Treat your date to a romantic evening on Valentine’s Day with special set menus at some of the city’s top restaurants, a luxury hotel getaway or chillwave music. Seats at restaurants serving set menus are limited, so make reservations by tonight to avoid disappointment.
Four restaurants in the Grand Hyatt Taipei will offer special Valentine’s Day menus. Renowned for its romantic atmosphere (and a popular spot for marriage proposals), Bel Air Bar and Grill will serve grilled US prime steaks and fresh seafood. Their Valentine’s Day set menu is priced at NT$3,600 per person. Bands Sound Stream and Cross Colors will perform at Ziga Zaga, where an Italian set menu is available for NT$2,800 per person. Laid-back lounge bar Cheers will offer a couple’s dessert platter with two glasses of Chandon Rose, soft-baked macaroons, rose-scented lychee mousse, chocolates and more. Pearl Liang’s menu features Chinese-style seafood. All prices are subject to a 10 percent service charge. For reservations, call (02) 2702-1200 X3188 or X3199.
● Address: 2 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路2號2樓). On the Net: www.taipei.grand.hyatt.com
Photo Courtesy of Grand Hyatt Taipei
W Taipei’s Love 2012 package, which can only be booked on Feb. 14 through the hotel’s Facebook page, is one of this year’s best Valentine’s Day deals. Priced at NT$2,012 per person, it includes a double room, free usage of W Taipei’s gym, sauna and steam rooms, and swimming pool. The package is limited to 100 sets and you must be a fan of www.facebook.com/wtaipei to be eligible for the offer. The Love It Up room package, priced at NT$19,900 per night, includes one night in a Fabulous Room, which has a view of Taipei City and spa-style island bath tub, one bottle of champagne, a dinner for two at the Yen Chinese Restaurant and breakfast for two at The Kitchen Table. Reservations can be made at reservations.taipei@whotels.com, or online at: www.wtaipei.com.
W Taipei’s restaurants will also offer Valentine’s Day specials. The highlight of the Kitchen Table buffet’s bill of fare is a carpaccio bar with delicacies like truffled beef, tuna sesame and beet-cured salmon. The dessert spread includes Granny Smith tarts, Tahiti vanilla bread pudding, chocolate fondue and homemade sorbet. The Valentine’s Day dinner buffet is NT$2,012 per person, plus a 10 percent service charge. One glass of prosecco is included.
Yen Chinese Restaurant on the hotel’s top floor offers gourmet Cantonese food and a dazzling view of Taipei City. The dinner set menu is NT$2,520 with one glass of prosecco, while seats in a secluded “love cocoon” formed from bungee ropes are NT$9,999 for two people (10 percent service charge not included) with a bottle of champagne. For restaurant reservations, call W Taipei at (02) 7703-8887 or send an e-mail to bf.taipei@whotels.com.
Photo Courtesy of Grand Hyatt Taipei
● Address: 10, Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 5, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路五段10號10樓). On the Net: www.wtaipei.com
Chef Daniel Negreira of DN Innovacion, which is renowned for its thoughtful molecular gastronomy and Spanish cuisine, has designed a special Valentine’s Day set menu. With unexpected textures and flavors, Negreira’s dishes are often surprising, but always a delight for the taste buds. Diners can pick from four main courses: Iberico suckling pig roasted at low temperatures to ensure the meat’s juiciness and tenderness; grilled Wagyu rib eye with red wine pear, roasted leaks and “massaged” potatoes; roasted monk fish served with different “textures”; or rack of lamb with grilled figs, cumin bones and “fake truffle.” The set menu is NT$2,300 per person (not including a 10 percent service charge). For an extra NT$1,314, diners can add a full wine pairing with a specially selected beverage for each course. DN Innovacion has set aside 10 seats for Taipei Times’ readers. For reservations, call (02) 8780-1155
● Address: 93 Songren Rd, Taipei (台北市松仁路93號). On the Net: www.dn-asia.com
Photo Courtesy of Miguel Angel Vargas
Just In Bistro & Wine Bar at Neo 19 will serve a Valentine’s Day set menu that focuses on seafood, the restaurant’s specialty. Offerings include appetizers of Australian salmon tartare with truffle and chive, and fresh oyster with shiso jelly and oscietra caviar; warm king fish with ginger, soy sauce and mixed cress; and blue swimmer crab with angel hair pasta. Main courses are fresh fish prepared with sea urchin sauce and braised soy daikon and lily bulb or braised red wine Australian beef cheek with onion confit and potato puree. For dessert, diners will enjoy a special Valentine’s Day platter of treats prepared with Valrhona chocolate, including cake, sorbet and macaroons. The menu is NT$1,799 per person (not including a 10 percent service charge). A wine pairing for each course is an additional NT$600 per person. For reservations, call (02) 8786-2000.
● Address: 30 Songshou Rd, Taipei City (台北市松壽路30號)
Whether you already have a date or are single and ready to mingle, the Brass Monkey is all set to add some sizzle to your evening with its Valentine’s Day Salsa Night. Couples and singles are welcome to the event. The first 50 women to show up get a free rose, and women will also be served free margaritas from 9pm to midnight. There will be salsa performances and a set menu from 6pm to 10pm. The minimum charge is NT$150 per person. For reservations, send an e-mail to qurina@brassmonkeytaipei.com or call (02) 2547-5050.
● Address: 166 Fuxing N Rd, Taipei City (台北市復興北路166號). On the Net: www.brassmonkeytaipei.com
Tuesdays are generally a quiet night for Taipei City’s live music venues, but if having a romantic dinner is not your style, then treat your sweetheart to Toro Y Moi and Yuck’s Be My Valentine concert tonight at The Wall. Toro Y Moi (real name: Chaz Bundick) is known for being part of the chillwave movement. He will pair up with English noise rockers Yuck for Tuesday’s performance.
● Feb. 14 at 8pm. The Wall, B1, 200, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段200號B1). On the Net: www.indievox.com/a/thewall. Tickets are NT$1,300 in advance, available by calling (02) 2930-0162 and online at www.the-wall.com.tw. Admission is NT$1,500 at the door
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built
RSS