Restaurant pricing

Last night went for dinner at Din Tai Fung, Xinyi Rd, Daan.
See this on the menu: NT$230 for stir fried cabbage. $7.70US WTF :flushed: should be a free add on?
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Meal we had was nice but no cabbage.

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How was the service fee? Taiwan is not cheap to eat like a westerner.

Because Din Tai Fung is famous, and therefore more expensive. There are restaurants out there that are much more reasonable, but din tai fung is considered to be a fancy restaurant. Plus you are in xin yi district where rent and stuff is much higher, so they must charge higher prices to offset it.

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you pay for the service, not the cabbages.
why is a beer 150 in a bar when its 50 in a supermarket ?

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Iā€™m fed up of hearing this is a famous restaurant , translation fault with Popular.

This is same all countries, but donā€™t pay ā‚¬7.70 for a bowl of cabbage.

Reality cabbage is cheap food no manufacture, no bottle or container, it grows in the soil and possibly cheapest vegetable to buy.

I agree Taiwan food Iā€™d ridiculous pricing, I donā€™t eat like a westerner, as above cabbage is cheap grown as animal feed in lots of cases.

My whole point is itā€™s cabbage :leafy_green:

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Actually in Taiwan price of cabbage is very variable. Itā€™s very cheap in the winter, but ridiculously expensive in the summer. In the winter the wholesale price is like 10nt per head, sometimes even 3nt per head, but in the summer that goes up to over 50nt per head (again, wholesale price, retail is much higher).

At a normal beef noodle restaurant a plate of cabbage is like around 40nt. But at Din Tai Fung you pay like 1000 for a bowl of beef noodle.

Nobody is making you eat there, there are plenty of restaurants in Xinyi district not inside the 101 mall that have much more reasonably priced food. You are paying for the name and location as well as the experience.

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Have you seen the lines to take the photo of the cabbage at the palace museum? :joy:

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TBH cabbage is really expensive this year, ~40 nt per pound .
in anyway, i agree woth you. Din Tai Fung serve basic food for exorbitant prices. you pay for the location, the multilingual staff, the AC and the service. you can get dumplings, cabbage and fried rice for a third of the price outside.

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DTF beef noodle is more like 400nt, still not 1000

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Is eating cabbage eating like a westerner?

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I think cabbage is a universal food

You can have the same dish in many other places (in most places?) for way less. Also waiters are paid peanuts. Maybe itā€™s not ā€œthe serviceā€ what you are paying after all.

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Bleached cabbage isnā€™t exactly the most sophisticated of the dishes and a very typical Chinese one. The objection of ā€œif you want to eat like a westernerā€ doesnā€™t make any sense.

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Your right in that, I was invited as it goes.
Friday I had oyster omelette in the 101 mall with cabbage and noodle soup NT$150.
Admittedly wasnā€™t that good.
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For some it is.

As others have said itā€™s expected to pay this price at Din Tai Fung or like place. )Iā€™ve seen much higher prices, and also lower prices at other places. I do like DTF but I have other ā€œlocalā€ not as a fancy place but still good fresh food)
Well think of it paying M&S (Dublin) market prices vs. Tesco, I overpaid at M&S for this item as I was lazy to walk to bigger market. The price quite bit higher than I expected but that fault is with me!

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If you eat at a local dumpling restaurant you can have the same or better food than DTF. To me DTF is a very western focused restaurant.

But I think you missed the point of my statement. Eating in restaurants in places like Xinyi is going to be expensive due to ga tors all ready presented in this thread.

Anyway cows gunna moo. Mmm I rite?

Marmite and Bovril are expensive, I see large jar of Bovril (no beef) version in Jasonā€™s, wow! now that was expensive canā€™t remember cost shock froze my brain.

You get better deals at Shilin night market, but then you donā€™t have AC and the places donā€™t look so clean and opulent like Taipei 101 mall. That costs money.

Actually honestly you didnā€™t get such a bad deal from Taipei 101 mall for oyster omelettesā€¦ The prices at night markets are about the same, maybe 10nt lower. But without AC and the opulent looking mall.

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Give me some recommendations. DTF is more expensive but I like it. I donā€™t know any shou long bou( soup dumplings) place where I like the food more.

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