What’s your favorite restaurant here? Just curious…
The one that they won’t share because it’s so good, they don’t want people to actually know about it. 
1 Like
TOH-A not sure you heard of it.
I disagree about Michelin being for “fun”. It’s a huge accomplishment and life goals for a chef to have and be awarded with. The small town I was born in Italy has one restaurant that has 2 starts and let me tell you how hard it is for them to gain them and keep them especially.
Also your palate must be acquired to certain tastes to be able to fully enjoy a michellin start restaurant and their food, the flavors are very complex and take chefs sometimes take years to discover them
This is a salient point. There should be some kind of taste test before people are allowed to spend their money in a Michelin starred restaurant. One doesn’t want uncultured nouveau riche riff-raff spoiling one’s dining experience ordering a bottle of chateaubriand, lightly chilled.
1 Like
Besides the sarcasm… why would someone even bother spending the money if they have no idea what they are putting in their mouth ?!
It’s not only about food, it’s a ritual… that you need to respect and appreciate.
Have you been to a michellin star restaurant before? Have you noticed how every dish follows a specific order and specific path in taste to make sure that none of the flavors overlap?
If someone doesn’t understand that he/she shouldn’t waste her/his money on it in the first place.
Fair point. Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
However, if very expensive stuff was only for those who appreciate it then the restaurants would go bust very quickly. It’s not really a case of recently rich people who don’t know any better wasting their money. They have so much money it doesn’t matter to them. Why would a billionaire eat in McDonalds when he could afford to eat in a top restaurant, because he hadn’t acquired a suitable palate?
It is not only for people with money, I know quite a lot of people that are not extremely wealthy or rich but save up because they have a goal to visit as many starred restaurants as they can in their lifetime. They though are quite familiar with flavors and really know how to appreciate them.
It is quite true that there are a lot of rich people that don’t care how they spend their money and do visit these kind of restaurant, They often don’t like them likely because they are used to highly processed and refined food that are extremely addictive. Usually though those kind of people don’t tend to go back again once they understand they won’t like the food.
You seem to be contradicting yourself a tad, _Lileth. On the one hand you are holding Michelin restaurants to be the zenith of gastronomy, but earlier you said that the ones in Taipei are overrated.
the restaurants we were talking about before were mentioned in the michellin guide but have no star, it’s very different.
I believe there is only one restaurant that was able to get the star and I specified in my first comment that I could not speak for that because I did not visit before. I think it’s a Japanese restaurant ( not sure though )
I didn’t mention star, but fair enough. I think earlier in this thread I discussed a very disappointing 3 star and an OK 2 star I ate at in Macau. Perhaps it was my palate.
EDIT: Oops, that was discussed on another forum. Apologies.
You should go visit some of the starred Chinese restaurants in the list and come back with your thoughts on the above :).
I gotta assume that Chinese starred restaurants don’t really have an order in which dishes come. Unless it’s a wedding banquet or formal occasion.
Come to think of it, DTF usually serves the soup dumplings first…everything else after that is really up in the air until dessert.
I plan to before I leave Taiwan in a couple of month!! 
If we’re talking about haute Cantonese, as 頤宮 aspires to be, then there is indeed a rough order of dishes. It’s rough in the sense that most items are meant to be shared and eaten at the same time. But the Taiwanese have got many expectations wrong. For example, in Cantonese cuisine the soup is served towards the beginning of the meal and not the end. And dim sum is never served at dinner.
I fail to see how this restaurant would get any stars at all if it were located in Hong Kong.
Funny you say that because Din Tai Fung (DTF) in HK is the restaurant that has received a star.
You’re probably right that there is a rough order of how dishes are served. Nonetheless, I hardly pay any attention to it…nor do I really care. I don’t disagree that there’s a order for a reason, but as long as I’m not drinking coffee and dessert before my main course(s), it all goes down the same.
I’ll vouch for 林東芳 too.
I’ve taken out of town guests to there and every time I see them, they talk about the place.
A detailed and thoughtful response to the Michelin announcements from the inimitable Michael Fei:
Guy
1 Like
Some pricks in Taipei city government wasting my tax money and throwing it at these Michelin guys (50 to 80 million NTD are you insane) eating in fancy restaurants everyday . How much money has been trousered along the way?
Michelin knows as much about Chinese food as I know about how to partake of an Amazonian catfish! What a joke!
1 Like