveal the time and care put into its preparation.
PHOTO: CHANG JU-PING, TAIPEI TIMES
The Village also provides a cozy and elegant setting reminiscent of a cabin lost deep in a forest. Its ceiling is layered with paper sunflowers and the rattan seats are all in vintage, classic designs. When the weather improves, guests can also opt for a table on the patio decorated with poinsettias.
Trattoria (圖拉德義大利廚房)
B1, Eslite Bookstore Square, 188, Chungchen Rd., Sec. 2, Taipei (北市忠誠路二段誠品商場忠誠店B1); tel:2873-0966 ext.002. Average meal:NT$200. 11am-10pm. Credit cards accepted. English menu.
The owner of this refined 22-seat restaurant, Chu Ju-hsueh (朱如雪), spent six months learning to make pasta before opening the restaurant. The time was obviously well-spent.
Contrary to some pasta joints whose noodles end up overly soft and mushy, Trattoria wisely avoids this mistake and makes noodles that are richly textured and just slightly crispy. In preparing the restaurant's 20 pasta dishes, Chu says she has found similarities with Chinese cuisine. Her specialty pasta dish, spaghetti with seafood (那勒斯海鮮義大利麵), for example, uses garlic, red and green pepper, and pesto rosso, which is similar to Vietnamese basil, a popular ingredient in Chinese cuisine. The taste is enhanced by Balsamic vinegar (紅酒醋) and surfines (酸豆) to make a complex mixture of flavors.
Chu herself is also passionate about cheese. Her store has 20 cheeses imported from France, Holland and Italy, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmesan, gouda, French blue and Chamois. Working with her knowledge of cheeses, one of the best dishes is the penne with a four cheese cream sauce (四式乳酪通心麵). The four cheeses are mixed at different melting stages and then complemented with hardy mushrooms and chunks of onion. If the pasta isn't enough, one can also choose from half a dozen kinds of cheese cakes to take home.
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Sara House (莎諾西餐)
120, Tienmu W Rd., Taipei (北市天母西路120號);tel:2821-9366. Average meal:NT$500; open:11:30am-midnight. Credit cards accepted. English menu.
One of those postcard-perfect wooden-frame country houses with pale walls and potted flowers can now be found in Taipei. This quaint restaurant, called Sara House, has attracted thousands since it opened five years ago with its quintessential European countryside architecture and floral designs on the chairs and table cloths.
Downstairs are private tables for couples, while the upstairs is geared more for families. The house actually reminds one of corny western restaurants popular a couple of decades ago in Taipei, and the music -- soft numbers from the 1970s -- seems to amplify the impression. But unlike its cheesy predecessors, Sara House offers more than just steak. The 12 main courses, including steak, lamb chops and salmon, are exceptionally diverse and hearty. This is a restaurant where volume and heavier flavors take precedence over delicacy.
It has the feel of Western restaurants in southern Taiwan: spacious dining areas with generous servings that say the owner does not care about making profits. Some of the best dishes are roast rack of lamb with red wine sauce (烤羊仔排佐紅酒司), roasted German pork knuckle with sour kraut and mustard (香烤德國豬腳) and a Norwegian smoked salmon plate (挪威燻鮭魚醬). The meats are rather uninspired, but the side dishes have some great surprises. Set meals, priced at around NT$700, include a refreshing garden salad and a choice of one appetizer from five options. The highlight of the salad is its passion fruit dressing. This fruit, which is typically found in its juice form, has been cleverly applied by the chef to make this unique salad dressing. It has a stronger, sweet, refreshing taste which sets it apart from the usual salty or bitter dressings. The chef also makes use of imported celery, which is milder than locally grown celery. The Mediterranean seafood soup (
An added plus at Sara House is the exceptionally polite and prompt service.
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