Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914) buzzes with festivals, markets and shows on the weekend, but it’s hard to find a place to sit and have a drink indoors if you forgot to make reservations at Alleycat’s or Italian restaurant Al Cicchetto is closed in between meal times.
Trio Cafe (三重奏), which opened in May, offers coffee, tea and cocktails from noon to 2am, and serves food from noon to 4pm and 6pm to 10pm. It is located at the west end of Huashan’s front plaza.
The main drawback to Trio Cafe’s menu, which rotates regularly, is that several of the items feature sauces that are slightly too sweet. I liked the crispy breading and tender meat on the Thai-style lemon chicken (泰式檸檬雞, NT$320), but it was almost overwhelmed by an extremely sugary chili vinegar sauce that did not have enough bite or citrusy tang. Steamed carrots served with my dish were so sweet and soft that I mistook them at first for candied yam.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
My companion ordered the spaghetti with smoked chicken and cream sauce (奶油煙雞, NT$220). I thought it offered a much better balance of flavors than my Thai chicken and I liked its creamy sauce and the chicken, which was savory without being too salty, but my companion said several pieces of meat were too dry.
Trio Cafe’s founder and owner William Wang (王靈安) was a professional bartender for a decade before opening Trio Cafe’s original location in Taipei’s East District (東區), the informal name of the area bounded by Fuxing South Road to the west, Civic Boulevard to the north, Songshan Road to the east and Xinyi Road to the south. The restaurant’s drinks menu features a well-edited selection of classic highballs, novelty drinks like a lychee cooler, and some international picks, including Brazilian caipiroskas and caipirinhas.
Trio Cafe is small and reservations are recommended, though my companion and I were quickly accommodated on a busy Saturday evening with a table that had just been vacated. On a return weekday visit, I was promptly seated at the bar. My order of pork ribs (豬肋排, NT$380) arrived quickly. Again, it came covered in a sweet sauce and paired with the sugary carrots, but this time the flavor went well with the smoky, succulent pork.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
I ordered a tiramisu cocktail (NT$200) in lieu of dessert (the only one Trio Cafe offers is a scoop of ice cream). I watched as the bartender carefully prepared my drink, first pouring a finger of coffee liquor into the martini glass before carefully spooning in a mixture of other liquors, including cognac that had been blended with ice cubes. The top of the drink was then covered with a thick layer of cocoa powder and carefully topped with a pirouette cookie and a single mint leaf. It was served with a spoon and I was instructed to scoop through the cocoa powder first so I would not choke on it. After I finished digging through the cocoa, I enjoyed the drink, which was light on alcohol but refreshing and not too sweet, unlike a few of Trio Cafe’s other creations.
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