Sunday, December 27, 2009

Bellini Italian restaurant, Taipei, Taiwan

Some of my local friends often tried to bring me to some foreign restaurants like Thai, Korean, even Cantonese. This time I got brought to an Italian restaurant called Bellini.

1. In walking into the shop, the waiters/waitresses would greet you with some Italian word. Considering the mood to be Italian, I would expect at least some olive oil/balsamic vinegar and some bread would be served on the table, but there was only just some wet napkin. 2. The coffee was tried to make it like Italian espresso but it's not. It's just a stronger coffee and it's quite bitter dry. 3. So for anyone who has been to Los Angeles, they should know what Chinese chicken salad is - veggie with chicken and some Chinese crispy thins in sesame/soy sauce dressing. I ordered a chicken salad but it turned out to be very Los Angeles style.

4. The pizza crust is pretty nice but the topping is a bit interesting. I ordered a BBQ chicken pizza but it turned out it is a Hakka cuisine "the Lord's Chicken 霸王雞" as you can see the ginger and scallion as the topping. I wondered if they would have "Ginger duck 薑母鴨" or "Sesame chicken 麻油雞" as the toppings then. 5. This one was supposed to be ham and mushroom pizza, but it turned out it's some cold cut on top with a basil. Funny thing is the cold cut is still cold and it turned the pizza to be just slightly warm. The worst is the tomato sauce. It's just some no-frills brand tomato sauce. If the pizza is just at TWD200, I wouldn't complain but this one is at TWD350. So I just finished the outer skirt of the pizza with nothing on, and simply told my friend I like plain bread actually. I often insisted trying something local like soy bean drink and rice dumplings but was complained "I shouldn't eat like a child.". They should treasure their original local food.

8 comments:

Thailand Club said...

wet napkin? r they still in the fried pork rib shop mood

yes, Taiwanese they like very strong coffee, the coffee doesn't require touch of aromatic, just very extra super strong coffee

many years ago when i still hv to visit Taipei, business associates brought me to places like Grand Hyatt buffet and hi-end steak houses, i simply told them "next time pls bring me to ur noodle and dumpling shop", i also enjoy Taiwanese infused Japanese seafood there

Anonymous said...

Not good to eat western food in Taiwan. and it's very expensive. japanese food is good in taiwan. maybe it belongs to japan many years ago.

in the sea said...

Buffets at Grand Hyatt and Shangrila are pretty good though. Seems like the local people tend to bring their foreign clients to try the western food more than their local cultural food. Even when I talked about the origin of Du Siu Yuet about the Tainan renowned Tan Tsai Noodle, they didn't care much... :)

Thailand Club said...

maybe they eat too much already, so when overseas friends visit, they try to eat non-local food

but it doesn't quite happen in Thailand, i think Thais r quite proud of their cuisine

there is a part same same, foreign people must-order is tomyum goong (sour & spicy prawn soup), but locals actually don't order this soup; instead the soup they order is more more spicy in texture

Stella said...

So this is Taiwanese Fusion Italian Restaurant with "Bar Wong Chicken" or "Sesame Chicken" Pizza.
Yes my Taiwan friends said that Western Food in Taiwan is not as good as those in HK or BKK overall. Of course there are still some good ones. But the good ones are a lot more expensive than the good ones in HKK or BKK though. They always fly to HKK to eat French or Italian Food. And HKK people fly to BKK to eat Western food.

By the way, California Pizza Kitchen here serves Thai BBQ Chicken Pizza and Peking Duck Pizza which are the most popular pizza. LA people tend to like Thai Food/Chinese Food a lot.

in the sea said...

TC, you spoke exactly the same as what Madam Fa spoke to me the other day. Yes, I often got brought to try other thai food other than Tom Yam Krung. In fact they told me they took Tom Yam Krung to accompany with eating rice, like taking curry.

I don't mind people being pro-foreign or pro-western but if they do so, they need to do it completely, and not to neither end.

Anonymous said...

Nice brief and this mail helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.

Anonymous said...

Easily I agree but I dream the post should acquire more info then it has.