Hangchow cuisine specialist Tien-Hsian Lo in The Landis in Taipei is the rarest of things: a restaurant capable of making me break my long held rule of never eating in the hotel I'm staying in. Yep, it's a real rule! I even passed up a 2 Michelin starred place in the Langham Hong Kong at the weekend to go eat on the street. Why? Because after years of travelling for business not much makes me sadder than eating alone in a business hotel when I could be out and about in the city.
So why break the rule? Well, Tien-Hsian Lo impressed me a couple of years back when they catered an event in the hotel for me. What's more, they've impressed the city - pretty much everyone I've spoken to seems to know the place by rep.
We went for a banquet of eight courses that covered a range of fish and meats. Yes, there was shark fin on there and it's pretty hard to avoid at this restaurant. I'm not much in favour of it really, but I'm also not keen on insulting the culture of my Chinese guests by turning my nose up at it. Still, it's as unpleasant to eat as it is wasteful to gather IMHO.
Much better is the Don-Po style pork, a speciality of the house, which is essential to try if you eat here. We also had splendid hake and scallop, butter-soft and delicately flavoured beef, enoki with seafood in a perky soup. Also notable was the bamboo heart, served in a sort of glutinous herb broth called Shepherd's Purse. Like nothing I've had before and quite a novel experience for my palate.
The food was uniformly delicate. Not one dish delivered a sudden spice rush, or indeed even a hint of 'heat', or shouted 'look at me'. It's a cuisine that demands attention to it's subtleties. Very interesting, if not perhaps my favourite of the Chinese regional cuisines. That said in the Don-Po pork it delivered one of the very best dishes I've had in Taiwan.
Price was $2000 NTD per head.
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