I was curious about this place, so we stopped in last night for a bite. I’m a bit divided about this place: There are many good things, but also some that left me wanting.
First off, I echo tango’s observation about ingredients: They do use some very high quality produce and everything is fresh. Even the artichokes on the Mediteranean salad were bright and flavorful, which is not something you see even in the best of restaurants around town. Fresh arugula topping the pizza and real beef stock in the soup were all pleasant surprises that a lot of restaurants cut corners on for cost/time saving.
One issue was the decor. The restaurant, at least on the second floor, is almost completely grey; faux granite finishing throughout which is only made more obvious by the brightness of the lighting in the place. Even the table coverings are grey, a kind of faux silk (rayon?) that left horrible stains and rings from water glasses or anything that happened to spill. Better off with cotton in my book. The only other color, except for the black floor, are some bright yellow (taxi cab yellow) highlights around the ceiling. Again, this could be helped if they dimmed the lighting a bit.
They have a really pretty open area on the first floor with glass partitions to see into the kitchen and beautiful glass door fridges which contain their selection of wines and beers, but the same at the top of the stairs on the second floor (6 floor to ceiling cases or so) was completely devoid of anything except about six bottles of wine which made the whole thing look bare. Perhaps they plan to build up their wine inventory in the future; I assume it must be a work in progress, since no wine or bevarage list was ever presented with the menus at seating.
There was music, which was pleasant; not too loud and kind of jazzy, but they must use some kind of internet radio, as I was surprised when I noticed some kind of commercial being broadcast.
As for price, a huge Mediteranean salad (the highlight of the night), a pasta pescatore which was sizeable and included some beautifully cooked squid, and a parma ham pizza came to nt$2300 with one soup/beverage/desert add-on for nt$250. This was also good value, since the soup, though mostly consome, was a true beef broth, the coffee was from a proper espresso machine and the dessert, a tiramisu, used real marscapone and was good. There are options for each; juice or tea instead of coffee, a vegetable soup on offer instead of beef, and a brownie as a different choice for desert.
One very tangible criticism: The pizza crust tastes like toast, in the local Taiwanese bakery sense of the word. I don’t know if they are not letting the dough rest long enough between kneadings or perhaps not combining the right amount of water, but it was dry and had the texture of cracker more so than pizza dough…really too bad, because the ingredients, as mentioned, were really top notch, but any pizza is only ever as good as the crust it sits upon. Perhaps others can chime in to say whether it was the same when they ate there.
On the whole, there were many things I liked, though many things that could be better. I think this place will find a market segment that will support it. The majority of the patrons there last night, and there were many, were 50 years old and up, and all quite satisfied with their experience from the comments I could hear them offering the manager as they went. As for me, I might go back for the salad and the pasta, but there are other places around town that I can get a better pizza, so I’d give it a miss if that’s what you are looking for.