Steak - Just Steak

 

Normally I don’t write about food on this blog and I honestly don’t like steak as much as people were led to believe. However, in life, there is a moment in time that just changes your mind completely about a topic. Now I won’t say I like steak but I can say I like the steak at that steak house specifically. And since I wanted to try out food blogging in the new year so today I decided to break some rules.

Since I am terrible at remembering names and at first didn’t intend to write about that steakhouse, I didn’t put much effort into knowing the name of that steakhouse or what specifically was on the menu but I do know that it is located in Taiwan so that is a start.

The steakhouse wasn’t a steakhouse per se but it was a Teppanyaki restaurant inspired by French cuisine. Now thinking about it I am not even sure if you can call it a steakhouse so from now on I will just say restaurant.

The restaurant is located in the basement of an office building which doesn’t say much about its location since plenty of office buildings in Taipei have basements and due to space reasoning it makes quite a lot of sense to open a restaurant in the basement of an unused office building.

Once you go down the stairs to the aforementioned basement you enter a luxurious feeling stylish lobby. The walls were a beautiful royal blue with gold embellishment. In that lobby, you are greeted by a receptionist and a robot server cat. Since it is not quite a walk-in restaurant you have to have a reservation. I mean you can try your luck and walk in. Maybe you are lucky or maybe I am just misled about the whole reservation situation.

Anyways, once the reservation is confirmed and a host standing behind the receptionist takes over the service. From the lobby, you are led through the restaurant passing by plenty of teppanyaki grills in private alcoves by the host.

Around each grill, there were roughly ten seats with a chef standing behind the grill and two waiters at either side of the alcove. There was a 360 teppanyaki grill in the centre of the room with all the private alcoves around it and had twice the amount of seats around the table. Even though the big grill was centred, it was still private just like the alcoves with the glittering privacy curtains surrounding it.

Once seated the host will bring you baskets for your belongings. When you have put your things away the host will stow away the basket within your arm's reach (so underneath your seat). When you turn your attention to the table in front of you, you will see the extensive table setting in front of you. The table setting included numerous cutlery, a small plate for the bread which will be served later and some seasoning for the food. The setting was quite posh but a simple rule to follow is that you should use the cutlery at the very edge and work yourself in with every course. But with such varied courses you know which cutlery to use.

Once seated you will be greeted with a glass of water and a glass of what I believe to be Apple cider both served in champagne glasses. I was not quite sure since I thought it was champagne because of the champagne glass and the colour but I am a human alcohol detector and it was nothing alcoholic so I don’t know what that drink was. Either way, it was delicious and the waiters made sure that the glass was never empty which was a nice plus.

Since the waiters wouldn’t start to serve the courses until every guest arrived, we had time to browse through the menu. And you could pick everything. Each meal set included an appetizer, soup, salad, fried rice, slushy, steak, dessert and cocktail. With the exception of the appetizer, slushy and the fried rice, everything else was variable.

It was a great idea in my opinion since everyone will have the dinner experience they most want and like which makes the dinner experience so much better and special. But I had a hard time choosing since I am a picky eater but there was a little bit for everyone so it was not hard to choose. I did take some time since I had to translate the menu but only realized way too late that there were pictures on the next pages to come.

Before anything was served and after they took your menu, the staff asked for preferences and allergies which I believe was a very important and kind thing to do since for once you as the customer don’t have to worry about allergens and the staff would take care of it for you. This just makes the dining experience more enjoyable and far more relaxed.

It took a while for everyone to arrive and since I didn’t know back then that everyone had to arrive first before the food was served I was really confused. Once every guest around the teppanyaki table arrived, the first course followed shortly after and I couldn’t be happier since I was so excited and also hungry.

The first course was steamed egg topped with caviar. The side was oyster with melted cheese on top. Garnished with crushed brownie crumbs and a tomato. The steamed egg and caviar worked really well together as expected. What I didn’t expect to taste so good was the oyster with melted cheese on top since in my mind that was a contradiction of cheese with seafood but it worked. The brownie with the cherry tomato felt a bit out as if it were just decorative.

Next up was the soup course. One knew it was coming when the freshly baked bread came out of the oven and onto the bread plate. I got onion soup with cheese and truffle. There was a crispy slice of bread on top of the soup and it didn’t soften because of the soup which was the real miracle. The soup itself was alright since it looked and tasted like onion soup but there wasn’t anything all too spectacular about the soup besides its presentation.

When I looked around the table, I could see that everyone ordered something different which made me regret my soup choice since the other soups just looked so much more interesting. One soup stood out to me because it was not a soup at first. It was a cube on a plate served with a teapot. You had to add the hot water to get your soup which was so much more interesting than getting your soup as it is. But since I didn’t like the ingredients in that soup so I was fine with my choice.

Up next was the salad course. Since I am not the biggest salad fan, I got the simple fruit salad. The presentation was amazing as always but as with the soup course there was not anything spectacular about the taste. It was just a fruit salad with berry sauce. I liked how they used regional fruit in the salad which makes it better taste better than most other fruit salads I have eaten in the past. In my opinion, you can taste the difference between fresh fruit and fruits which have been stored for months on end.

The next thing served surprised me the most. It was probably on the menu and I must have overlooked it but they served a lemon sobert. Probably as a pallet cleanser and that was refreshing. I mean the slushy wasn’t necessary per se but it was a nice change of pace for restaurants and a lovely refresher for in-between courses. For some reason, it came to infinite refills but I didn’t take a second since it was quite sour in my opinion but I guess that just makes a good palette cleanser.

For the next course, they served up fried rice with spring onions, fried onions and tiny shrimp. Anyone who knows me, knows I am a sucker for good seafood, with emphasis on the word good and I was pleasantly surprised since after really shitty dishes Germans considered seafood, it was just a nice change of pace. The fried rice was delicious and I can honestly say the tiny shrimp added to the texture and taste harmoniously. The dish was delicious but I couldn’t take another bowl since I was already full and the other half of the courses were yet to come.

The main course took a bit longer to prepare which made plenty of sense since the next course was the steak itself. But while you wait you could witness the chef at work preparing all the steaks at seemingly the same time. And the chef did put on quite a show for the guests to see. Every movement was a mere sleight of hand and each dished prepared with such precision and grace. It was almost sad the show ended. But since I was still a bit hungry, it was fine.

The next course was as mentioned the steak and of course, I got the cheese steak as in steak with cheese lava on too. Of course, it was served with perfectly prepared vegetables such as potatoes, zucchini and asparagus but the main attraction was the steak and the cheese and may I say that that was the best steak combination I have ever had. I just love how the cheese compliments the steak flavour which I usually don’t like as much.

For the dessert course,  I had a lovely berry cheesecake but since I was already full, it was a bit of a mouthful. However, it was delicious since the sweet-sour of the berry works well with the creaminess of the cheesecake. And as expected by now, the presentation of the dessert was magnificent. Too beautiful to eat some may even say.

Last but not least, they served an after-meal beverage. I tried their white peach and wild berry-flavoured soda. Besides the presentation, the drink itself was all right. Lacking a bit of flavour in my opinion but I am known to have a sweet tooth when it comes to my sodas so I am not quite sure if it was intended or not.

Since it was my brother’s birthday, they also served a happy birthday brownie with an amazing presentation of the cake but chocolate was not something I could eat after all those courses so I didn’t try it at all but it looked delicious from afar so I guess it was delicious. But from the looks of everyone eating the cake, they were all a little bit full. Who can blame that after all those courses?

At the end of the dinner, they took a picture of you during the dessert course, had that picture printed out and put it in a beautiful paper frame so you can remember the dinner. Now I am not sure where exactly I put the picture but I believe my grandmother has it. I am not sure if the picture was a birthday thing or not since in Taiwanese restaurants having your picture taken on a Polaroid camera and printed out for you is actually quite common so not sure if everyone will get the same treatment but if everyone does, it would be quite nice to have a souvenir for your meal.

To sum it all up, it was an amazing dining experience and quite an innovative selection of food which miraculously works so well together. But if you are a vegetarian or vegan then you are out of luck since they don’t have a vegetarian/vegan menu yet but I am excited to see if they do change that fact.