If you took away the bar and dancing girls from Carnegie's you would still have a good restaurant, as a good crowd asking for tables showed at lunchtime earlier in the week. Clearly, there is something that Carnegie's does better than anyone else and that would seem to be taking care of the details.
While even relatively good restaurants in Taipei come and go, Carnegie's is here for the long run because it succeeds on four levels: First, there is the bar, which needs little introduction; then there are the club nights on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; the tea time set of cakes and coffees in the afternoon ("Starbucks with ashtrays," is how general manager Bob Marshall described it); and last, but certainly not least, the food.
The menu is extensive and caters to a range of tastes. Whether you want to nibble on bar favorites such as quesadillas (NT$240) or mixed spicy sausages, or tuck in to a large fillet of North Sea cod in a crispy beer batter with thick-cut French fries, mushy peas and salad (NT$450), Carnegie's provides.
There are eight starters, 14 main courses and four desserts on the a la carte part of the menu. Added to this are six types of salads and five items in the innovative British "Traditional Pub Fayre" section, including liver and onions (NT$330) and shepherds pie (NT$360). There is also a comprehensive selection of pasta dishes and five rice-and-curry dishes to choose from, including a chicken biryani (NT$390), which is earning rave reviews from the English ex-pat community.
We chose the chicken and mushroom pie (NT$360), rolled chicken breast (NT$450) and grilled port medallions (NT$490), all of which were larger than generous portions. Each meal came with its own tailored vegetable selection, so the pork came with red cabbage and apple sauce, flavored with cloves and nutmeg. The breaded and rolled chicken and goat's cheese arrived with caramelized Belgian endives and boiled potatoes, which complemented the pesto sauce. The chicken pie arrived with a large puff pastry crust and a selection of vegetables with mashed potatoes.
Marshall said the menu was changed in October and food sales went up 35 percent since then. "There has been a lot of development. It has been really successful. Basically, we wanted to put food on the menu that we wanted to eat ourselves."
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