4D3N to Taipei - street snacks heaven! (Part 1)

Haven't been to Taipei for the last 5 years... DH (Dearest Hubby) is not that fond of Taipei 'cos he says there's nothing much to shop there. However, we had to schedule for a trip there for business and he initially wanted to make it a 3D2N visit... ("what? so short??!") I managed to negotiate for another additional day...

Our trip was from 20th August to 23rd August. Just two Saturdays ago (7th August), a strong Typhoon Soudelor made its way to Taiwan and caused chaos. We were lucky that we did not book our trip for that period since we booked our Airasia tickets in advance - our tickets were about RM17xx inclusive of meals, seats, and 70kg of baggage to Taipei and 60kg back (Turned out, we had extra baggage allowance for our Taipei - Kuala Lumpur flight).

At KLIA2...

We had our breakfast at Dome's @ KLIA2 - nice place to have breakkie and chill before our flight.

I had Eggs Hollandaise - RM 20++ and it was OK. Nice presentation but the taste of the hollandaise sauce was only so-so.

 

The poached eggs is cooked to perfection, though. See how runny the yolk is...

 

 

 

 

 

 

DH ordered Pancake Stacks - 3 thick pancakes with mascarpone cheese and ice cream and berries.

I did not try it as the portion for my Eggs Hollandaise was already too much for me. DH said it was yummy! But then again, DH is on a diet, anything else besides his diet food is heaven for him.


Arrived Taipei!

 

 

Arrived on time at 2.40 p.m. It was an hour later after we cleared customs and collected our baggage.

Our Taiwan biz partner was nice enough to come pick us from the airport and went straight to work.

 

 

View of the famous Taipei 101 and Taipei Domestic Flight Airport

 

 

Awesome Japanese Dinner

Our Taiwanese counterparts managed to make a reservation at a good Japanese restaurant - Ikki (藝奇), despite 20th August being their 'Valentine's Day'. Only thing was, we had to dine at 5.30p.m. because everywhere is fully booked after that.

The restaurant offers a 7 course meal for NT$ 698+ per pax. I feel one would definitely have to pay much more in Kuala Lumpur for the same quality of food and equivalent ambience.

Check out the full menu in English here.


This is what I had:

1st Course: Seafood Teapot Soup (sorry forgot to take pic) - Just Seafood soup served in a teapot as named.
 

This was served as well: Tofu with lady's finger, shrimp, fish roe and I forgot what was the white stuffs.. :P

 

 

And this too... Forgot what did it went with. But the square block on the right was actually mousse - tasted like miso.

 

2nd Course: Fish skin & Vegetable Salad

3rd Course: Seasonal sashimi -  Very fresh sashimi - thickly cut too! Yummy!!

 

 

Roselle Sorbet was served after the Sashimi and was free-flow after throughout the rest of the meal after that! It's nice to have a cold, sweet and sour-ish sorbet to ease with digestion in between meals!

 

Then we had to choose between On-site Steamed Rice with Fish/ with Beef. Here, they served us the uncooked rice with a special pot and we have to wait 25min for the rice to cook! The rice is our 5th Course.

 

My 4th Course: Simmered Beef Shank with sliced garlic - very good...

 

DH's 4th main course: Japanese Chilli Beef Chuck - equally delicious

 

6th Course: Dessert - a plate of seasonal fruits - even a slice of Japanese sweet Honey Melon.

 

7th Course: A list of funky beverages to choose from but I only ordered Ice Fruit Tea as I was full to the brim!

 

 

I enjoyed the meal. Sashimi was super fresh and so much more generous than the servings in most Japanese restaurants here unless you pay premium price for it. Beef was tender and not overcooked. The appetizers were funky but a nice change to my palate.


Check-In Hotel

We stayed at Royal Nikko Hotel at Zhongshan District, Taipei. The 5 Star Hotel is a favourite amongst Japanese so there are many Japanese eateries nearby. There's even a Daiso and a 3- building Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store within 10 min walking distance. The nearest MRT is ZhongShan Station, within 5 min walking distance.

The large bed

The workstation and tiny TV

Bathroom

The added lacy curtain at the bathroom door gives it a homely feel.

 

 

The room looks very warm and cosy. Interior and cleanliness is good. However, I didn't enjoy sleeping on the bed because the sheets were rough and had lints on it. I've always enjoyed sleeping in hotel beds as they would have the best bed sheets and soft, fluffy pillows. This was not the case... heck, even the bed sheets back home had higher thread counts than the ones we slept on.

Not sure if it's because of the rough sheets or the coffee I had at 5p.m, I couldn't sleep until 2.30am! DH was fast asleep and I had to watch the tiny TV 'til late - fortunately, Yoo Jae Suk and gang from 'Happy Together' (Korean Variety Show) kept me company. The TV in the room also have a cap to its maximum volume and the variety of channels were OK - lots of Chinese channels but only 2 English movie channels and a National Geographic channel.

At 2.30am, I took a drowsy flu med and finally went into a deep slumber at 3 a.m...

Dave's Bistro Bar Grill @ 1Utama, PJ.

Dinner at Dave's Bistro Bar Grill at 1 Utama, PJ last 2 Saturdays ago was a good one.

DH (Dearest Hubby) and I have ate here before but didn't remember it being so good. I think they've renovated and repositioned themselves since the last time we've been there. After a bit of googling, I was right - at least about their outlook. Previously, 'Dave's' was in pink colour and the exterior was cladded with light brown timber-like finishing. Now, the font has been changed to black and the overall exterior and interior are in dark colours - giving it a very posh feel to it.

I've always thought that Dave's Bistro Bar Grill is a sister company to Dave's Deli, just that the former is for a different target market. Apparently it's not!

Dave's is non-halal and claims to be a French Restaurant but serves a variety of Western & Italian food too - Pasta, Pizza, Sandwiches, many meat dishes including lamb shank and mini piglet and more.

We reached around 5.30pm (we usually eat our dinner early on weekends) and only about 2 tables were occupied. We love the feeling of eating out early as we do not have to wait so long for the food to arrive. Plus, we are both almost always hungry!

We ordered the Dave's Signature Nachos for RM 29.90 for starters and I forgot to take a pic of it before we hungrily stuffed the yummy nachos into our mouths! The Signature Nachos consists of Corn tortilla chips topped with ham, cheese gratin, mushrooms & garnished with avocado dip, tomato salsa & sour cream (extracted off their menu on FB). Portion was quite big, amounting to about 8 pieces of very cheesy nachos.

DH ordered the Crispy Pork Knuckle for RM 66.

 

 

We didn't expect for it to be a big portion but boy, it was! And the name says it all - it's really crispy!
It's served on a sizzling hot plate and comes with mixed vegetables and potato wedges.

 

The skin is really crispy, but the meat is tender.

 

 

 

 

This is a close-up pic of the underside of the skin. Love the fats melting in my mouth! :P

 

 

 

My main course was Braised Grass Fed Beef Short Ribs - RM 59.50

 

 

The Short Ribs was slow-cooked in spicy tangy Mexican sauce and was served with vegetables and mashed potatoes. The short ribs was really tender and flavourful and not spicy at all. The mashed potatoes didn't look very appealing but tasted good upon trying it out.

 

We would have loved to try out some desserts as well but we were too full after the meaty dishes.

 

Overall, it was a satisfying dinner!

 

The only thing I didn't like was that they charge for water.

 

Please check out their full Menu here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUMMARY

Food Ratings: 8.5/10
Ambience: 7/10
Efficiency in Service: 8/10 ('cos we were early)


Location: Lot G209, The Promenade, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya.
Tel. No: 03-7725 4017
Operating Hours: 12 noon - 11.00 p.m