Kitchen12 [十二廚自助餐]

Visit: April 5, 2012
Address: 台北市中正區忠孝東路一段12號
Number: (02) 2321-1818
Website: http://www.sheraton-taipei.com/r_kitchen.htm

When I found the restaurant inside Sheraton, I was so turned off. There was a crowd of people lining up to enter the restaurant for afternoon tea...the entire scene reminded me of a marketplace.

The food

 
The food overall was pretty disappointing. None of the desserts were that great, and the hot salty meals were pretty average as well. Although the overall food was okay, I think the part that I disliked the most was Kitchen 12's atmosphere. The tables were placed way too closely together, and the waitress kept bothering us about the check even though we had just sat down.

I would not recommend Kitchen12 for its afternoon tea. There are much better places around Taipei at $540 NT per person for a  nice afternoon tea date.

Labaz [辣霸子]

Visit: April 1, 2012
Address: 台北市士林區中山北路5段439號
Number: (02)2881-1188

The only other time I've spicy mala hotpot was at  辣中間 (la zhong jian), which according to my friend was bad. So as a dedicated spicy eaters, we ended up trying a new hotpot restaurant, Labaz.

Labaz is an all-you-can-eat hotpot location and it splits all of its pots so you can have two different types of soup. They offer four types: the Classic Mala Hotpot, Kimchi Hotpot, Sour Cabbage Hotpot, and Class Hotpot. On this particular day, I went for the Mala Hotpot and one that I've never had - the Sour Cabbage Hotpot.

The Hotpot

Left : Sour Cabbage Hotpot, Right: Mala Hotpot

food

food

 What I enjoyed most at Labaz were the duck blood blocks and the beef tendons. The beef tendons taste amazing when you throw them into the mala hotpot. The tendons were chewy but not rubbery, and with the flavoring from the mala hotpot, they were just yummy. I recommend that you throw the veggies, fish/meat balls into the sour cabbage pot, and the meat and other blander items into the mala side of the hotpot.

I'm so glad that I decided to get off my lazy butt and go enjoy an afternoon of mala hotpot that day. Although I was extremely turned off by the fact that the utensils were all disposable, the food and service were both awesome. For a price of $399 NT, Labaz is somewhere that those who appreciate chili should try out.

Lacuz Thai Fusion Cuisine

Visit: March 24, 2012
Address: 台北市中山北路五段437號
Number: (02) 2883-2959
Website: http://www.lacuz.com.tw/ 

Every time I pass by Lacuz, I've always wondered about what the restaurant was like. Finally, when I was delegated the task of picking a restaurant for a little gathering, I chose Lacuz.

Menu


Fried Moon Shrimp & Calamari Cake (月亮蝦餅)

Fried Moon Shrimp & Calamari Cake

The fried moon cake had too little of the shrimps and calamaris, and so it was a little bit like eating fried dough.

Fried Preserved Eggs with Thai Sauce (泰式炸皮蛋)

Fried Preserved Eggs with Thai Sauce

I honestly don't think drying the eggs made much of a difference, but the sauce drizzled on top of the preserved eggs was pretty good.

Fried Chicken with Pepper Sauce (雲拌椒麻雞)

Fried Chicken with Pepper Sauce

 I can never get enough of the thai fried chicken. The friend chicken at Lacuz was really tender, but because the fried chicken is in the sauce, the skin became a little soggy after a while.

Fried Chicken with Pepper Sauce (香蘭葉包雞)

Fried Chicken with sauce

 I'm not sure why this and the previous dish have the same English names in the menu, because they tasted drastically different.I didn't like this dish very much because it was too oily without being crispy at all, and the sauce was a little too sweet for the chicken. It was just a weird combination.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Chili (泰式辣炒雞肉)

Stir-Fried Chicken with Chili

 I wasn't completely sure what I was expecting the stir-fried chicken to turn out like, but I was definitely not expecting this. Since its name had the word "chili" and since I was dining at a Thai restaurant, when this dish came, I didn't even realize that this was the stir-fried chicken with chili. The chicken didn't taste Thai at all, but instead tasted like bad Chinese.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Green Curry (綠咖哩雞)

Stir-Fried Chicken with Green Curry

Fried Rice with Pineapple & Curry (夏威夷鳳梨炒飯) 

Fried Rice with Pineapple & Curry

 I've never had pineapple fried rice with curry. Although the fried rice itself was okay, the curry added a nice little twist to it.

Pad Thai (緬式炒河粉)

Pad Thai

 The pad thai was kind of bad...

Fried Chicken with Satay Sauce (南洋沙嗲雞)

Fried Chicken with Satay Sauce

 I was expecting beef skewers, but instead this was just like stir fried chicken.

Thai Style Meat Rolled with Chez (墨式起司辣捲)

Thai Style Meat Rolled with Chez

 I did not expect such a non-Thai dish to appear at Lacuz. The skin was fried to crispy, and the flavoring was okay.

Water Spinach with Shrimp Sauce (蝦醬空心菜)

Water Spinach with Shrimp Sauce

 Although the spinach was standard, it was actually pretty good.

Stir-Fried Eggplant with Yunnan Sauce (雲南茄子)

Stir-Fried Eggplant with Yunan Suace

 The eggplants were in "yunnan sauce"...so how is this in any way thai? They were yummy though.

Green Papaya Salad (青木瓜沙律)

Green Papaya Salad

 I think I could have finished the entire dish in around 3 bites.

Steam Fish with Lemon Sauce (清蒸檸檬魚片)

Steam Fish with Lemon Sauce

 I liked the sauce but the fillets of fish were still a little bland.

Thai Curry Crab (泰式咖哩炒蟹塊)

Thai Curry Crab

 Out of all the curries, I enjoyed the thai curry crab the most. However, it was kind of weird because the crabs weren't fried long enough beforehand, and so the crab shells was borderline edible.

Thai Curry Beef Tender (緬式咖哩牛腩)

Thai Curry Beef Tender

Once again, this didn't really taste like Thai Food. 
 
Fried Toast with Chez & Fruit Sauce (果香炸立方)

Fried Toast with Chez & Fruit Sauce

 The fried toast was literally fried toast...but it was unexpectedly yummy. The sauce though, was pretty nasty.

Considering how it was only $460 NT per person, I would say this was a pretty good deal. Although it's all you can eat, you actually order your food. Although this wasn't the best dining experience or the most authentic Thai food I've ever tasted at all, Lacuz is worth a try. Most of the food they serve are okay and not nasty.

Silk Road Feast [絲路宴]

Visit: March 10, 2012
Address: 台北市南京東路三段133號B1 (Westin Hotel)
Number: (02) 8770-6565
Website: http://www.westin.com.tw/01_text.asp?sn=27

After being forced to wake up at a horrible hour of 5 in the morning to attend some family errands, my mom decided reward me with breakfast at the Westin Hotel's new restaurant - Silk Road Feast. Fearing that they wouldn't have seats, I tried making reservations a few days prior, only to find out that they didn't take reservations for breakfast. However, all that seemed fine because those having breakfast seemed like hotel guests, instead of food lovers like me.

I've seen a lot of cute pictures online, but seeing the cutely renovated restaurant in person really brightened my mood. There were 4 seating areas with different themes: one with bar stools, one with normal buffet tables, another with slender coffee tables and a plush sofa area. On the particular day, my mom and I were in the area with bar stools.

The surroundings...

The buffet area is in the middle of the room

The food...

Green tea

I ordered a pot of green tea to start my day off with. The green tea seemed to be mixed with some sort of wheat which made it really nice and hearty. You could also order practically any type of coffee. For those who would like to stay away from caffeine, there's a tiny bar at the buffet where they blend fresh juices in whatever combination you want them to.

More food...

Freshly made omelet: egg white omelet with mushroom, tomato and cheese

 There's a chef who stands there and makes omelets. There aren't that many choices of toppings though.

Mexican Wrap

Mexican wrap

 There's also a chef who makes some sort of freshly made Mexican wrap. He wraps everything, then melts the cheese within and toasts the tortilla on a grill. It was yummy. :D

 The Bread and Butter pudding was really good even though I guess it isn't the best way to start my morning with. The ham as well as the bacon were also nicely flavored and the bacon was extremely crisp. I really liked how they separated the soft bacon from the crispy ones so that we wouldn't need to dig through everything to find the type of bacon we're looking for.

 They have a cheese section as well. There's this type of bread with cheese bits inside that I really enjoyed. The mini cinnamon roll was also really yummy.

 The unflavored oatmeal they had was rich and creamy with milk. The blueberry danish pastry and the bacon cheese pastry were both better than those at usual breakfast buffets.

The Cream de cassis panna cotta wasn't all that amazing. But it's really cute.

There was also this Indian curry that was really yummy. The pork was stewed so that it practically melted in your mouth.

 I was really impressed with the Silk Road Feast. Before they completely changed the restaurant, it always looked so old from the outside. The only thing that confused me a little was the fact that they didn't have waflles or pancakes, but I guess that's not that bad. Although there wasn't that much variety in the food, overall, I really liked the buffet. I definitely recommend the Silk Road Feast and am looking forward to try their lunch or dinner.

Cafe-Restaurant of the Yuan Shan Club

Visit: Mar. 3, 2012
Address: 台北市中山區中山北路四段一號 (The Grand Hotel)
Number: (02) 2886-8888 ext.1700~1703
Website: http://www.grand-hotel.org/main/Club/Article.aspx?a=125&lang=en-US

 After a few not so great dining experiences at the Grand Hotel, I now tend to stay away from there. However, this weekend, my grandparents insisted that we go dine at the Cafe-Restaurant, the buffet at the Grand Hotel or Yuan Shan Club. I'm not completely sure what the difference is.

Instead of taking pictures of the buffet set-up, I got shots of the food I took from the buffet.

Salad

Salad

The salad area was really simple with just various types of vegetables as well as a wide selection of dressings. For dressings and the side items, they had thousand island, caesar Italian, Japanese, anchovies, raisins as well as nuts. It was a pretty standard salad bar.

 The rest of the buffet...

The meats

 Clockwise from Sashimi: sashimi, fried fish, mac&cheese, creamed fish, roasted chicken, pork knuckle, Chinese cold chicken.

Nothing was bad except for the sashimi. For the most part, the sashimi okay and mediocre...except for the pink piece (don't know the name of the fish) peeking out from behind the salmon. I have never had a nastier piece of sashimi. When I bit into it, the texture wasn't just spongey...it was as if I were chewing a piece of sponge. You get the picture.

more food...

Clockwise from the sushi: Burdock sushi, roast beef, cream potato, lamb chop


As a result of the large flow of customers, the restaurant ran out of their usual roast beef, and instead served this lump of meet. Trying to chew on the meet was like chewing on rubber. It just wasn't very pleasant. Expecting their usual dishes to be okay, the lamb was still a disappointment. I was still chewing on rubber.

Dessert

Clockwise from the cheesecake: Cheesecake, chocolate cake, brownie.

The cheesecake was average but good, the chocolate cake was a disappointment, and the brownie was chewy, but still not as chewy as I would have liked it to be. Other than these, the panna cotta was mediocre, but the chestnut cream filled mochi as well as the chestnut cake were both pretty good. However, my favorite part of the desserts was the XJEB COJIB ice cream. The chocolate peanut butter ice cream was really really good, especially if you eat it with a piece of the brownie. Yum~


Overall, I would not recommend the Cafe-Restaurant. The restaurant was really small and cramped, which made it really awkward and uncomfortable when you make eye contact with a random stranger sitting a table down from me. The food was pretty low quality and even the dishes that tasted acceptable, were just simply mediocre.

Robin's Grill

Visit: Feb. 18, 2012
Address: 台北市中山北路二段41號2F
Number: (02) 2523-1321
Website: http://www.grandformosa.com.tw/EN/Dining/RobinsGrill/ 

I know it seems like I'm forever celebrating my birthday. But hey, birthdays are big events (or simply an excuse to go eat). This time, I went to Robin's Grill with my friends.

Dinner Menus

Dinner Menu

Dinner menu: Bone-in Beef

 Robin's Grill is half buffet style. Once you order a main course, they serve appetizer, soup, coffee/tea and chocolate truffle and with that, you get full access to the small salad, appetizer and dessert bar.

Appetizer - Salmon Tartar on Cracker with Caviar

Salmon Tartar on Cracker with Caviar

 This cute dish was served on a slab of flat stone plate. The salmon tartar wasn't that great, everything was just a bit mediocre. The plating was cute though.

Bread - Garlic Bread, Cheese Bread, Rye Bread

From left: Garlic Bread, Cheese Bread (top), Rye Bread (bottom)

 The toasted garlic bread was really good and crispy when it was still warm, so make sure you eat it right when it's served! The cheese bread was sadly only cheese bits on the outer layer, the insides was just plain bread. The rye bread was from the buffet area so it was a little dry. I wish that I could have toasted it!

Soup - French Onion Soup au Gratin, Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup, and Lobster Bisque with Whipped Cream

French Onion Soup au Gratin

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Lobster Bisque with Whipped Cream

I got the Lobster Bisque with Whipped Cream. This was a rich cup of soup with pieces of lobster in there. The creamy texture was very yummy, but if you aren't in the mood for something heavy, you might not like this.

Main Course: Fillet of Seabass ($1500NT), Seared Tuna Steak au Poivre ($1650NT), 8oz US Rib Eye Steak ($1650NT), and 6oz US Fillet Mignon ($1900NT)

Fillet of Seabass

Seared Tuna Steak au Poivre

8oz US Rib Eye Steak

  The rib eye was tender and done just right.

6oz US Fillet Mignon

At first glance, I thought that my fillet mignon seemed to be more medium than medium rare. But when I cut into it, the red perfection within made me smile. The fillet mignon was tender and was not as fibrous as the rib eye. I really liked the fillet mignon because it felt like it basically melted in your mouth (: The onion ring on the side was also the crispiest onion ring I've had in a while. It tasted more like onion chips.

Dessert - Buffet

Dessert

Dessert

Dessert

Dessert

 I know, we went a little crazy on dessert. The girls and I had all the different types of desserts (except for the Haagen-Dazs ice cream), and my conclusion? They're all pretty good. There were a few that needed improvement, but overall, it definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.

Coffee &Truffle

Coffee

 The coffee was a standard cup of brewed coffee. The truffle was jasmine flavored I think. While some of my friends liked it, I thought it was just a little weird.

Birthday Cake - 6in Cheesecake ($920)

Cheesecake

Cheesecake

 The plating was so cute!!! The cheesecake was really rich and creamy. Unlike the usual Taiwanese cheesecakes where it's a little bit airy, this was firm and dense. I'm not really a cheesecake person, but I really liked this. The only thing I wished was different was the crust. Instead of the usual crumbly cookie crust, this cheesecake had a little-firmer-than-cake-crust.

I was really impressed with Robin's Grill. The price of the steak was definitely reasonable and is definitely a steal with the amount of food we had. If you think that the steaks seemed small, think again because I didn't upload the pictures of the salad and appetizers from the buffet. The quality of steak was also amazing and surprisingly comparable to that of prime 168 (Ruth's Chris butter steak is a little different). Although I got one of the private rooms, the small environment outside seemed really cozy. I only wish that the buffet wasn't so far away from the dining area, but I guess that way, your dining atmosphere won't be destroyed by people constantly clinking utensils on plates at the buffet. This is somewhere I'd definitely visit again.