Best 01 Tea Garden (壹等賞景觀茶園) is a little oasis of well-ordered rural elegance amid the hodgepodge of industrial and agricultural land off the Longtan Interchange (龍潭交流道) of the Formosa Freeway (爾摩沙高速公路) in Taoyuan County. It is easy to miss, but once there, it is also easy to forget all about the surrounding landscape.
A sprawling wood, glass and red-brick bungalow, the main restaurant building is low key, and the attention of arriving guests is quickly focused on the well-kept lawn, the sparklingly clean carp pond, the lush stands of tropical plants and the neat rows of tea trees just beyond.
On foodie blogs, Best 01 Tea Garden has a reputation of being an attractive scenic destination, and its gardens provide ample opportunities for shutterbugs. It also has a reputation for serving top-notch Taiwanese food. It did not disappoint, though with two sittings for lunch, the first starting at 11:30am with seats cleared at 1pm for the second, it is not a place that encourages diners to dawdle over their food. There is outdoor seating though, which is used as a waiting area for diners, and also as a place to relax after a meal. Visiting on a Saturday that threatened rain, Best 01 Tea Garden was moving customers through in a thoroughly efficient manner and there were no tables going spare in the house.
The reason for the crowds was made obvious when the food was brought to the table, minutes after we had ordered. It was simply presented, but with an eye for its aesthetic appeal, and most importantly, very tasty.
As the staple, its healthy tea oil rice (養生茶油拌飯, NT$20 a bowl), served in a tub made of cypress wood, was delightfully subtle and cooked to perfection (well prepared rice is much more of a rarity than one might think), and could easily have been enjoyed all on its lonesome, if it weren’t for all the other enticing dishes on the menu.
Particularly exciting was the tea smoked goose (茶鵝, NT$300), which had just the right amount of fat under the skin to make it succulent without being greasy. The fried golden tofu (陶板黃金豆腐), as homely a dish as one could imagine, also had a splendid balance of crisp vegetables and tender tofu held together by a golden skin. Short ribs in osmanthus honey (桂花蜜排骨, NT$280) was another beautifully judged offering of an old and much-abused regular, lightly battered and with a good balance between the honey and vinegar. The flesh of the eastern beauty fish (東方美人魚, NT$500), a steamed cod, was a little coarse, but the flavors where nevertheless quite good.
The food arrived quickly and with little fuss, and the table was cleared regularly. Service was a tad impersonal but ran like a well-oiled machine, with nothing to distract you from the enjoyment of the food and the surroundings. The spacious garden area makes it ideal for big family gatherings with children, who can be kept amused feeding the carp (fish feed is available from a dispensing machine) and running about on the grass.
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