Restaurant: Sonoma Grill

There has been something of a rash of high-end steak houses opening up in Taipei recently, the most recent being the Sonoma Grill that has opened on the ground floor of the Imperial Hotel, formerly the Intercontinental. The restaurant is an offshoot of the Tienmu store of the same name, and is run as a cooperative venture between the hotel and Sonoma's chef and manager Danny Teng (鄧有癸).

Sonoma's concept is what Teng calls third generation teppanyaki -- namely teppanyaki with a traditional western kitchen to support it. This allows Sonoma to serve a wide range of meals, from thin melt-in-you-mouth beef served up slice by slice from the teppanyaki skillet to the 22oz Beefeater, a massive slab of beef grilled in Sonoma's "super-broiler" that could floor even the most dedicated trencherman. "It is usually shared between two or three people," Teng said.

Teng goes for very simple preparations so the quality of the meat is what is emphasized at Sonoma. The best US prime is served, all carefully aged to a high level of tenderness before it finds its way to your table. It addition, the teppanyaki skillet is used to put together a variety of seared dishes -- the red snapper in dill sauce, created by the chef at the open teppanyaki counter is light and refreshing -- while the kitchen turns out more complex dishes that you probably wouldn't expect in a traditional grill restaurant.

Appealing to local tastes, the Sonoma has a good range of set menus that allow diners to enjoy the diverse products of Teng's kitchen.

One of the best value combinations is the From Sea and Land menu, ideal for a slow, multiple course dinner and includes a number of high cost items such as goose liver, live lobster and US prime steak with lighter dishes to provide the whole meal with a pleasant rhythm. At NT$1,680 it is good value, although obviously only for those who care to indulge themselves over a long meal. Lunch set menus come as cheaply as NT$480 for pan-seared salmon, so Saloma is not just for those on expense accounts.

The deserts are also likely to sweeten you up, with feather light souffles baked to order and a tiramisu made with Kaluha rather than the more conventional Ameretto and likely to tempt even weight-watchers.

The atmosphere is sophisticated and subdued, with lots of dark wood and service by wait staff in immaculate blacks. Soloma is equipped with a bar area for pre-dinner drinks and an extensive wine collection.