Imbiss: new German restaurant in Gongguan (closed)

Cuisine Greater Taipei Restaurants
1

Being a fan of Goethe’s banana coffee cheesecake pie, I was pleased to hear that the owners opened a new restaurant based on an “economic” and “multicultural” concept.

See, they wanted to make a more affordable and quick menu, a set meal that would hit the spot for foreign food without breaking the piggy bank. So they came up with what I call a modern Germany menu, with influences from the new immigrants, like Turkish kebab, Greek salads, etc. Quite varied.

I thought you guys might be interested, since some of you also like traditional German food -they have a pig knuckle burger for 170 nt, for example. They have Berliner meat balls with curry sauce, with pickles on the side. Portion size is generous without being overwhelming.

Also, most people have problems finding where to eat with vegetarian friends, and these guys have at least 6 vegetarian dishes, both “Western” and “buddist” styles -meaning vegan and all vegetarian. I liked that the waitresses were quite helpful when giving you choices, no blank stares here. Can’t choose between rice or fries? No problem, have rice and fries as a side.

Finally, for the beer fans, they have a fine draft called Warsteiner, very tasty indeed.

Location: No. 3, Lane 34, Xinhai Road Section 1
From MRT Taipower Building, Exit 2, cross Xinhai, turn left, walk a minute or two, then right as first alley is alley 34. If coming from Gonggan, go to Wenzhou park, then head straight as if going to Tsui Mama, turn right at the church corner. Roosevelt alley turns into Xinhai Lane.

Menu and more at: http://www.wretch.cc/blog/Imbiss

2

I will reserve full judgment until I have a chance to find it & eat there, but I think I love you :notworthy:

謝謝/Gracias/Merci/Danke!

(BTW, what/where is Goethe’s??)

3

sjhuz01, that is the idea. For the opening season, the stuff is 15% off.

As requested (stolen from the German Cultural Institute website):

Goethe Gourmet Gasthaus
No. 11, Lane 283, Sec.3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
Tel.: +886-2-2362-0060, 2362-0124
Fax: +886-2-2362-0164.

Oma Ursel
No. 9, Lane 6, Yungkang Street, Taipei 106
Tel.: +886-2-2392 2447, 2392 2448
Fax: +886-2-2392 2422.´

Goethe is located on the corner, across from the Wenzhou Park in Gonkuan, two doors down from Sababa, about two “blocks” away from Bongos.

More at: http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21754&CtNode=122

4

“…banana coffee cheesecake pie…”

You had me at this…:smiley: :lovestruck: :hungry:

5

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]"…banana coffee cheesecake pie…"

You had me at this…:smiley: :lovestruck: :hungry:[/quote]

Oh man, you have no idea… :lick:

However, this delicacy is found only at Goethe. Great with an Irish coffee. Alas, at Imbiss your set meal comes with a small banana cake or blueberry swirl. And simple but tasty bottomless coffee.

6

[quote=“Icon”]sjhuz01, that is the idea. For the opening season, the stuff is 15% off.

As requested (stolen from the German Cultural Institute website):

Goethe Gourmet Gasthaus
No. 11, Lane 283, Sec.3, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei
Tel.: +886-2-2362-0060, 2362-0124
Fax: +886-2-2362-0164.

Oma Ursel
No. 9, Lane 6, Yungkang Street, Taipei 106
Tel.: +886-2-2392 2447, 2392 2448
Fax: +886-2-2392 2422.´

Goethe is located on the corner, across from the Wenzhou Park in Gonkuan, two doors down from Sababa, about two “blocks” away from Bongos.

More at: http://taiwanjournal.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=21754&CtNode=122[/quote]
We almost stopped in at the Goethe place a few weeks ago. It’s catty-corner from the Free Pizza place. The sign is in such a fancy gothic script that I thought it said Turtle Gromet Restaurant at first. We decided to go to Maryjane’s, but now we will have to come back to this one later.

7

I haven’t tried their pie, and I’ve only eaten there once (very good), but I pretty much live on the bread sold at Cafe Goethe (as we call it). Real German style bread, not sweet at all (except for the fruity one that’s supposed to be). One kind full of grains and such, a plain dark one, a round walnut one… Oh, and soft pretzels. yum. Considering how much I love bread, and the crappiness of most Taiwanese bread, Cafe Goethe really saves the day. Now if they would just start up their ice cream again…

8

The bread is really remarkable. I especially like the buns, particularly the ones with pumkin seeds on top. Usually, you pay 30 to 45 nts elsewhere for the same stuff, just a bit bigger, but all air inside. This is real bread. One filled with ham and cheese and mustard is great for breakfast.

9

tried out Imbiss this afternoon, I got their vegetarian Turkish pizza, takeaway, 130 nt, including a cup of coffee or tea (no more 15% discount). Really good, and pretty big - I couldn’t eat it all in one sitting, I think having it with the meal set would be way too much food (at least for me). I don’t have much Turkish pizza experience, so I can’t judge how authentic it was, but it sure tasted good…
I’ll definitely be going back.

10

Went the other night finally & thought it was pretty good! Decent amount of food for the price & very friendly service. Actually found it a bit odd I was the only foreigner there & the place was packed!

Lamb kebab was pretty good, but I like a bit more flavor & more tzatziki (which they provided). Bread was good though & although the lamb was kinda stringy, I was happy. Fries were excellent & thick.

From what I could tell from other people’s plates, their interpretation of “Turkish Pizza” actually looks a lot like regular pizza, which may be Turkish (I dunno), but isn’t how it’s done in Germany, where it’s closer to a shawarma/wrap: Take thin round pita w/light tomato&spice sauce, heat it (adding cheese at this stage is ideal), then add kebab toppings like meat, feta, sauce, veggies & maybe some spicy peppers. Roll it up like a burrito & chow down!

A bit disappointed in the pizza bit, as that was my favorite fast food in Deutschland, but overall it was really good and affordable - I’ll be going back!

11

Sounds bluddy mahhhhvuhluss!! I’ll be there!! :slight_smile: :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

12

Going to have to check this place out ASAP…!
Turkish pizza is normally without cheese, a thin layer of sauce, loads of mince with parsley and spices and that’s about it.
Every time I’ve had it, it’s been shaped differently to a normal pizza.
Something like this (huge 1600x1200 image, hence no insert)
But pepperoni on it sounds just wrong. The rest of the stuff does at least sound tasty and please let it be so!
Gyros, Kebab… all the good stuff and fairly cheap too…
Might just have to sneak out there tomorrow :smiley:

13

it was shaped more or less like that, kind of football shaped (that’d be an American football), thin crust that was folded over (on top of some of the toppings) on the edges. the veggie one involved olives, tomatoes, I think mushrooms and peppers. the overall flavor was pretty different from regular pizza, and I agree could go weirdly with pepperoni…

14

Went there over the weekend. Since I wasn’t in the mood for German food, I wanted to try their quiche, but they didn’t have it yet. So I got the Turkish pizza, which is like an open calzone. Like someone said, it was quite filling for a person and tasted very good. The bottomless coffee was watered down and bland, but what do you expect from bottomless coffee.

About the location, calling it the Gongguan area is a bit misleading. The place is much closer to Taipower building MRT just off Xinhai Rd. near the Roosevelt intersection.

15

Well, just went tonight and if you’ve ever had Turkish pizza before in your life, then you’ll be disappointed, as what they’re serving has nothing in common with the real deal except for the name and a bad attempt at the same shape.
The menu says beef and pepperoni, well, the speck of beef I found in it was tiny and there was no pepperoni to be seen. On the other hand it had olives, peppers, tomatoes, onion, a tiny bit of cheese and LOADS of bacon in it. Supposedly they’re going to use bigger bits of beef in the pizza in the future, but this is not a Turkish Pizza by any means. The crust was rock hard and it seemed like they hadn’t cleaned out their oven since the opened, as the pizza was grey at the bottom, yuck…

My GF ordered the Pork knuckle sauerkraut bun, which again was a very strange concoction. It was a small bread rather than a bun, filled with sauerkraut and pork (could’ve been any kind of pork) and then deep fried. It was so greasy that she couldn’t eat most of the bread. The only upside was some kind of weird mayonnaise sauce that came with it that was quite tasty, but it didn’t go with what it was served with.

All in all a huge disappointment, although for all the wrongs, at least their prices are reasonable, but I don’t think I’ll be going back. We also got a slice of localized cheese cake on the house, but it too was pretty bad.

Why is it so hard to find at least one place that can cook decent European food without messing around too much with it here? :cry:

16

We went yesterday. Ordered the Berlin Meatloaf and mashed potato. Not bad, it’s not like other types of meatloaf I’ve had, basically two slices of good quality pork in gravy with mashed potato. Simple but good.
My wife had some boiled sausage in a little soup with pretzel. That was actually pretty good too and healthier than many other places I’ve tried. The price was pretty reasonable at 500NTD althogether with coffee, very small piece of cake , small side dish of pickled veg, corn soup (that one has to go…although better than the usual corn soup here, it’s just too boring1).
I could certainly think of many ways to improve the feeling starting from desserts especially but then again I wouldn’t open a German restaurant myself. Surprisingly the accompanying veggies didn’t include saucraut which would be a big favourite with us and lots of the locals.

This restaurant didn’t seem to be any less ‘authentic’ than the other German places I’ve eaten in as none of them are really ‘authentic’ or if they are they are out of my budget. Also the place suffers from noise bouncing around it, it’s unfortunate but I’m sure can be fixed somehow.

17

Note* This place doesn’t seem to exist anymore…or I mean it is a bread store now. My friend and I, hungry for kebabs, were looking for this place a few nights ago. After wandering around back and forth we finally came across the green doorway. It’s all bread and cakes now :frowning:

18

Hmmm, too bad - I hadn’t tried it out yet. Is their bread decent then?
In response to the last two or three posters, the problem with some “authentic” restaurants is, they adapt their authenticity to the local taste. The notorious corn soup is just an example. Or the so-called set meals, which one will not find in many restaurants abroad (for instance not in Germany) that locals are so fond of. The old Zum Fass in Linsen N. Road was pretty “authentic”. But they also had a Swiss chef. I wouldn’t dare to go back to Germany and open a Chinese Restaurant, even though I am here since ‘85. It just doesn’t work out. So - I don’t believe a Chinese cook, who has or has not spent some time in Germany, can cook authentic German food. A German, French, Italian, Mexican etc. Restaurant with a respective cook or at least with one who oversees the cooking, is the place to go, IMHO. The price tag may be a little higher there, but – hey - those are not the places where I would go daily, once a month maybe or even less. On the other hand, there are so many cheap and delicious Chinese eateries around that no one goes hungry in this city.

19

Sorry about not posting this before: yep, the Imbiss was closed a while ago, and changed into an outlet for the bread made at Oma Ursel. BTW, if you want kebabs, try Oma and/or Goethe, just a few minutes away. It’s all the same family.

The owner and cook was trained by her German mother in law -strict quality required. :smiley:

The bread is excellent and very well priced for the quality of the materials.

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Comparing the Oma Ursel bread (dont know the exact name, I got the darkest loaf they had there) to Wendels “kosacken” loaf, I personally feel Wendels is way better - even more so after freezing and unfreezing. But then, it might be just my personal taste, preferring the very moist, alsmost sticky kind of bread as the Kosacken Loaf, and feeling Oma Ursels bread (even the taste is good) feels way too dry.