Jodin Coffee is an unassuming little place on Xinyi Road, the kind of coffee shop around Taipei that could be found before the advent of Starbucks and all its imitators. Inside are a few tablecloth-covered tables with comfortable chairs and a few dozen coffee cups hung up above the coffee bar.
But don't let the name fool you. These days people don't stop by just for the coffee, they go for the New Zealand lamb and seafood dishes, whose pictures decorate the entrance to the restaurant.
The best thing about the roasted leg of lamb at Jodin, the New Zealander who introduced me to the place said, was that the meat just falls right off the bone and the cost won't break your wallet.
As a vegetarian, I can't attest to his first assertion, although I did watch my three companions who ordered lamb all but lick their plates clean. I can, however, attest to the second.
With entrees and set meal offers ranging from NT$250 for the baked fish steak and grilled beef steak with rosemary sauce or grilled salmon steak with cream sauce at NT$280 to grilled lamb rack with mushroom Sauce -- at NT$400 it's the most expensive item on the menu -- Jodin's owner prides himself on offering good unpretentious food at prices that keep people coming back.
The set meals come with soup, salad, garlic bread, pudding (creme brulee) for dessert and coffee or tea.
While there are no vegetarian entrees listed on the menu, the waitress said it wasn't a problem, the kitchen could make either a rice dish or a pasta dish for me. I chose pasta and my entree turned out to be a pleasant dish of perfectly done noodles in a light creamy parmesan sauce with basil.
They even adjusted the soup and salad that comes with the set meal for me. My companions got French onion soup and the usual small bowl of salad and thousand island dressing. I got a light broth with small chunks of tofu and watercress and then a lemony vinaigrette on my salad.
My friends all ordered the roasted leg of lamb with rosemary sauce -- the favorite of the New Zealander in the group. He said he and his wife have kept up the tradition of roast lamb for Sunday lunch for several years by stopping in at Jodin. He also noted that while the menu bills the sauce as rosemary, it's actually more of a pesto-based sauce these days; the owner has just never bothered to change the menu.
But no one seemed to mind, as the lamb, described as "lovely, just perfect," disappeared quickly.
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