The Cruise Ship restaurant and lounge is the sort of place "where the atmosphere is part of the meal." The wood panelling, nautical fittings, art deco touches and lithographs of great liners hark back to another era -- a golden age of transatlantic crossings in the 1920s.
It was opened earlier this month by Mike Waldorf, who is known to lovers of Greek food in Taipei as the owner of Mykonos on Lishui Street and by fans of Chinese food in Athens, where he has another restaurant.
Before disembarking in Taipei from New York, in 1985, he sailed passenger ships for 22 years as a catering manager and has put his accumulated experience of the Taipei restaurant scene together with his love of the ocean liner to produce a cleverly conceived and themed restaurant that looks out on a tree-lined section of Anhe Road.
"I'm playing to my strengths, I guess. I didn't really want the trouble of another restaurant but now I've done it. I'm really happy with it," Waldorf said.
The Clipper lounge bar has large windows that can be opened to give the impression of being in a continental-style cafe, where on a good day the light filters in, a natural breeze circulates and the best thing to do over coffee at the end of the meal is to people-watch. The lounge menu caters mainly to the office crowd and offers good value for money. A three-course meal will set you back just NT$200 and the more expansive menu offers extra style and taste for a little bit more cash.
But it is the Seven Seas Dining Room which sets the Cruise Ship apart. The 30-place dining room is divided from the lounge and bar by frosted glass windows with opaque glass port hole windows. A large lithograph of the SS Normandie -- "the world's most perfect ship" -- dominates the room, which has the cloistered feel of the captain's table, with subdued lighting and candles.
The authentic cruise ship menu changes weekly and features food from some of the world's most famous passenger ships, with the current set dinner being from the Queen Elizabeth II. This includes hors d'oeuvres, soup, salad, main course (salmon steak, grilled lamb chops or grilled ham steak, with mashed potatoes or rice), vegetables, dessert and tea or coffee, all for NT$500. The Voyager of the Seas is a slightly more expensive Caribbean-styled menu.
"This means that someone can come back every week and experience a new menu, from a different country, based on another cruise ship. It keeps things fresh," Waldorf said.
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