I’ve wandered past Mr Onion’s Zhongshan (中山) location several times and have always wondered about the groups of people mingling out front. The family restaurant must be doing something right, I thought. Intrigued, I decided to give it a try. Curiosity, however, soon turned into perplexity.
The eatery follows the popular Taipei tradition of set meals. Patrons choose an entree of chicken, beef, pasta or fish at the front of the menu and then flip towards the back where they choose a salad, appetizer, soup, dessert and drink. There is nothing wrong with this kind of operation, if it is done right. The Palace, for example, does a more than adequate job of serving homemade fare that is fresh and good value.
Mr Onion’s interior is perhaps one reason for its popularity. The stained glass and candelabra chandeliers hanging from the ceiling cast an ambient glow over heavy wooden tables covered with floral-patterned tablecloths in earthy tones. Wainscoting on the wheat-colored walls and wooden laminate flooring round out the feeling that one is dining somewhere in 19th-century rural America rather central Taipei.
I ordered the grilled New York steak (NT$600), which came with two slices of abalone, a salad, appetizer (from a list of six), soup (from a list of five), dessert (from a list of nine) and drink.
The garden salad of iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and yellow pepper was fresh but the lemony dressing came with too much Parmesan cheese. Much less could have been used — the surplus would have come in handy to enliven the escargot that came next. Served with a slice of bread dripping with garlic butter, the rubbery snails were buried under a dollop of blackened coagulated butter
and garlic. I left half of them on the plate.
While I was wondering if I was going to leave the restaurant hungry, the seafood soup arrived. One of the meal’s two highlights, it came loaded with clams, crab, prawn and cuttlefish, and the light tomato broth allowed the individual flavors of the seafood to shine through. As with the escargot, however, the rubbery texture of the seafood suggested it came from a packet.
After going through the appetizers, my expectation of receiving a steak of even mediocre quality had largely vanished. But I was surprised. The 7oz slab was grilled to my specifications — medium rare — and free of gristle. But avoid the pepper sauce. It tasted like the packaged variety that you can buy at any supermarket.
Fortunately, I only added a little sauce on the side so it didn’t interfere too much
with the robust flavor of the
juicy meat.
The chocolate brownie,
like the escargot, was
basically an afterthought that I
barely touched.
At NT$600, Mr Onion
certainly wasn’t worth what I paid — especially considering that Palace offers considerably better fare at two-thirds the price.
Mr Onion has four other locations throughout Taipei, which can be found at
www.cafeonion.com.tw.
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