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: 5.2/10

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)