Taipei Restaurant Guide
I was born and raised in the Seattle area. I'm an American who's 50% Italian and grew up eating traditional Italian dishes that my mom learned from her mom, who was 100% Italian. I have been living, working, and dining in Taipei for a while now. Taiwan has become my second home for several reasons -- one being its deliciously diverse dining scene. This website's main focus is on providing a Taipei restaurant guide. Also, I've shared some of my homemade recipes with pictures and preparation/cooking instructions.
Taipei offers a smorgasbord of delicious cuisine. Taipei has collected its food scene from its indigenous tribes, traditional and modern Taiwanese influences, Chinese history, and a growing international population. I'm known as being a picky eater, which is a natural trait for someone who can recognize and appreciate quality food. It doesn't hurt that I can also make excellent homemade meals, if I do say so myself.
I never sellout with bribes or friend connections when it comes to my ratings, unlike other food bloggers. Incognito is my reviewing style because it's the most effective way of acquiring a genuine review. One of the drawbacks of reviewing a restaurant this way is that I'll not capture professional photos of restaurants' decor, but my photos still convey enough of the surroundings in order to grasp the atmosphere, and the trade-off is definitely worth it in order to get a truthful review, which of course is much more important. Also, I make my food photos look just like the food I ate in real life on purpose: I don't deceptively edit them to market a falsity.
I'm also different from other food bloggers in that I usually make several dining visits before reviewing a place. I've found this to be very important because sometimes the rating I would've given on my first experience turned out to be much different on my second, third, or fourth visit. That also ties into the reason why there aren't too many restaurants that I don't recommend on my website: If the food is bad but I don't have enough information to make a proper assessment, I will not bother returning and reviewing that restaurant. I think I've made it clear that I'm unlike most food bloggers, and the reason for my style being different is: It's not about ego, and it's the most intelligent way to procure honest, unbiased, and thorough reviews for the everyday clientele. If a food blogger busts into a restaurant and uses their ego to receive free food in exchange for a review, of course the restaurant is going to go out of their way to make the food better than usual, and sometimes it's so altered that it doesn't look much like what the everyday customer receives; also, the food blogger's review would most likely become compromised due to a conflict of interest. I think I've clearly made my point.
My website is all about cuisine appreciation, mostly reasonably priced cuisine, because we all work hard for our money and shouldn't waste it on overpriced food when there are more than enough quality and delicious restaurants available to choose from that are just as good as, or better than, pretentious places. Finding and trying new restaurants and cafes is a hobby of mine, and I want to share my findings with you. You'll find my Taipei restaurant guide to be very informative, easy to navigate through, and containing no ads (I'm a food blogger solely to help people, I don't accept money or free food). However, some restaurants have been nice enough to offer me free food after they've noticed my review on their establishment; this is thoughtful and I accept these offers, since it doesn't breach any biases or future expectations. (It's only happened at 3 restaurants so far because after the review is out, they have no incentive to be altruistic.) All of my reviews include pictures, a Google Map, usually the menu, a related video, a voting poll for guests, informative links, and a link to the restaurant's Google Map page and/or street view.
Recognize that the Taipei restaurant scene is one of the ficklest in the world with restaurants opening and closing frequently, menu items and prices changing regularly, and inconsistencies abounding, so some reviews' information may differ from your experiences or may be outdated. Keep in mind that this is my hobby, I don't get paid for it, so I don't have the time to keep every review updated.
I hope this Taipei restaurant guide helps with your dining choices and provides a platform for sharing your favorite restaurants and cafes with me and others.
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The green dots on the globe below are visitors' locations (DUH!).
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☜ Click Image to View Food Snapshots on JET's FB Page |
Other great food or drink related websites & blogs. I share them because it's not about competition, it's about sharing & love.
Taipei Expat
Confession of a Foodie
La Femme du Cuisinier
Bluesomeone's VEGAN World
Eating in Taipei
Two Scoops Taiwan 臺灣「雙」淇淋
Chef in You - Making Vegetarian and Vegan Recipes Easy
Bhojana Recipes
To contact Jaysun, email foodies@jaysuneatstaipei.com
or send a message via JET's Facebook page.
Don't contact me for these two reasons:
1. You're a restaurant that wants to tell me to come review your place.
2. You're a person who wants to eat with me. Sorry, I only do my reviews with my friends.