MUME (Taipei, TAIWAN) ★★★★☆

I still remember those days when S.T.A.Y. by Yannick Alléno and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon used to be the only good restaurants in the city. Stinky tofu, sausage on a stick, deep-fried chicken steak and xiao long bao, that's not worth the hour and a half flight from Hong Kong. At least not from my perspective. But things have finally turned around in Taipei. With the emergence of exciting restaurants like RAW, MUME, Taïrroir and Longtail (just to name a few), the future is looking bright for Taipei's food scene. And boy, I love visiting Taipei these days.



I was contemplating where to have my last dinner on this trip and there were quite a number of options (Thank you!) but MUME was seemingly the obvious choice (especially with RAW being fully booked).



What a difference a year made. Last year when I stepped through these doors, the Michelin star award wasn't sitting on the bar table. Now, not only have they captured their first-ever Michelin star, they have also found a place on Asia's 50 Best Restaurant list, debuting at No.19.



That's quite a banner year.



I was hoping that they would bring back their tasting menu but it was going to be the same format as last time - an a la carte menu that included 5 snacks, 6 "smaller" (appetizer), 4 "bigger" (main) and 3 desserts.



Soft poached oyster (慢煮生蠔) (NT$450) - Starting things off for me was soft poached French oyster.



Aside from the poached oyster, there were a bit of local greens, diced cucumber and seaweed.



The oyster was very delicious and buttery thanks to the flavorful seaweed butter. Solid start!



Prawn (胭脂蝦) (NT$520) - I had the signature wagyu tartare last time around so I was quite happy to try something else this time.



This looked like a very promising dish. The raw red prawns marinated with their homemade prawn head sauce, were tastefully decorated with slices of shaved yam bean (豆薯) on top and they put the finishing touch on with a shower of ricotta snow.



The red prawns played off the rich flavors of the prawn head sauce beautifully while the yam beans and ricotta snow provided an interesting mix of textures and flavors to the dish. Brilliant!



USDA Beef (牛小排) (NT$1380) - For main dish, I had the Koji aged short rib with maitake mushrooms and coffee powder.



Love the nicely charred crust. Just a bit of sea salt already made these very delicious.



Peach (水蜜桃) (NT$350) - I was looking for a refreshing dessert and this one featuring peach from Alishan (阿里山水蜜桃) was perfect for me.



Peach compote and liquid nitrogen ice-cream made with the same peach were served here with young ginger ice-cream, basil and green tea crackers. A very refreshing end to a wonderful meal.






Food Rating: 7.5/10
Price: $$$
Address: No. 28, Siwei Road, Da'an District, Taipei, Taiwan
Closest Metro Station: Daan / Xinyi Anhe
Tel: +886 2-2700-0901
Website: www.mume.tw
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 19th (2018)