A3 Bar & Restaurant

Located in the first floor of Bella Vita building, a stylish modern and elegant restaurant. A3 is only open to a floor with  high ceiling space for the design of the main theme of white and black tiles, a large windows that allow natural light, exquisite colorful  wobble presents it is totally in line with our expectations for lavish light meals. The 1st floor staircase leading with LED wall panel it change color, so has a different attitude will be extended to the second floor.

It's been a while since we had a classic English high tea. I'm tired of Starbucks since my husband his getting addicted to their frappuccino and caramel pudding bun every weekend. Me and daughter was looking forward an afternoon tea with all the elegance and charm that notion conjures. The A3 afternoon tea looks like the real thing. Its elegant three-tiered stand carried a selection of those very British food finger sandwiches and cute mini desserts.

So we ordered the classic high tea set for price NT$880 had high quality finger smoked salmon  and guacamole, mentaiko egg salad sandwiches and mini beef burgers, orange pound cake and 2 scones with strawberry jam and cream, assorted sweets and macadamia chocolate tart, and a selection of freshly brewed coffee or teas, and it's good to shared for 2 people. The top tier held my attention is the mini beef burgers is a pretty good indication you're eating a fancy-pants burger. The sandwiches also we feel quite fresh!

The second layer is orange cakes, madeleine and scones with butter cream and strawberry jam. The cake is very fragrant and fruity.

Butter cream and strawberry jam

The third layer is a comprehensive dessert and fruit tarts, dark chocolate tart and full of sweetened chocolate cream and finished with dessicated macadamia nuts, the green tea cake is heady with fragrant smell of tea, the other individual desserts is very good too.

English tea

I have a cup of cappuccino which is absolutely delicious.

Cubes of white and brown sugar !

High tea set is not good enough for 4 people we were so hungry! When we first looked at the menu we couldn’t decide if we had to choose one option or if we had all. And so we try the Prosecco's snack set had a  glass of prosecco sparkling bubbly wine, duck liver terrine with maple chips, deep fried crab cake, a block of smoked salmon, avruga caviar with potato cake, freshly brewed of coffee were all irresistible.

After my husband waiting for his coffee a glass of champagne brought to us.

A good impression of this lovely coffee latte.

Charles ordered the single tea set which it serve of Maine lobster salad sandwich roll, deep fried crab cake, mini beef burger, 2 kind of sweets, a scoop of sorbet and iced English milk tea. It was a nice, well balanced plate: fruity, pastry, savory. We liked the small burgers we were fighting for that on the table (wink) very delicious tiny presentation and not greasy.

 A nice scoop of cherry sorbet was very refreshing.

English tea its light fresh flavour which was serve of fresh milk and liquid sugar. We finished everything, we find this a great place to while away the afternoon. The surroundings are comfortable and clean is a calm oasis with welcoming staff. Leisurely taste of elegance to eat a meal in rich detail ask what can be more luxurious than this it? I will recommend this place and fits to chilled out during afternoon. There are other options also available. We will be back to try the other meal.

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A3 Bar and Restaurant

1 floor Bella Vita Shopping Center

No. 28 Song Ren Road, Taipei City
台北市松仁路 28 號

Contact No: 02-87292866 or 02-87292867

Mid-Autumn Festival Home Grill BBQ Party

Those photos I attached on this update, it wasn’t served at a restaurant . We do celebrate the moon- fest a few days ago for diner on our balcony. While barbecue basics are the same, from the most inexpensive home setup with nice quality barbecue from scratch at home so you can relax while it slowly cooks at the right temperature. But the best way to experience barbecue is to eat it right off the grill with the different marinade-sauces. So it must be time to use the grill!

This grilled kebab features chunks of beef short ribs and plenty of sliced chunks of sweet white onion. All marinated in a vibrant koku mori yakiniku sauce for three to six hours on the fridge. The Japanese yakiniku sauce from the grocery was sweet- saucy and had a nice balance of flavors in it.

What kicks my pork barbecue’s taste up quite a few tricks from my aunt Lourdes barbecue sauce to mix up the pineapple juice together with mother best barbecue sauce and its hard to find here. So I made my own sauce and mixed with the pineapple juice. I have been away from the Philippines for decade now and a little trip down memory lane where street food is just a couple of steps away. But it does take a little bit of time to marinate,,,so be patient.

The night before you plan on barbecuing, prepare your pork ribs. The longer you let it marinate the better the taste- click here if you want to try my own recipe (BBQ Pork Ribs). So be patient when it comes to preparing these mouth-watering meat delight.

 A large portion of beef sirloin, simple marinated in salt and pepper and rubbed with yakiniku sauce.

Chicken leg in marinated miso sauce

An overnight marinated chicken in shiro miso sauce. The miso sauce was sweet and so flavorful, the chicken tasted great.

German black pork sausages

Had some seafood meat drizzle with salt and lemon juice!

Fresh mushroom!

Of course mid-autumn festival is not complete without eating the moon cake. They just so simply delicious and I always go for original taste.

Pastry cream and fresh bright fruits and stewed of plum for additional dessert.

We also made special toasted marshmallows, when you pull a toasted marshmallow off a stick all you get is melt on your mouth! Kid's love it!

Mochi balls, this Japanese snack uses specialist ingredients that are widely available in supermarkets.

Mochi on a stick with peanut powder.

Green Garden Restaurant

Green garden restaurant with spacious room is an ideal way to relax in the rural environment of the European country style within peaceful, green surroundings you can contemplate the street life going by at the corner of Jinggou Road. A very girly friendly restaurant is place can enjoy an afternoon tea and delicious plate or a gastronomic menu. And most of the customer here are ladies it was a slightly crowd. According to their customers review this restaurant is specializing in exquisite taste. But for us it's just average meal.

We started with their soup a vegetable soup which was basically a minestrone.

The pumpkin soup was just bland and it wasn't as flavorful.

Similar to other Italian restaurant, we were treated to a nice assortment of bread.

Our antipasto has arrived and I try the baked vegetable with cheese. This particular portion was a bit small but a solid dish nonetheless.

The waldorf salad is basically an apple salad, with smoked chicken some fresh vegetable and salad dressing without walnut.

For the main course, so we had a pork knuckle with mustard sauce, one of their best dish in this restaurant. It was served with sauerkraut, the crispy skin crackles as the knife goes through it and the meat was really well flavoured and tender. The portion is good enough to share a absolutely we loved it!

I order the baked bacon and fish with pesto sauce, a combination of white fish wrapped in bacon and asparagus baked-steamed in white wine. At first glance it looks very appealing. I quickly attacked a portion of the fish. I guess the fish it has a strong taste of rice wine instead of white wine. And the pesto sauce it didn't matched with the fish and which turned out to be the worst part of it unfortunately!

The spaghetti with smoked chicken in pumpkin sauce, which features sliced of asparagus, was a good size portion that Claire didn’t come close to finishing.

Risotto rice with salmon in cream sauce. The portion, again, was quite generous as it was pure comfort.

I got a cup of cappuccino was okay and the rest of the drinks was disappointed!

So we ended up to apple millefueille, it was  frozen! We don't feel satisfy and we cannot wait to have a drink and sweets at Starbucks. Overall the service is okay and inexpensive, but food it's wasn't great, the only good thing that was good that day was the pork knuckle. If we will return? maybe yes or not!

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Green Garden Restaurant( 綠芳園咖啡庭園餐廳)
232 East District, Ming-Zheng Road Hsinchu City
新竹市東區民權路232號
Contact: 03-5339280
Website:
www.greengarden.48h.tw/

Teishoku 8

It was dinner time after we refreshed ourselves, but we were too lazy to go out to search for food. So we try again the Teishoku 8, the whole decor of the restaurant is pretty authentic wooden furniture. The reason is called fresh set meal because the store serves only eight type of food can be selected. The  bento set meal deal was very reasonable and cheap indeed. The set meal for just NT$200 at this price, it was quite good value and came with chawanmushi- steamed egg, korean pickles, some fruits, miso soup and white pudding with brown sugar sauce as a desserts, and unlimited self service of rice, soup and a variety of sauces. We ordered a pork chop, eel, chicken, beef with rice and about 15 minutes at the point of a meal was already serving on.

'Beef Teriyaki ' the beef pieces were very tasty, with the slightly sweet. Though it could have been slightly more tender!

Grill eel was the comfort dish that was expected with well cooked fluffy rice. The fish was soft and moist and the marinade did over power it.

The chicken teriyaki on the other hand was quite average. But the meat was well cooked and tender than I would have liked too.

Tokantsu with cheese it doesn't seem greasy at all and the cheese filled ones are nice too!

We ordered a side dish of grilled fish and chicken yakitori. And came away surprised at how flavorful the simple looking whitefish was. Which is a whole butterflied grilled trout. The fish's oily flesh had excessive salt but mostly it was juicy and had some nice charred parts too. A squeeze of lemon juice are great over rice.

'Chicken yakitori' succulent chunks of chicken on a skewer are grilled with salt or basting sauce. And one of my favorite part on this restaurant, love these extra-tasty chicken skewers.

 Korean pickles

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Overall, we were pretty happy with this casual dining Japanese restaurant. If you dont want to spend too much time and money thought the foods is pretty good too. This is a good spot for comfort food, and would recommend it for that.
Closed and move to A. Mart in Gongdaowu Hsinchu City.

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Teishoku 8 定食8
No. 738 Section 1 Kuangfu Road, Hsinchu City
新竹市光復路二段738號1樓
Contact No: 03-5750115
Website:
http://www.sushi-express.com.tw/teishoku8/index.php
CLOSED!