La Grande Vinotheque - 吉悅酒窖

Address:  塔悠路317號 Taipei, Taiwan

Telephone: (02)2747-5888

As great as the street food is in Taiwan, sometimes its nice to have a meal with a knife and fork.  And really, Vinotheque -吉悅酒窖 (cool name) is about as fancy smancy as you'd want without feeling like an utter snob.

Came here for a family dinner and walked away impressed.  The food, the service, the atmosphere were all quality.  The restaurant is nestled away from your typical busy Taiwan metropolitan thoroughfares, so it adds an even deeper sense of privacy than you get from the private rooms.

Vinotheque splits its time between being a top notch restaurant and a warehouse for people without room in their homes to store thousands of bottles of wine.

My typical process is: see alcohol, drink alcohol.  So i wouldn't know anything about the desire to store wine, but regardless, the wine collection here is impressive and must be worth in the tens of millions of dollars. (yes, I just made up that number).

We were shown the climate controlled storage area, but unfortunately no photography was allowed.  But it was what you'd expect: bottles and crates locked up in cages.. waiting to age until that perfect time.... honestly, I just don't get wine.  Let's just move on.

Caviar and Oyster.. like I've had.  Delicious. An elegant dish

Vegetarian option

Looks so simple.  I thought the orange flavor was a little overpowering.

As you'd might expect, the menu is preset, but you can call ahead and let the chef know some of your preferences and they will be accommodating to your needs.  

The decor is quite simple, but the ubiquitous wine bottles gives a place of feeling of opulence that is hard to properly describe.  The waitstaff was excellent, the perfect combination of being there without you ever knowing it.

Added pasta dish for the kiddies.

If you've read any of these blogs before, you might have come to realize that I'm not especially skilled at describing textures and flavors, but rather go with the hmmm.. that was good/that was very good/that was bad system.

I rather let the pictures do the talking and let the general feel of the restaurant be the focus of any of these write-ups.

Why did I just waste your time with the obvious? Well, that's because I think its important to let you know that there was a lot of sophistication that went into these dishes that perhaps i'm not adequately describing.  Just know that Vinotheque falls into the.. hmmm.. that was damn good category.

Served at the table.  Soup/dumpling.  Exquisite. 

Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn't get to see the actual bill.  But you can expect to pay about 3000 a person to dine at Vinotheque.  But for my money (or in this instances, someone else's money) it was definitely worth it.  Its a fantastic place for some good food, and to just shoot the breeze with family, friends or loved ones.

There wasn't going to be anything left on my plate.  I knew that from the get go.

My Lamb.  Very Tender

What separates these high end restaurants from one another?  I don't think I can nail down all the specifics, but for Vinotheque, I just felt that there was a very specific plan presented by the owner (a man with tens of thousands of bottles of wine holding up the place) and that vision was executed to perfection.  There are just a lot of small touches here and there that make you feel like you are dining at a first rate restaurant. 

In time, I think I would like to be able to explain what captivates me about food better than I do now.  But for now, I can only reduce these thoughts into child like musings.  But that isn't so bad right? Food is just a basic and visceral thing, keeping it simple can't be a bad thing.

Just that Vinotheque has taken the simple and elevated it to a different plateau.  That is something even someone like me can recognize and appreciate.

Overall Vinotheque receives: 

-Til Next Time-

Mother may I.  

Evan's Burger

Address: 台北市大安區敦化南路一段198號1樓 (this location)

Telephone:(02)8773-9922

Hours: MON~THU  11:30~22:30  Last Call  21:30 ;FRI~SUN   09:30~23:00   Last Call  22:00

Let me be perfectly clear... I love hamburgers. Always have and always will.  This love affair will continue until my arteries are clogged and my blood tests come back confirming me part cow.  But this doesn't mean that I should just accept all these grilled patties as equals and be done with it.  People tend to think that there is no art in making a fantastic burger, but with the rise of so many gourmet burger joints in Taiwan (and really the world over) perhaps people are starting to view the burger in a different light. 

I have said elsewhere in this blog that I have yet to find a piece of steak in Taiwan that made me close my eyes and whisper a little prayer of thanks, but steak's poor cousin, the hamburger, has managed to find a better home.

Unfortunately, for a restaurant that has opened multiple locations here in my native land, Evans was a massive disappoint.  I tried to love it, I even tried to begrudgingly like it.  It hurts to be so harsh to something I love so much.. tough love never is easy, let's just get this over and done with.

What makes eating at Evans so regrettable? Look no further than the mess that is their burger patty.  There might be those in this world (I hope I name none of you friend...) that like a mushy crumbling burger patty, but I mean, then why even bother eating a burger then.  Go get some type of sloppy joe/ meat loaf amalgamation and be done with it.

If the fries were mess... I would've burned the place down.  But chili fries.. like death and taxes.. always a constant in life

Really, I have nothing else to say except that I found the actual meat (probably an important ingredient) to be tremendously lacking.  For a burger joint, there is no greater condemnation.

But I couldn't just leave it at that.  There are good things, but perhaps none of them have much to deal with the burger I ate.  They offer a good variety of different burgers on the menu with interesting names.  The place is clean, and the basement level seating is large enough to seat big parties. 

My nephew went with the chicken burger, and he found that to be much better, but he's a teenager, so I basically ignore him.  All joking aside though, you might be better off ordering poultry and their breakfast items. 

When chili can't save you, something is terribly awry.

So there you have it, Evans has been dissed.  There are so many burger establishments now, you can probably walk 2 blocks and stumble into a better hamburger than this.  If you are adamant, and still want to give a try, just don't say I didn't warn you.

Overall Evan's receives:

-Til next time-

子元 - Japanese

Address: 台北市民生東路三段113巷7弄7號 No.7, Alley 7, Lane 113, Section 3 Minsheng East Rd. Songshan Distract

Telephone: (02)2713-1233

Hours: Mon-Sat: 11:30AM-2:00PM, 5:30PM-10:00PM

And I'm back.. in so many ways.  My time in the R.O.C military has come to an glorious end and so has my hiatus from trying to fatten up all the English readers who happen across this hobby of mine.  Pardon me.. but .. DAMN it is good to be alive.. high fives are definitely in order.

My trip to 子元 actually occurred during my last vacation, but as the diligent solider in charge of a nation's safety.. can't really begrudge me on finally catching up on some writing.  Appropriate that I shake off the accumulated rust in the form of Japanese food, and let me tell you.. 子元 is every bit worthy of the praise that I'm about to chuck its way.  Let's not waste time and get to the pictures and words.

Tasteful

This was a random lunch date with the mother and sister wrapped up in the guise of a pre-bday celebration meal for yours truly.  Basically it was everyone's way of telling themselves it was okay to enjoy a nice meal that was going to cost a pretty penny.  I wasn't going to argue.

子元 has a nice modern feel to it with a hint of old Japanese decor thrown in.  With the use of lots of wood and the charming little garden out front.. the ambiance of the establishment falls in line with many of the Japanese restaurants around town.  It is neither spectacular nor disappointing, but just something you take in without really noticing its there.  It's clean and more than suitable for our needs, basically everything anyone could hope for.

Let's get started!

This was my first trip to 子元 and like almost all Japanese restaurants of this nature and quality I highly recommend sitting at the bar.  It is almost nice to get chummy with the chefs and overall I just think service is better this way.  You probably give up a bit of comfort and privacy, but what you gain I think outweighs the negatives.

Omakase options. Some vinegrette dipping sauce.

The family and I decided to order a set meal and let the chef wow us with whatever was fresh that day.  I always enjoy coming to Japanese restaurants with the sister and mother because typically they offer if not differing views from me, they at least give me a slightly different perspective in what it is that makes a meal enjoyable to them.  

Like anything else in life, it's usually a good thing to have people to bounce opinions off of... even if it might make you want to strangle them at some point.

This meal took place nearly 2 and a half months ago, so perhaps there is much I don't remember, but one thing still rings as clear as it did on that day... the food was without question, amazing.  

Halibut wrapped uni.

Scallops

Toro.

Now, what really goes into making sushi amazing? It doesn't seem like the chef would have a lot to do in just simply slicing up pieces of raw fish.  But of course describing it so simply would be doing a huge disservice to these skilled chefs.

More than just acquiring tremendously fresh fish (a must obviously), I feel like a sushi chef has to infuse his own personality into the food that he prepares.  Its a lot about presentation and the little touch ups that brings something we can do ourselves at home with the right budget to something that takes years of experience to master.

子元 was clearly more than capable in all these aspects and the food more than showed that.

The fish that was served just looked like it wanted to be eaten.  Everything was fresh and the old chestnut of it melting in your mouth applied wonderfully to all the nigiri and sashimi that I had the pleasure of eating.  Our meal was left in the hands of our very capable chef and he made sure that our palette followed a path that ended with deliciousness.  A good combination of cooked food and sushi made it way onto our plates and I must say I enjoyed every item that was offered.

Pretty.  Seems a lot of these meals end with their version of a chirashi finisher.

Perhaps I'm a little out of practice here, but I just wanted to be brief with my review and give the basic nuts and bolts and let the pictures do the talking for once.  子元 was wonderful.. and it really is as simple as that. Was it the best I've had in Taiwan? If not.. then it was pretty darn close.  It's been months since my taste buds have had the pleasure of enjoying the food from 子元, but I'm not really exaggerating when I say that my face is lit up in a grin right now at the mere memory of the meal.

I'm glad to be back dear reader.

Overall 子元 receives:

-Til Next Time-

I wanted more... extra ordered Negitoro.