Palace seems to suffer from an identity crisis — at least in its design. The restaurant, located in the series of back alleys near the intersection of Dunhua South (敦化南) and Zhongxiao East (忠孝東) roads, has the decor and ambience of a lounge bar.
Cushioned hot pink couches and chairs are ensconced in front of sleek black laminate walls lined with mirrors — this latter flourish ensuring that those who sit facing them spend as much time looking at themselves as they do their dining companions. Transparent icicle-like ornaments hang from the ceiling and are accentuated by spotlighting. The sounds of such jazz greats as Chet Baker and Ella Fitzgerald round out the lounge bar vibe.
With decor like this, one could be forgiven for expecting to be passed a whiskey menu, rather than the lunch and dinner menu consisting of French, American and Italian-style dishes that we received. There are two basic ways of ordering your meal: the large set meal, which I chose, or the small set meal, which my companion picked. Both came with bread, soup and a drink, with the addition of two salads and dessert for mine. We ordered the sirloin steak (NT$420) and rosemary lamb with mint sauce (NT$370).
The coil of smoked salmon lightly drizzled with honey vinaigrette and garnished with capers and asparagus that showed up to the table was a pleasant beginning. The sweet dressing and tangy capers complemented the salmon’s smokiness. The Caesar salad was also surprising with its homemade dressing that had strong hints of anchovy. The somewhat tasteless homemade bread, however, was disappointing. It wasn’t improved by the butter, which tasted as though it was made of coconut oil. I ended up dipping the bread into the creamy vegetable and bacon soup.
As Palace’s prices are similar to, say, Sizzler, I was expecting the cut of sirloin and its presentation to be equally mediocre. I was wrong. The 6-ounce (it looked more like an 8-ounce) steak was served with the standard garnish of broccoli, cauliflower, baby corn, fries and a tangy passion fruit and tomato salad. The meat was moist, slightly marbled and came with a robust pepper sauce (on the side). My companion, between bites of his lamb, told me it was the best he’d tried in Taipei.
Stuffed from a delicious meal, I was half hoping that the brownie I chose for dessert wouldn’t be worth eating. After one bite I changed my mind. It arrived crowned with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and smothered in rich chocolate sauce that was topped with chopped almonds.
Although Palace’s atmosphere is somewhat bizarre for the food it serves, the restaurant offers good food for great value.
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