4 stars for the decor, 3 stars for the food.
Interior was beautifully decorated with Christmas decorations. The inside was designed to look like a more rustic warehouse look with exposed wood and brick. Really felt like I was transported out of Taipei and to somewhere in the US.
Food was less than spectacular. Other than waiting maybe 30-45 minutes, the dish I got was a bit disappointing. It was a baked salmon rice dish but it felt more 50% cheese and 50% other. Cheese is supposed to be a top layer, not the main ingredient in a baked dish...
Dropped by for lunch, ordered:
Beef steak - pretty good but should have bigger portion
Chicken pesto casserole - a little lacking on taste
Spaghetti beef bolognese - not bad for price $180
Fries bolognese - good
Calamari rings - ok
Clam risotto - good
Overall, can order risotto, casserole is meh. Can add $160 for set meal, or $60 for a drink.
Let me start by saying that the decor and atmosphere of the restaurant is great. I felt like I was at a typical American-styled Italian restaurant like you’d find in the USA. The service was slow, even though I visited at a far less-crowded time.
Now for the food. There is much to be desired. I ordered a smoked salmon linguine with Alfredo sauce. The linguine pasta tasted great and had a good toothsome feeling. Black olives, broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, and cherry tomatoes don’t belong on an Alfredo pasta. And the “smoked salmon” on my order was two pieces of grilled salmon that were barely as wide as my thumb. Add more meat, and make the description accurate.
My wife ordered a pasta and shrimp bake. The cheese was over cooked and there was so much oil on the bottom of her dish. Likewise, the inedible shrimp heads were cooked along with the shrimp tails in the same dish. Perhaps this is for flavor, but you should not serve a baked dish like this. Likewise, the shrimp tails were not cleaned of their digestive tract. I understand that removing that part of the shrimp is not common in Taiwan but it dries out the shrimp during cooking and changes the flavor for the worst. You’re eating food waste, after all. She only had three pieces of shrimp in her dish as well.
Our food did not arrive at the same time either, and by the time my wife’s order arrived, I had already finished eating. We also ordered the combination of soup, salad, bread, drinks, and dessert. Taiwan, if you are offering bread, please bring more than two slices.
The pricing was decent, but overpriced for what you buy (especially when you only put in two small pieces of salmon and three pieces of shrimp).
We felt ashamed to have taken our customers to such a terrible restaurant. BEST AVOIDED!
We had reserved for 17 people. To make things even easier we placed our food orders 24hrs in advance and limited to 5 mains. We paid a deposit, confirmed again on the day. So no excuse just BAD MANAGEMENT!
The food all came at different times over 2hrs, then at the end the drink took another 30 minutes and left at the end of our table for us to sort out and serve ourselves. GREAT SERVICE!
Steaks came at different times over 2 hrs, how long does it take to make a steak, we suspect they had to go to super market in between our service to restock. BTW the Steak were really bad, chewy and not done to people's order, but at this point we were lucky to even be served.
Some risottos were served in takeaway trays as they had run out of baking trays.
Such a big place, built to accommodate 5 times this crowd but does not have enough waiters, cooks and managed very badly. Even tables of 4 regular customers were complaining of the service.
The service was total chaos with waiter constantly barking out orders as they did not know which table had ordered what. It was like a MARKET.
This makes the service terribly slow, so best avoided unless you have 3hrs to sit around for lunch.
It was surprisingly an enjoyable experience having seafood in such an old style european ambient in the center of commercial district in Taipei! Squid ink pasta was delicious, seafood was fresh. Every corner of the restaurant was well decorated. Really nothing to complain!
