On the little bulevar next to the Zhongshan MRT station (red line) on Nanking West Road, there was an old, regal house in poor condition. Alas, I thought, that could be a great Bed and Breakfast, like the old colonial houses back home.
Imagine my sorrow when I saw it covered in the green tell-tale signs of remodeling. That’s it, I thought, it’s a goner.
Well, I was granted a pleasant surprise when on the Double Ten holiday, while stroilling the shopping area with a friend, we walked by and discovered it had been turned into a really cute restaurant.
Decoration is simple and clean. The waiters are extremely attentive and fluent in English. Prices were decent. We tried the crepes. Oh, just like the ones back home. Fluffy crepe, light cream, extra Monpick ice cream for extra 50 nts only. Purrfect.
Just for not bringing down the house, I’ll go back and try one of the main dishes.
OK, this time it is not my fault. I am copying it as it is from the card -should have checked first, though. It is such a professional card, high quality paper, nice design, that I never thought that teh link would not be active. :fume:
Was there two years ago, after a dinner nearby. Nice setting. We had three Crêpes: Old-Fashioned Apple, Banana Rum Caramel and Garden Vegetable with SauceBéchamel. Plus a tiramisu. All very nicely done. The service is polite and professional. A truly great experience. For a full course dinner, about NT$1000, may be less.
Recently tried this place and, sorry to say, we were a little disappointed. Gorgeous building and good staff, although they did have to be reminded about one of our orders.
The food, unfortunately, was just OK. I had one of their summer specials, trout stuffed with tomato, basil, pepper-jack cheese, and butter. I tasted no cheese and not much basil (one leaf, to be precise) - it wasn’t exactly bad, but it was quite bland. My wife’s spinach cheese ravioli had a bit more taste, but not much more. Dessert of small chocolate cake + small vanilla ice cream + huge mound of whipped cream was decent. Total tab around 1600NT for two dinners (not sets) and two desserts: no drinks. Oh, and “garlic cheese french fries”, which looked like they were from McDonald’s, but didn’t taste half as good, and the cheese was a barely discernible sprinkling of some kind of bland hard cheese.
It didn’t seem any better than lots of the other faux-European places around; Saveurs was a much better dining experience (but note we last went to Saveurs a couple of years ago, which is an eternity in Taipei restaurant years). I want to get back to Galerie for a light meal trying out the crepes, but I probably won’t bother with any of the main dishes again.
There’s nice outside seating in the lawn area.
A moderately-significant gripe: you have to pay 50NT for bottled water; no tap water available. Am I weird in finding paying for water objectionable?
And a totally trivial gripe: I have come to despise the bossanova/ jazzish stuff that many attempting-to-be-moderately-upscale restaurants play in Taiwan. I don’t know why that style of music grates on me so much.
(Dragonbones, thanks for bringing up these French restaurant threads: it’s always nice to be reminded of Taipei dining options, even if some of them turn out disappointing!)
No prob, lostinasia! Sorry to hear your dinner didn’t impress. For $1600 I certainly expect to be impressed, and I agree, the bottled water bit is quite irritating.
Went last week, and yes, it is quite a bit pricey. My crepe was delicious -alas, no more ice cream-, and my friend’s pasta was al dente, which is hard to find -she said it herself. The water bit seems extreme copying from whatever Continental fashion they got it from, bit too much me thinks. However, I’ll keep on going for the crepes…
Good to know about the crepes - we should have had those, especially since that’s what LPeterC recommended above, instead of trying the other dishes. Oh well - we’ll know better next time.