About google reviews: Taiwanese willing to try Indian food (bless their souls) are evidently very kind, and far from stringent in their assessments of quality.
It’s the opposite in Japan, where people posting reviews online rarely give five stars and are much more measured with their praise.
Guy
I liked the food at the 101 Saffron. How do you consider it unauthentic? I’m not from India, so only really know British style Indian cuisine - which I accept is pretty unauthentic. However, I have been to India many times. I thought Saffron was pretty decent.
The barman knocks up a great dirty martini.
I was born and raised in India - Saffron Tianmu and Xinyi are 100% authentic. Just make sure you mention “印度人口味” (authentic Indian style) to the person taking your order, otherwise they might tone down the flavors a little bit.
Some differences I’ve noticed after reading several 100s of Google restaurant reviews in Taiwan and US are:
The average rating in Taiwan is much higher than US. In the US, above 4.2 is considered good and above 4.5 is considered amazing. In Taiwan I’ve seen a ton of 4.5+ and quite a few restaurants above 4.8 (I’m talking about places having at least 200 reviews)
There are discounts/offers if you leave 5 star ratings at many restaurants (especially when they are just starting out) that skews the ratings a lot. Most people don’t mention that they were being incentivized to leave good reviews. I’ve never experienced this in US.
Taiwanese reviews are more about the CP-Value than anything else. You can be selling amazing food but if you’re priced a bit higher than your competitors / other restaurants in the area your rating will probably never be that high. I’ve been to too many 4.8+ rated restaurants that served mediocre food at best. I’ve also been to several amazing restaurants rated 4.2-4.4 (“just good” by Taiwan standards).
All of this has made Google sort of pointless for me for looking up restaurants. I pretty much treat everything above 4.3 the same now. Anything 3.x or lower is definitely a red flag though.
Is that new? And where is it exactly? Nothing seems to be coming up with that name on Google Maps.
I don’t know the exact location, but you can call them to find out. I’ve tried all their items via UberEats so far.
This is absolutely correct regarding Saffron 46. I was talking about Saffron, the original one, which is a completely different thing-- No view, no expensive fusion dishes, just the real stuff cooked by an excellent Indian chef.
Agreed. That was my point.
Everything is compared to a 60nt lunchbox. When I worked Taiwanese company, my colleagues thought I was crazy to spend 100-150 on fresh hot food or salad “cold vegetables”. I’d tell them their vegetables were cold and dead because they were cooked hours ago.
The salaries are so low that people do have be careful with the coins.
TBH cooking your own meals also ends up costing NT120-150+ per meal if you consider grocery prices. At that point I’d prefer spending 200 on a meal and saving an hour of my life. Or one of those biandangs.
I’m going to disagree here. When I cook it always ends up being two meals, one of which either gets eaten a couple of days later or it goes in the freezer.
Even in Taiwan cooking at home is cheaper. Stops one getting fat as well. I think it’s virtually impossible to get fat if you cook your own food.
It does cost more here to buy groceries and cook good food.
It can be cheaper if you’re careful and definitely healthier.
A giant bunch of kale is $1USD in Texas but at least double here.
Might be different for different people, but for me, as a vegetarian, it was quite hard to make two balanced meals for 120-150. In fact, I ended up losing 10 pounds of weight in Taiwan in one year just because of how “healthy” local vegetarian food was. (This was actually very bad for me as I was already a little underweight)
I’m not a vegetarian, so the comparison differs.
Is this the same?
Namaste Indian Restaurant
02 2736 3733
This is a different outfit with an unfortunately similar name.
Namaste on Anhe Road (not far from the Heping East Road intersection) is an established sit-down restaurant serving competent (in some cases, really good) Northern Indian food. The discounted lunch specials (available weekdays except Tuesdays) are inexpensive and unimpressive. Better to order off the a la carte menu, where you can enjoy some nice and tasty basics such as aloo gobi, jeera aloo, and so on.
Namaste Taiwan in Shida Night Market is on Longquan Street, not far from the Heping East Road intersection. All credit due to @DunderMifflin for alerting us about this place.
It’s a one-man show (two when the friendly proprietor’s Indonesian friend is there to help) open somewhat irregularly starting at 6:30 pm (though better to show up closer to 7:00 pm if you want things to be ready). Along with good vibes, it serves a stripped down set of daily dishes, one veggie option and one nonveggie option, typically (although not always) channa masala and chicken curry, served as part of a set with some deliciously prepared rice for around NT$180. The hot Indian chai is prepared to order and is perhaps the best in town—not surprising given the fact that the owner here is from India’s northeast, from the former kingdom of Sikkim. With maybe four seats available, this joint is better thought of as a take-out place, awesome when open but it’s possible to show up and see it closed too.
Guy
Ah cool thanks for the clarification!
I tried that south Indian restaurant Amma today and noticed namaste on Ange road which is why I asked. The menu did indeed seem inexpensive from what I saw.
Amma’s used to be near (or right at the top) of my favourites. Alas, while the people remain nice there, the complexities of the masalas and the quality of their tea has dropped off a cliff. Perhaps the earlier version (especially the food served at the original location near Taipower MRT Station) was too good to be true. 
Guy
I thought it tasted similar to some mid end restaurants I ate at in Mysore and Bangalore