Taipei's latest tapas joint, Que Pasa is no doubt hoping to cash in on dim-witted yuppies who have a whole lot of money but very little in culinary sense. Anyone who knows anything about food will certainly be giving the place a miss.
The joint is designed to be part lounge and part classy restaurant, yet gets trapped in some hell-like place in the middle. The interior design is both gaudy and sterile. And the bar, the place one would expect to be the center of attention at any tapas joint is equally uninviting.
While the dozen personalized bottles of whisky that sit behind the bar show that people do frequent Que Pasa for its odd ambiance, we went there for the food, which was a mistake as the evening's culinary experience proved to be painful.
Glancing at the menu patrons get the impression of a well-stocked restaurant that serves a smorgasbord of reasonably priced delights ranging from NT$180 to NT$400. Sadly this is a misconception, as there's something not quite right about the food at Que Pasa. While any qualified chef will attest to the fact that there is nothing wrong with culinary creativity, the kitchen staff at Que Pasa appears to have lost the plot completely.
Our evening was doomed from the get-go. An associate we invited along, who just happens to be a chef who has worked for several of London's more up-market eateries had little to say about the soup seafood bisque except, "Don't you love it when the soup tastes like tinned tomatoes." The sliced cow tongue proved equally disappointing. It was not fresh and, at NT$280 a plate you certainly don't expect the meat to taste like the Tupperware box it has been stored in while languishing in the refrigerator.
We should have gotten up and left there and then, but instead decided to subject ourselves to more. We soon regretted this, however, as neither the paella nor the lamb kebabs were worth waiting for.
OK, so paella is not an easy dish to prepare, but when Thai long grain rice is used as a substitute for short grain rice and cheese is added to the concoction something is very wrong. The lamb kebabs proved to be even worse. The meat had not been marinated and nor was it prime lamb, as instead of flaking off the kebabs it broke into rather unsightly chunks.
In order to see if things could get even worse we ordered desert. The mango mousse and white chocolate orange mousse were both mass produced, packed with far too much gelatin and looked and tasted like something even a fast food joint would think twice about serving up.
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