It drives me crazy that the simplest or the nicest restaurants in Taiwan don’t have on the table simple things like salt or pepper or soy or whatever might match that particular Cuisine be it Taiwanese or Chinese or western or whatever.
Then I walk into a Vietnamese restaurant in Taiwan and find this.
am i missing something? most places have soy sauce, dou ban jiang, vinegar and some kind of chilli oil
Eh what ? Keep looking son.
Usually there or at another location in the restaurant. Perhaps they think the food requires no further seasoning? 
I have seen a separate table with several bottles of chilli etc you can take to your table…maybe due to theft risk? …
It really depends, condiments are highly offensive to Italian chefs who might believe that the food should not be, in their eyes, adulterated.
It doesn’t seem like Taiwan is that crazy but it may be possible that either they want to keep control on the condiments, either to encourage people to eat the food as is, or save money.
I don’t think an Italian chef works in a Vietnamese restaurant in Taiwan, m8.
I don’t think I made any mention of Italian chefs in vietnamese restaurants.
There is generally something, but it’s rarely what I want. Some nice chopped chili wouldn’t go astray, and some herbs. Something to give the food a bit of colour and freshness.
Instead at the breakfast place that 1% soy sauce 99% water cornflower gloop is in gasoline containers. Raw la dou ban jiang, yuck, I read Szechuan chefs believe it has to be cooked. Can’t even get a good black vinegar normally, just that local version that tastes sweet. There’s chili oil at a mifen street place near me, he is always about 3 tablespoons lighter after I eat there…
TGIF usually provides condiments.
If there are condiments on the table, it’s an indicator that the food is made with inferior ingredients or that the chef doesn’t know how to season properly, or both. It would be a geed idea to eat elsewhere.
People bring plastic bags and load up on condiments! 
I have no knowledge about having chopped chili and herbs on any restaurant’s table.
I guess something’s not right with your taste buds.
People in Taiwan put Tabasco on mac&cheese!
Or that the restaurant knows that different costumers have different tastes and wants to allow them to season as they like?
It seems to me that every time I sit down, none of that is available on the table, unless byou ask for it or go find it somewhere.
Nothing on the table except plate Bowl Chopsticks maybe spoon. Anything else you have to ask for or go find it somewhere.
Mmmm
FIFY
Normal people with normal taste buds? Or on bad Mac&Cheese, like Kraft?
