Yue Chuan 悦川 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★☆☆☆

I honestly forgot when I stopped exploring the uninspiring food scene in Tsuen Wan. Dubbed as a culinary wasteland, the area mostly consists of cheap eats, fast food and restaurant chains with very little pleasant surprises. But today, I decided to try my luck once again.....



Starting off from the shopping mall under Panda Hotel, I worked my way down the floors and eventually came across Yue Chuan (悦川), a Chinese restaurant specializing in spicy dishes from Sichuan. 

My lunch set came with a cup of hot milk tea and to my pleasant surprise, it was pretty silky smooth and full of fragrance.

The main dish was diced chicken tossed with green peppers and what I thought was celtuce. There was a fair amount of heat there in the sauce which was perfect to go with the steamed rice.

While the food here marginally deserves a return trip, service was slightly disappointing. Like a family-run restaurant, servers can be seen busy chatting (extensively) with customers leading to a loud, bothersome and unwelcoming atmosphere for diners (solo like me) who're trying to quietly enjoy their meals. 

Food Rating: 4/10

Price: $$$

Address: Shop 201, 2/F, Panda Place, 3 Tsuen Wah Street, Tsuen Wan, NT, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Tsuen Wan

Tel: +852 2727-6388

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 4:00pm, 5:00pm - 11:00pm daily

Mama Bakery Cheung Sha Wan Plaza (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

The recent opening of Milk Cafe (牛奶冰室) has provided us with another twist to cheer about. Located on the ground floor of the cafe is a hearty local bakery called Mama Bakery which has garnered some serious attention from the locals.   



I love the fact that they have added a modern twist to their bakery which includes Japanese mentaiko and a few more tricks here and there. 



Pineapple croissant – For me, this was a love-at-first-sight 😍😍. I really like the sweet, crunchy and crumbly crust. Down side? I didn't have the chance to do a cross-section test but judging from its mouthfeel, it wasn't really "doughy" inside. Appreciate the effort though.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, Cheung Sha Wan Plaza, 833 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Website: www.tasteofasia.com.hk/brand/mamabakery

Bakehouse Wanchai (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★★☆

One of our offices in Wanchai officially closed down late last year so now I have one less excuse to go Bakehouse's Wanchai location for my favorite chocolate hazelnut doughnut.

Chocolate hazelnut doughnut – I decided to make the most of my opportunities while in the neighbourhood. 😋🍩

The choux pastry again was so spongy and the chocolate hazelnut custard so rich and runny. Yum~

Definitely one of the best doughnuts in Hong Kong hands down.

Food Rating: 6/10
Price: $$$$
Address: G14 Tai Wong Street East, Wanchai, Hong Kong
Closest Metro Station: Wanchai
Website: https://bakehouse.hk/

Opening Hours: 8:00am - 9:00pm daily

Milk Cafe Lai Chi Kok 牛奶冰室 荔枝角店 (Hong Kong, CHINA) ★★★☆☆

It's been a while since there were breaking news about our neighbourhood's dining scene that got me and my neighbours ecstatic. Right before Christmas, we witnessed a vacant site on Cheung Sha Wan Road starting construction work with a sign that said "Milk Cafe (牛奶冰室)". That got us all excited. Now just after I returned from Taipei, I was told that it has soft-opened over the weekend. Very nice news indeed as this neighbourhood could really use another bing sutt (冰室) or two. 

A true test for any bing sutt, their iced milk tea. This was OK. There was obviously very milky but I won't mind stronger tea flavors too.

I was curious about their deep-fried fish fillet set, which was served with runny scrambled eggs, garlic toast and sweet corn.

I really liked the crispy batter but the fish fillet itself was missing that perfectly flaky texture. The garlic butter on the toast and paprika powder on the sweet corn were also a bit over the top. Yes, they were both reasonably tasty but a little heavy for breakfast.

Well, this place deserves a second chance simply because there aren't much options other than the fast-food chains around.

Food Rating: 4.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: G/F, Cheung Sha Wan Plaza, 833 Cheung Sha Wan Road, Cheung Sha Wan, Hong Kong

Closest Metro Station: Lai Chi Kok

Tel: +852 2739-8568

Website: www.tasteofasia.com.hk/brand/milk-cafe

Opening Hours: 7:00am - 9:00pm daily

Little Tree Food Da'an 小小樹食 大安店 (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★★☆

Somehow I didn't want to have this trip ended so early so instead of going to the airport three hours before departure time, I decided to sit down for another drink to "prolong" my stay in Taipei. 

Little Tree Food (小小樹食) has been one of the most popular cafés in town for the past couple of years thanks to their healthy and sustainable concept. In this era where maintaining a healthy lifestyle is crucial, their success is really no surprise to anyone. Of course, it never hurts to be recognized by the Michelin brass with a Green Star (and a Bib Gourmand restaurant) as well.

Since their Da'an location is just a 2-minute walk (120 metres) from where I was staying, I decided to make it my final destination of the trip.

Avocado Mung Bean Shake (綠豆沙酪梨) (NT$240) – They have a collection of over 10 healthy drinks on the menu. Since I am a freak for avocado, this immediately caught my eyes. 

I thought it was just a simple marriage of avocado and mung beans but it turned out to be a lot more sophisticated than that. The long list of ingredients included avocado, mung bean, coconut water, jasmine green tea, celery, coconut cream and agave syrup. Not surprisingly, there was a solid mix of fruity, earthy and floral flavors, and they were intricately woven together to create a harmonious experience for my palate.

One of my biggest regrets from this trip was not having the time or health to check out Little Tree Food's popular vegan desserts. They have so many vegan sweets available that look so good on paper and they would definitely be the first things for me to check off my list on my next journey in Taipei.

Food Rating: 6/10

Price: $$$

Address: No. 17, Lane 116, Section 1, Da'an Road, Da’an District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Zhongxiao Fuxing

Tel: +886 2-2778-2277

Website: www.littletreefood.com

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 9:00pm daily

Mipon at Grand Mayfull Hotel Taipei 米香台菜餐廳 台北美福大飯店 (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

Despite having some of the best restaurants in Taipei including RAW and Taïrroir, Zhongshan district (中山區) remains an area I know very little about before this trip. It's better late than never so on the last day of my Taipei getaway, I decided to do a small exploration of the area on my trip.

After a few quick stops, I finally arrived at my lunch venue – Michelin-starred Mipon (米香台菜餐廳) at 5-star hotel Grand Mayfull Hotel Taipei (台北美福大飯店).

This was taken after the meal but it was a very busy day at Mipon and service was very slow to say the least. The serving of food in particular was slow to a crawl.

Taiwanese abalone with truffle sauce (松露九孔鮑) (NT$180) – Even this cold starter took a while to show up.

The chilled abalone was topped with truffle paste and there was some fruity notes from what I thought was apple to provide some sweetness and acidity to the dish. OK.

Dried radish omelette (米香菜脯蛋) (NT$280) – This was reasonably good. The crust was very crispy; that was the good part. The not-so-good part? 

The minced pork and dried radish were often lumped together and as a result, you got one corner that’s full of ingredients and another which had absolutely nothing other than egg in it.

Stir-fried squid with three-cup sauce (三杯中卷) (NT$680) – The three-cup sauce came with some extra kick of spiciness from the chilli and Thai basil (九層塔) which I thought was a little too heavy-handed. Not surprisingly, the sweetness from the sauce and flavors from the squid never really registered.

Fried vermicelli with Sergestid shrimps (櫻花蝦麵線) (NT$360) – Didn’t expect the fried vermicelli noodles to be soupy but they weren’t bad. But what I thought could really elevate this dish was by adding more textures to the mix. Some much-needed bite on top of the crunchy Sergestid shrimps would be nice.

Tough to pick out a favorite dish from this meal cuz they all had their own shortcomings. I thought the service team was reasonably good today but they have got to work better with the team behind the kitchen cuz the pacing was absolutely horrendous. And I hate eating one dish at a time when it comes to enjoying Chinese cuisine.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 3/F Grand Mayfull Hotel Taipei, No. 55, Lequn 2nd Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Taipei City Hall

Tel: +886 2-7722-3391

Website: www.grandmayfull.com/dining/MIPON

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 2:30pm (Mon - Sun), 6:00pm - 9:30pm (Mon - Fri), 5:30pm - 9:30pm (Sat - Sun)

Yonshin Breeze Xinyi Restaurant 永心鳳茶 微風信義店 (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

If you love tea like I do, this would be right up your alley. Yonshin Restaurant (永心鳳茶) is a café and restaurant serving redefined Taiwanese cuisine. They have numerous locations in Taipei and I just happened to stumble upon their Breeze Xinyi (微風信義店) this afternoon while killing my spare time before dinner.



While Yoshin offers a small selection of savory Taiwanese-style dishes, their bread and butter has always been their tea and pastries. 

Some of their pastries were tea infused and that got me all excited since I am a huge fan of milk tea. 

Classic Yonshin style milk tea (永心厚奶茶) (NT$240) – This was probably better served with ice but I have been coughing badly since Christmas. Beggars can't be choosers... 😭😭

I thought this was pretty milky with moderate tea flavors but I didn't totally agree with the description of thick (厚). I would say that most pantyhose milk tea from Hong Kong came with a thicker texture.

Red jade black tea cheesecake (紅玉紅茶乳酪蛋糕) (NT$150) – The tea flavors were pretty subtle but it also came distinctive floral notes that I thought meshed well with the cheese. Not bad.

Reservation is definitely recommended. I waited about half an hour for my table and it wasn't even inside the tea room.

Food Rating: 5/10

Price: $$$

Address: 3/F, No. 68, Section 5, Zhongxiao East Road, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Taipei City Hall

Tel: +886 2-2723-3028

Website: https://m.facebook.com/yonshintea/

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:30pm (Sun - Wed), 11:00am - 10:00pm (Thu - Sat)

Heritage Bakery & Cafe Bellavita 店 (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

I still have a couple more hours to burn before my high anticipated dinner at Logy. Rather than going back to Da'an, I decided to spend it right here by circling around the department stores in Xinyi. One of the places I have never gotten the chance to visit in Xinyi district was the Bellavita Shopping Centre so I thought it was the perfect time for a stopover. 

This is where you find some of the most luxurious dining addresses in Taipei including L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon and CLOVER BELLAVITA by Jean-François Piège but my attention was immediately drawn to this small café on the B1 "Art Gallery" level by the name of Heritage Bakery & Cafe.

An American style bakery café is pretty hard to find in Hong Kong and Asia in general so I was really delighted to see one of my favorite bakery goods. 

Caramel pecan pie (焦糖胡桃派) (NT$180) – This looked really good.....

The crisp pastry was topped with a rich buttery filling and premium pecan halves. Each of these pecans was almost equally in sizes and they were BIG. Not bad but the caramel sauce I thought was a little over the top. Perhaps, that's the reason why the color was in black instead of light brown, which we were more used to seeing in North America!?

I also bought myself some time to walk around the department stores. With Chinese New Year fast approaching in less than a month, it wasn't all that surprising to see that some of these festive decorations were already in place.

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: B1F BELLAVITA, No. 28, Songren Road, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Taipei City Hall

Tel: +886 2-8729-2764

Website: www.heritage.com.tw

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 9:30pm (Sun - Thu), 11:00am - 10:00pm (Fri - Sat)

WUnique Pâtisserie 吳一無二法式甜點 (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★☆☆

When people talk about French pâtisserie in Taipei, WUnique Pâtisserie (吳一無二法式甜點) is often regarded as one of the best in the business. Like Quelques Pâtisseries (某某｡甜點), they have moved to a brand new location during the pandemic. It was a little out of the way for my itinerary but I knew that somehow I needed to squeeze it in.

Compared to the other pastry shops in the city, WUnique Pâtisserie is more focused on the classic French desserts like mille feuille, Saint Honoré and Mont blanc with just a few contemporary creations. 

So, I am intended to stick with the classics this afternoon.

After COVID-19, it's getting harder and harder to find a cake shop with a dine-in area. I guess I'll just park myself next to the basketball court for this one.

La Fraisier (NT$240) – A timeless French strawberry cake with fresh strawberries, creamy vanilla mousseline cream and light whipped cream sandwiched between fluffy sponge cake layers. Like most traditional French cakes, there are slightly different recipes around.

It's difficult for me not to compare this with one I had in Tokyo not too long ago, and sadly, this one paled in comparison. I thought overall this was more on the hard side and that included the genoise sponge and vanilla mousseline cream. The mousseline in particular could have been a bit more silky smooth.

Well, I didn't regret coming all the way here because based on my 30-minute exploration, this little area in the northern part of Xinyi District really boasts some of the best hidden cafés and coffee shops in the city. 

This café called Chu (初) is one of them.....

Food Rating: 5.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: No. 37, Alley 22, Lane 553, Section 4, Zhongxiao East Road, Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Taipei City Hall

Tel: +886 2-2737-1707

Website: https://wunique.one/patisserie

Opening Hours: 12:00pm - 7:00pm daily

De nuit (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★★☆

De nuit ("By Night" in French) is the venue of my second serious dining experience on this brief 36-hour get-away trip to Taipei. I honestly don’t know much about the contemporary French restaurant other than that it has been awarded a Michelin star for three straight years since 2021.

Located on buzzy Xinyi Road, De nuit is decorated with a moody interior of grey and blue color. On top of their 6-course tasting menu were optional pairing with wine (NT$1,500) or non-alcoholic drinks (NT$1,000). I didn’t want to stuff myself too much knowing that there will be another big meal coming up tonight so I gladly declined the pairing option.  

First up were a trio of nibbles to kick off the meal. The theme here was "an ode to the Forest” and my server quickly poured in some liquid nitrogen for some stunning visual effects.

    

I first started with a crispy wafer, check that two crispy wafers made with Jerusalem artichoke with creamy artichoke purée, sherry vinegar and coffee powder sandwiched in between. This came with very interesting flavors and textures.

It was followed by a beer battered vension ball with a centre of vension confi and pink pepper, sprinkled with porcini powder on top.

But my favorite nibble was the final one, a tartlet made with snow crab meat, sea urchin and cauliflower purée, finished off brilliantly with a bit of lobster consommé. This was very tasty and I thought the size was definitely more than just a single bite (which was certainly a good thing).

Now that they have gotten my attention by setting the bar a bit higher than what I have expected, let's see if they could deliver......

Salmon, ricotta cheese, citrus – A very busy dish center around slices of fresh salmon which has been marinated with sea salt for seven hours. There were a lot of herbs (like parsley and chai), fruits (orange, grapefruit, passion fruit sauce) and vegetables (tomato, candied turnip) in play with different degrees of sweetness and acidity; and the mix of flavors combined well with the contrasting textures to create quite a satisfying mouthfeel. A very refreshing dish that really helped to fire up my appetite (fire up my senses too with the colorful presentation!).

Artichoke, Comté, hazelnut – The dumplings topped with Comté cheese, came filled with artichoke purée and smoked bacon in the middle, and was matched with a flavorful sauce made from beef reduction and hazelnut oil. Since artichoke and hazelnut were two of the main ingredients here, it was only fitting that the garnish was also made with an artichoke chip and hazelnut.

This was certainly not bad but if artichoke was the star here, it didn't really stand out.

Milk fish, fennel, chorizo – We quickly moved onto our fish course and today's market fish was local milk fish (虱目魚), charcoal grilled and served with asparagus leaves, chorizo, fennel, garlic purée and pearl onions. I love the nice finishing touch delivered by the umami-rich sauce made from lobster coral and turnip. That tasted a bit like a lighter version of our Chinese oyster sauce (蠔油). 

Lumina lamb, bell pepper, aubergine – The succulent Lumina lamb from New Zealand, was pan-fried and paired with delicate eggplant purée.

The sauce made with reduction from the lamb, olive and bell pepper helped to balance the gaminess of the lamb.

Persimmon, pumpkin, Oolong tea – The first of the two desserts and one of my many favorite dishes this afternoon. I love persimmon in a French dessert and this is as well-designed and executed as it gets. Underneath the thin sheets made with pumpkin were persimmon jam, compote, and herbs.

I really enjoyed the fine details of this dessert. The tiny little oolong tea jelly on the corner of the pumpkin sheet delivered some lovely fragrance to the mix and the liquid nitrogen persimmon ice-cream added a refreshing touch. Impressive~!

Chestnut, truffle, caramel – The second dessert was a crispy tube filled with chestnut purée, truffle ice-cream, caramel sauce and ice-cream.

This reminded me a bit of the iconic dessert from now defunct Cuisine[s] Michel Troisgros in Tokyo featuring meringue tubes with walnut ice-cream and hazelnut cream.

Another cup of tea for me, a sign that I'm really chilling out and having a relaxing time.

Mignardises were buckwheat mochi and grapefruit tart; both were very delicate. 

Last but not least, a cucumber champagne bon bon to wrap up this sensational meal. 

De nuit was my final booking for this trip and I was truly blessed to have it as part of my itinerary. The icing on the cake was the special visit from Chef Kei Koo (古俊基), a home-grown talent from Hong Kong who honed his skills at Amber and Ecriture. I was really impressed with his passion for cooking and his inspiration was simply phenomenal. I am already thinking about the potential timeline for a return visit.

Food Rating: 7.5/10

Price: $$$

Address: No.175, Section 4, Xinyi Road, Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan

Closest Metro Station: Xinyi Anhe

Tel: +886 2-2700-1958

Website: www.denuit.com.tw

Opening Hours: 11:30am - 3:00pm (Fri - Sat), 6:00pm - 10:30pm (Tue - Sat)