Häagen-Dazs Tianmu Taipei

We have been to the other branch and had a fantastic time. But this is the best Haagen Daz branch in Taipei offers a setting with a lovely tree in the patio. You can spend hours here just talking or chatting with family or friends, while eating fancy presentation of the nationwide ice cream chain offers different flavors of ice cream and sorbet, specialty dessert creations and signature frozen beverages and some hot drinks.

The glass shelf on the main counter is adorned with a collection of ice cream cakes.

We came along way and drive around Tianmu. Since Haagen Dazs its my husband number 1 favorite ice cream parlor, we had tried their new dinners plate creation. And he choose the "Strawberry Splendor'' a combination of vanilla and strawberry ice cream immersed in a sweet strawberry sauce with marshmallow and strawberry jelly.

This vanilla ice cream flower shape top with chocolate and scoop of strawberry ice cream with jelly and white marshmallow. So cute! Of course lovely dish that brings everything looks so gorgeous and tasted beautiful of sweet and citrus.

So I ordered the "Tiramisu Charm" rich in tiramisu ice cream and aromatic tiramisu cake and silky coffee ice cream in tiny pastry cups.

I love that the name of this one tiramisu charm  was fantastic and delicious as well. It was like a sponge cake with a layer of cream in the middle.  The small scoops of ice cream is latte coloured and very smooth.

My daughter ordered the "Swiss Roll Tempting" once again a combination of Swiss rolls with strawberry ice cream, decorated with mango and raspberry sorbet.

Superb!! as well as my daughter just loved this roll. The crepe crust and cream strawberry filling it was a hit for my little girl afternoon tea.

The sorbet and white chocolate was amazing and fantastic decor too.

And for my son always stick to his favorite "Banana Split" basically this creation, consists three scope of ice cream that allowed to choose each ice cream flavour on your own with carmelized banana, crepe biscuit, almonds and sliced strawberry, drizzle with chocolate syrup.

For the drink two of us choose the apple tea serves up a bountiful cup of rich fall flavors! Overall, this dining experience was a pretty good and enjoyable one, staffs were pretty attentive. The ideal place to melt away an entire afternoon. The atmosphere was relaxing although a bit pricey but worth to visit!

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Haagen Dazs Tianmu Branch
台北市士林區天玉街38巷18弄1號
No. 1, Alley 18, Lane 38 Tien Yuh St.
Taipei.
Contact No: 2-2874 5223
Website:
http://haagen-dazs.com.tw/

Hara Cafe Tea & Snack

The interior is simple, modern designed with mainly green and white colours. With its fresh, contemporary green and white theme decor and the vibrant and innovative design features window seats. 

I love the ambiance very clean and simple, minimalist, fresh and bright. You will sure feel comfortable having a simple and delicious western foods here mainly pasta and rice.

On the Table: We were serve the salad of the day with three selections of salad dressing. The lettuce and tomato was fresh, a drizzle of their dressing would have helped bring the rest of the salad together. This could be a nice light starter salad for a meal.

The soup of the day they had was the seafood creamy soup in puff pastry was fine but nothing spectacular. The puff pastry on top was a nice flair though.

We also serve 2 basket of garlic bread which was actually a little bit over baked and absolutely delicious. We like it with lots of garlic spread and most important of all it is toasted to a crunch.

My daughter picked around all of the veggies-spaghetti with vegetables in tomato sauce, but she didn't finished!

My son had the spaghetti seafood in creamy sauce, The sauce it was a perfectly-well balance not to creamy and heavy in flavor.

I ordered the baked penne with smoked chicken in cream sauce. It is made of bechamel sauce with chicken and baked with cheese in oven. I like the saltiness combination of smoked chicken and cheese its very rich and light delicious!

Seafood spaghetti in tomato sauce which was loaded with fresh seafood and the portion was good.

And for the desserts of the day is out of this place is not Italian or  some Western style either. We were served with cold Japanese sweet sticky black rice with a scoop of taro we find out that the desserts was so bland and less in sugar.

The drinks came in a large portion! The service is much slower, we wait for 30 minutes for our soup and bread to be serve and they forgotten to give our main orders to their cooks and we were disappointed. Although there was nothing wrong with the foods. I still recommend this place to anyone and the price is quite cheap and glad to have this kind of restaurant on our neighborhood.

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Hara  Cafe Tea & Snack 赫羅茶飲
新竹市建功一路148號
No.148 Chengkong Road Hsinchu City
Contact No: 03-5737888
Closed

Skylark California Cuisine FE 21 Hsinchu Branch

After the renovation of this restaurant we revisited Skylark California Cuisine and considered to be our favorite hang-out for fine dining and impressing with both ambience and cuisine therefore its crowded  and noisy especially during weekend. The Skylark is located at 4th floor of Far Eastern Shopping Center and the venue has the same standards as Cafe Grazie are both exceptional when it comes to quick and efficient service.

We had a 5 course meal that starts on appetizer and we had a sauteed mushroom with shrimp and garlic flavour. One of my daughter favourite starter here so simple yet so delicious.

Smoked salmon with ex.virgin olive oil and aioli. The mixture flavor of oil and the chunks tiny slices of shallots, tomatoes and olive that tasted really good on my salmon salad.

My son number 1 choice is the deep fried shrimp with potato and tartar basil sauce. The shrimps and mashed potato plus the mayo with basil tartar sauce equals a very tasty treat.

Seasonal fruit salad with yogurt dressing. A sweet and mix of good lettuce and fruits segments and chopped of walnut, all tossed in a pleasant creamy dressing.

We had a free selection of delicious soup for one of those unnecessary but tasty in between courses. I order the pumpkin soup and added with pumpkin seeds texture and I definitely need the vitamin A. I have eye problem since last week, the pumpkin soup was light of pure pumpkin flavors.

Clam chowder, which was pretty good and light not quite thick but plenty flavorful.

  The minestrone soup topped with bread was nice too!

French onion soup it was not thick of onion though the soup was decent.

We were served of assortment slices of warm bread with sweet cream cheese spread and it was a delicious way to start with soup.

For our main courses; I had Beef tenderloin it was flavorful-meaty but in a falling apart and juicy way. The terrine, made with mushrooms and roasted potatoes. The wasabi was mild flavored and along the sauce and with sliced zucchini served as a perfect counterpoint to the steak.

Catfish with spicy Paprika cheese sauce. The fish fillet was soft-moist and wrapped in sliced of potato. The sauce was very tangy and flavourful.

Wild mushroom & chicken pilaf, this was a very good rice. It’s a chicken stuffed with mushrooms and some veggies serve with grated cheese. The rice cooked in perfection and it was so delicious.

Valencia paella with it's mix of fresh seafood and crunchy rice is a delicious too.

 

Since no day is complete without dessert. I had a mixed fruit parfait, which was nice and full of ice cream, fresh fruits and toast of corn flakes with strawberry sauce on the bottom. I just think twice about the calories of this one. I could not resist not to try for once. It was very nice, and certainly one could feel very proper going for this option.

Baked brown sugar peach pudding was deliciously sweetened by a mixture of brown sugar, butter, and peach served with generous scoop of ice cream and vanilla sauce. Nothing could have been more delicious, the simple things in life are quite often the best.

Warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. It complimented nicely with vanilla ice cream.

Apple millefeuille with brandy-Anglaise sauce & lime-caramel sauce. The Apple puff pastry was sweet filling with apple sliced on top of pastry and a crunchy, flaky not-too-sweet with a scoop of ice cream and caramel brandy is perfect combination. 

We ended off with drink they do offer specialty drinks . I always go for teapot of chilled fruit tea with a sweet tangy taste of oranges. 

Blended juices of orange-apple and pear-apple juice. This glasses of drinks is basically an iced drink made with 2 fresh fruits blended with iced . Overall the lunch it was a very satisfying meal and the perfect amount of food with great value. Something to recommend for those who do not know yet about Skylark after all these years we never disappointed each time of our visit.

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Skylark California Cuisine
No.323, Xida Road., Hsinchu City
(4th floor Fe21 Mega Shopping Center)
新竹市新竹市西大路323號4樓
Contact No: 03-521-3572
Website:
http://www.sky-lark.com.tw

Twelve Cafe

Located on the waterfront in the heart of Emei, 12 Cafe boasts sweeping views of lake water and stunning mountain-hill side. 12 Cafe is in the camping site activities of Huguang Village Emei Township and just minutes away from Hsinchu downtown.

It was referred to as the best kept secret in Lake Emei and it certainly is beautiful location in and patio and window seats overlook the lake. This restaurant looks and feels like a old country house. Timber lined walls and give it a comfortable ambience.

 It caught my eyes upon entering at the main entrance door!

Diners can choose whether they enjoy their meals inside, in the cozy lounge area or outside under the trees with spectacular views of the mountain, waterfront and lush garden.

Painting the reflection of outdoor seats of 12 Cafe.

I never thought I will find here this old school pumping faucet. 

On this leisure afternoon we order a waffles with chocolate syrup and whipped cream was fluffy it could be better if they serve this waffles with ice cream.

I had a toast with garlic and butter, the bread was soft the butter and garlic are melted and it has a cheese taste in it. I was surprised at how incredibly tasty it was.

I order a cup of single Brazilian coffee.

And had some lemon juice and milk tea, ok the drinks it taste pretty average and nothing so spectacular. Might not be the most obvious place for a meal. But perfect for playing and enjoy the haunting call of the loon and the tranquil quiet and had some sip of coffee.

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12 Cafe

新竹縣峨眉鄉湖光村12寮

Emei Lake Hsinchu County

Contact No: 0935654859