October 27, 2010
Paul
I was hooked on Paul's authentic French croissants and viennoseries for a while, but the exorbitant prices got to even me. Unlike the French, Taiwanese folks certainly do not live on bread and butter alone. And after the initial wave had passed the store could've easily crumbled like so many other food fads before. Good thing that Paul's managed to find a stable business model by dressing up their shops as a fancy place for pastries & tea, as well as offering some light meals for lunching ladies.
Wife was supposed to pick up something from her sister, who was just leaving work late near Mitsukoshi. So the department store was a convenient meeting point, and a good excuse to eat out. Didn't feel like the basement food hall offerings, but the formal restaurants were too much trouble with it being later and just the three of us. So a light dinner at Paul offered an interesting alternative. Sis had a grilled cheese & chicken sandwich on baguette, wife had a savoury crepe with soup & salad, while I got by with a flavorfully cheesy quiche. Nothing too fancy, but not that easy to do well, either, and just a little bit different from the usual options. Not too expensive for a department store dinner, if one didn't quibble too much about portion size.
PAUL (信義店)
台北市信義區松壽路9號2樓 (新光三越A9館)
02-2722-0700
October 16, 2010
Gordon Biersch
Wife and kids were staying at her mother's house for the weekend so I had a Sunday morning to myself. Took advantage of my moment of freedom to hit the brewpub for some beer & grub. The dark-wood bar is relatively uncrowded, compared to the rest of the bustling restaurant, as the concept has done surprisingly well since making its debut a while back.
The menu was faithfully transplanted from its American roots, thus featuring many items not usually seen in the Taiwanese basic burger-and-pasta American-style restaurants. It's almost kind of overwhelming, so I skipped to the list of House Specialties, where the Cajun Fish Tacos caught my eye. Some American-Mex food plus a tall glass of Hefeweizen seemed like exactly what the doctor ordered. The dish certainly looked the part. The tacos were filled with blackened fish topped with a creamy sauce and pico de gallo salsa which were tasty but not too spicy. The double-wrapping of soft flour tortilla and crunchy blue-corn tortilla shell was a smart flourish. Unfortunately the tortilla shells were a bit stale and not too crunchy, possibly due to lack of turnover or Taiwan's high humidity? But the food did went well with the beer, not surprisingly.
Gordon Biersch 鮮釀啤酒餐廳
台北市信義區松壽路11號2樓(新光三越A11館2F)
02-8786-7588