Japanese restaurant Coeur (杜樂麗心饌) is run by the same company as Couer Hot Spring Resort (杜樂麗溫泉莊園) in Wulai. With soothing ambient lighting and an interior pond stocked with gray-blue koi that match the slate walls, Couer could be mistaken for a spa at first glance. Most spas, however, will not leave you feeling as stuffed as Coeur’s overambitious set menus do.
The set meals are priced from NT$1,200 to NT$2,800 (Couer also has an a la carte selection). My companion and I were told that the difference between the meals was in the rarity of the ingredients used, but quantity also factored in. I ordered the most expensive set and, after working through nine courses, including an hors d’oeuvre set, king crab salad, giant platter of sashimi, seared goose liver, grilled Wagyu beef, miso cod, mushroom hot pot and sushi, I was beginning to envy my companion’s NT$1,200 set. It may have lacked delicacies like sea urchin, the goose liver or Wagyu beef, but it had a better balance of portions and flavors. For example, instead of the miso cod, my companion got tender herb-encrusted grilled lamb served on a fluffy bed of whipped yam. It was a welcome break from the seafood courses, which became repetitive. (The menus change depending on season and the whims of Coeur’s chefs).
Coeur’s cold dishes are much more satisfying than its hot courses. My hors d’oeuvre set was a compartmentalized box filled with dainty portions of different treats, including candied almonds topped with niboshi, or tiny dried fish, thin slices of mullet roe, caviar-topped sea urchin on a bed of peanut-flavored tofu and seared scallop. Each one offered an unusual and distinct mixture of flavors and textures. My companion’s appetizer was the peanut-flavored tofu with steamed okra and soybeans.
Next up were the salads. Mine was butter lettuce and sliced fruit topped with two pieces of king crab, while my friend got spring rolls of delicate rice wrappers stuffed with cilantro and grilled tuna. Both of us preferred the spring rolls to my salad because the crabmeat was slightly chewy and tough in texture — and without the crabmeat, the salad was bland.
The gorgeous sashimi platters were visual knockouts. Mine was almost twice as large as my companion’s; standouts included lobster sashimi, sea urchin and seared scallops.
The aforementioned goose liver and grilled lamb were the best of the hot dishes. We were less impressed, however, with my set’s Wagyu beef, which a waitress grilled at our table on a searing hot slab of stone. The presentation was unusual, but the beef’s limp flavor was a disappointment, especially as Wagyu cattle are reared specifically for their marbled meat. We also thought that the mushroom hot pots served with both our meals were unremarkable — until the waitress mentioned that the lobster in them was recycled from my sashimi course. But the empty shells added no flavor to the broth.
Service at Coeur is polite, if a little disorganized. We arrived an hour and a half before closing time and were tactfully informed by our waitress that our dishes would be served more quickly. There were still several lags between our courses, however, which left us rubbing our increasingly bloated bellies and wondering if we were supposed to use the time to digest and enjoy Coeur’s decor.
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