Taïrroir - Taipei
No windows facing the outside, but a window into the kitchen
Rating: 17/20
Where: Taipei, Taiwan
When: Dinner for 2 on 24 September 2023
Cost: Tasting menu NT$6280, Wine pairing NT$2280-3280
Accolades: 3 Michelin Stars
Why: Playful fine-dining reimagination of Taiwanese cuisine
The name of the restaurant “Taïrroir” combines the two words “Taiwan” and “terroir”, so it's no big surprise that the cuisine served here is Taiwanese with some French influences. Taïrroir received its third Michelin star at the end of August, becoming the world’s first three-starred restaurant serving Taiwanese food. So it was that we found ourselves, on an unseasonably hot Sunday evening in September, taking the elevator to the sixth floor of a nondescript building in Taipei's Zhongshan district. Located in the northern part of the city, this wasn’t exactly “downtown” Taipei, but thankfully only a short taxi ride away from most parts of the city.
Being on the sixth floor is not particularly high for Taipei, so the lack of windows in the dining room was not a big deal; the view into the glassed-in kitchen was an adequate replacement. Decorated primarily in shades of white and gray, the dining room held eight tables, all of which were occupied during our visit.
Taïrroir served a single ten-course tasting menu, with an optional dish of lobster fried rice offered for an additional NT$1680. Dietary restrictions were taken into account with prior notice. There were also two wine pairings, consisting of either four or six glasses. That meant that some courses didn’t have a paired wine, but thankfully those dishes tended to be on the smaller side. We noticed the same pattern during yesterday's dinner - clearly both restaurants could make more money from foreign travelers who are used to drinking one glass per course.
Service throughout our meal was friendly, with good English being spoken. Many dishes were rooted in Taiwanese cuisine, and while our server tried her best to explain their origins, unfortunately much was still lost in translation, for example the (according to Michelin) “witty names” of the dishes. I imagine that the experience would be somewhat different for someone speaking Mandarin and/or (even more importantly) familiar with Taiwanese cuisine in general. So please take this review with a grain of salt as being from someone who falls into neither category. YMMV.
Preceding the official start of the tasting menu, but thankfully accompanied by the first glass of the wine pairing, were three small bites. An oyster fritter was filled with fish mousse, loofah, and (unsurprisingly) an oyster. Next to it was a dollop of a “sweet and spicy” sauce. This was a tasty dish, in particular with the sauce, which turned out to be not very spicy at all. The fritter was a bit fatty, but its insides were juicy, thanks to the cucumber-like green loofah. One couldn't really taste the oyster, but that's somewhat expected for such a dish 17. My wife liked this even more, rating it an 18.
Served on a tiny shell were three slices each of abalone and zucchini, topped with a goji berry foam. The abalone's texture was nice, slightly chewy, but unfortunately it didn't taste of much, making for an exceedingly light and somewhat disappointing dish 15.
Better was a little tartlet filled with cucumbers, apples and stracciatella cheese. The tartlet was light and crispy, the vegetables crunchy - simple but good. I couldn't really taste the cheese, but my wife really liked it - odd. Which maybe explains the difference between our ratings: mine 16, hers 17.
Course #1 was based on three preparations of tomato: a clarified tomato broth, a tomato mousse and some charred tomato powder on top. On the side was a gougere filled with pork floss. The soup was listed on the menu as a “gazpacho”, but it wasn't spicy and tasted more like a light tomato juice. Adding the tomato mousse and powder didn't really change the taste profile significantly. Nice enough, but nothing to write home about - I wish the dish had tasted more strongly of tomatoes. The gougere's filling had the consistency of a mushroom sauce, which was a bit heavier than we expected, but overall it was still a nice bite - and slightly better than the tomato drink 14.
Two pieces of bread were served with butter and salt. The fact that we could decide on the saltiness level of the butter ourselves was a nice touch. The whole wheat bun was a bit too sweet for my taste, but a small baguette was excellent with a great crunch (18 by itself). An average of 16.
Next up: a Hokkaido scallop that had been cooked in oolong tea, giving it a distinctive color. Slices of scallops and bamboo shoots alternated on the plate and were topped with cubes of aiyu fruit jelly (a local summer fruit), and red drops of Hibiscus sauce. Also part of the dish: scallop crackers and a black bean vinaigrette. The scallops had a nice texture, and went excellently with the strongly flavored black bean sauce; these two components would have made a great dish just by themselves. The crackers were also quite nice: similar to shrimp chips, but more baked, with less seafood flavor and slightly spicy. The two jellies didn't add much to the flavor, especially the fruit jelly was close to taste-free, it seemed to be present mainly for decorative purposes. Overall, this was not a bad dish, but felt unnecessarily busy, a similar taste effect could have been achieved with half the ingredients 17.
The third course was named “big pearl, small pearl”. The “big pearl” in question was a wax apple, and a small slice of it formed the base of the dish. The “small pearl” was the caviar on top of the apple; next to it we found some ume creme fraiche and toasted buckwheat. I'm not sure whether I've had wax apples before - they felt like a light, watery version of normal apples. That had a pleasant effect: we were still able to taste the caviar when eating the dish. A regular apple would likely have overpowered the other ingredients. Very pleasant 17.
Our server told us that shark meat had once been a staple of Taiwanese cuisine, but these days had fallen out of favor. The next dish was meant to mimic the taste of preserved shark meat without actually using any shark. Never having had the original, I can't judge how successful this imitation was, but it was a very good dish otherwise. Its main part was a layered terrine of foie gras and smoked milkfish. On the side: endives, pears, some dots of plum puree, and a brioche. I loved the foie/fish terrine. The milkfish was firm, flavorful and had a clean fishy taste, similar to a light version of a mackerel. The creamy, slightly salty foie gras went great with the fish, the two combined into an harmonious whole. The pears cut through the heaviness of the terrine, but were used sparingly enough to keep this an overall savory dish. The weakest part of this course was the brioche, it was served at room temperature and tasted a bit stale. Briefly crisping it up in the oven might have done wonders. Still, a very good dish 18.
The pescatarian replacement for the foie gras dish was an elevated version of a Caesar salad. On the middle of the plate was a generous amount of Caesar dressing decorated with dots of chili oil made from peeled peppers. The “salad” itself was arranged in a half-circle around the sauce: butterhead lettuce, bitter gourds, anchovies, prawns, watermelons, croutons and fried pigs ears. Well… maybe not the most pescatarian dish after all, but otherwise it was great. The dressing was delicious, probably the best Caesar dressing I've ever had. The prawns were almost raw, and went great with the other fresh ingredients. Only the watermelons were an oddly sweet outlier 18.
Next up: one of the chef's signature dishes, entitled “Memories from a Rest Area”. As a child, the chef's family would often take road trips and buy food at rest stops, where two popular choices were tea eggs and congee (rice porridge). And that's exactly what our next course consisted of, although at a level of sophistication presumably not seen at (m)any of Taiwan's gas stations. Starting with the tea egg: it was cooked with pu'er tea, a much fancier option than what is usually used for tea eggs. The inside of the egg was still runny and combined nicely with the “congee”, adding to its richness. Said congee was made with chicken stock and didn't contain any rice grains, it was a thick, creamy sauce tasting of both chicken and rice - much more elegant than the congees one encounters in normal restaurants. There were also pieces of sweet potatoes and pickled radishes hidden under the tea egg. Personally, I thought that the sweet potatoes were a bit too mealy and, well, too sweet for the dish. But the pièce de résistance (and really the only part of the dish that's clearly visible in the picture) was the rye cracker on top of the egg. This cracker was decorated with a variety of “condiments”: fermented tofu, edamame puree, olives, etc, etc. Very flavorful: salty, sour, pickled, and a nice crunchy texture from the cracker. Many steps up from the condiments that one would normally use to season congee - very nice. A lovely dish 18.
When you are served the same ingredient at two different restaurants on two successive nights, then you can assume that it's a local food staple. I’m talking about grouper. Here, the fish was served on top of a vanilla béchamel sauce, a sweet potato leaf puree, scallion oil and a sauce made from the fish’s braising liquid and soy sauce. On top of the fish were rocket leaves and dried green onions. This was one of those rare dishes where the whole was much better than the sum of its parts. Let's consider the parts. The fish was a bit overcooked, and didn't have too much taste by itself. The béchamel sauce was very odd - the vanilla flavor seemed misplaced in a savory dish. The rest of the ingredients were less controversial. The green onions added some taste to the fish. The braising sauce was lovely and full of flavor, and utterly amazing in combination with the scallion oil - I would have happily eaten (drunk?) this by itself. After combining all components of this dish, the result was quite lovely. But I still feel that this dish was good despite the vanilla and the lackluster fish, and not because of them, so there's probably some room for improvement. A strong 17.
Time for the main course, or rather main courses, plural. The default choice was Australian wagyu beef, in the form of a round cap steak with a marbling score of 9 (the highest possible in Australia). It was served with a puree of Brussels sprouts and miso, some eggplant, little dots of black garlic and plum puree, and a bordelaise sauce. Served in a cup on the side were potato cubes topped with a “hot and sour” foam. Let's start with the elephant (or rather, cow) in the room (or rather, plate). The roasted meat was not very good. More medium rare than the advertised medium, and also rather chewy - definitely not the ideal texture for a good wagyu steak. On the other hand, the sides were fine. The finely chopped Brussels sprouts were close to raw, and an interesting take on the traditional side dish. The eggplant was a bit heavy, but much tastier. Also nice was the added sweetness provided by the black garlic. The best part of this course, though, were the potatoes. They were excellent with a lovely sauce that had a nice spicy kick - 18 for this side dish. But overall, dragged down by the beef, this was more of a 15. My favorite wine pairing of the evening, a 2019 Orin Swift “Palermo” from Napa Valley, thankfully softened the blow a bit.
This time, there was a fully pescatarian (and, incidentally, superior) replacement for the meat course. Langoustines were served with a squid ink/black pepper sauce, broccoli, bamboo shoots and drops of kumquat jam. The langoustines were nicely cooked and had a bit of a BBQ flavor. Together with the lovely, peppery sauce, the dish almost tasted a bit meaty. Very nice 17.
Concluding the savory part of our dinner was the optional course of lobster fried rice, lovingly prepared by the head chef himself. Besides the two obvious ingredients (lobster and rice, for the record), the dish also contained bean sprouts, pieces of baby corn, green onions, eggs, and some pickles. On the side was a very good, but also extremely spicy chili sauce. The fried rice was expertly prepared, and not sticky at all. The pickles were a nice subtle addition, adding just a touch of sourness that brightened up the dish. Tasty for sure, but also very rustic. This dish was a bit hard to rate. I imagine to reach a 20, a fried rice dish would have to “cheat”, e.g. by adding truffles. So as it stood, this was a delightful dish, but not as sophisticated as the rest of the tasting menu 16.
On to the pre-dessert (or palate cleanser). A mango/sake sorbet was served with grapefruit, a yogurt sauce, basil mint oil and jalapeños. I loved the sweet sorbet, but the rest of the dish was very (too?) tart and somewhat spicy. Not my favorite - but maybe it wasn't meant to be, you wouldn't want to upstage the following main dessert 16.
“Pineapple ice tea” in the hands of this kitchen became something entirely different, a combination of fermented pineapples, pineapples with Four Season tea, pineapple granita, cream cheese and an almond tuile. The granita was quite nice by itself, but otherwise, mixing everything together was the route to success. Assuming one liked pineapples, this was a marvelous combination of crunchiness, iciness, sweetness, and fruitiness - delicious 18.
A cart full of petit fours made its rounds at the end of our dinner. Curiously, we were allowed to pick only three pieces per person. I'm more used to the “pick as many as you want” approach for this kind of meal. Not wanting to seem overly gluttonous, we settled on sampling only six out of the nine total choices. In counter-clockwise order: a star fruit pate de fruit had an interesting savory aftertaste 15. A canele was more like a crunchy cracker, the doughy interior was mostly missing 14. Better was a pistachio financier with a pronounced pistachio flavor 16. Chocolate covered nuts were a letdown, the chocolate was merely ok, and the nuts had gone soft 14. A choux pastry was filled with a roasted green tea mousse. (I'm always on the lookout for hojicha-based dishes in Asia, which led to this choice). Similar to the canele, this was more of a cracker than a puff pastry, and almost hollow inside. The cream was fine, not great 14. The best bite was a blueberry clafoutis. Almondy, light and with tasty blueberries 17. For the record, the three desserts we sadly (or thankfully, when I next consult a bathroom scale) didn't try were a corn ice cream, a mini chocolate tartlet and a lemon tartlet.
As I mentioned earlier, our server did a valiant job of explaining the motivations and origins of the dishes to us - two guests who were not at all versed in Taiwanese cuisine. Still, I'm sure something was lost in translation. As constructive criticism, I'd suggest doubling down on this, especially since the third star will send even more foreigners to Taïrroir. An inspiring example is JL Studio, which did a great job of explaining Singaporean cuisine to outsiders, but obviously they had to do this even for Taiwanese customers, so no wonder that they are a bit ahead in that regard.
Overall: An enjoyable dinner based on Taiwanese cuisine, where traditional dishes had been made much more elegant and/or given slight twists. I liked that the kitchen kept things playful and didn't take itself too seriously. Presumably, someone more familiar with Taiwanese cuisine than us will get even more out of the meal. As it stands, about half of the dishes were great, but the other half fell a bit short of the expectations raised by the three star rating 17.
Tasting menu