Looking for the perfect spot in Taipei to kick back with friends over great food and drinks? The city has just about anything you could want: moody, modern izakayas, spacious eateries with beer, wings, and international dishes, or themed nightspots with surprisingly good food. This vibrant mix of hangouts offers a flavor, fun, and inventive drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, on the menu.
GumGum Beer & Wings
As the name suggests, this spacious restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows specializes in the classic casual night out combination – beer and wings – along with creative, high-quality international dishes and alcohol-free drinks.
GumGum’s wings come in twelve varieties and possess different levels of spiciness. Hot Maple Syrup is the most popular flavor; they’re famous for it, and it’s easy to see why. The wings are sweet, but not overly so, with a hint of maple and a mild hit of spice, and they’re so fragrant that your mouth will start watering before they hit the table. The Sichuan Pepper and Red Hot options pack a spicier punch, whereas local flavors such as Salted Egg and Taiwanese Special Sauce are milder.
Other dishes combine local sensibilities with international classics. The Clams Poached in White Wine with Crusty Bread come in a creamy, complex wine sauce and evoke the classic Belgian mussel dish.
The Mediterranean Slow-Cooked Rosemary and Beef Rib Pasta smells and tastes like the Mediterranean. Served with a simple but scrumptious tomato sauce, the heady rosemary, tangy Parmesan, and perfectly tender beef are like a miniature vacation to Italy.
The food at GumGum is unfussy by design. The garlic fries are piping hot and heaped with garlic.
The seafood with vegetables looks simple, but the dish is cooked with such precision that every ingredient, from the tender squid, scallops, and shrimp to the vibrant broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and other vegetables, retains its distinct natural flavor rather than being masked with over-seasoning.
The Truffle Mushroom Risotto with Soft-Boiled Egg, which is actually a hot-spring egg, has a deep, complex flavor from the multiple mushrooms, heightened by breaking the velvety yolk of the egg and mixing it in.
GumGum’s massive yuzu liqueur tiramisu is meant for sharing, though you might be tempted to eat the entire velvety, citrusy, espresso-tinged slice on your own.
Pair these choices with local microbrewery draft beers such as Redpoint’s Long Dong Lager or GumGum’s Seasonal Beer. Bottled beers are also available in a variety of creative flavors: think winter melon ale, lychee beer, Miaoli strawberry beer, and a seasonally available jasmine IPA. Selections from the local microbrewery Ugly Half Beer are also available, including the Hopcore Hoppy Apple Cider and the TOASTea Lager. And for teetotallers, GumGum doesn’t disappoint. House-designed beverages such as the summer golden kiwi sparkling drink, the vibrant fuchsia-hued red dragon fruit, pineapple and yoghurt smoothie, and the popular green milk tea might tempt even the strongest beer aficionados.
GumGum Beer & Wings (Xinyi Branch) | 雞翅啤酒餐廳 (信義本店)
Tel: (02) 2758-5987
Add: No. 38, Aly. 11, Ln. 473, Guangfu S. Rd., Xinyi Dist., Taipei City
(台北市信義區光復南路473巷11弄38號)
Hours: 12pm-5pm, 6pm-10:30pm
Website: www.gumgumonline.com.tw
FB: www.facebook.com/gumgumtw
IG: www.instagram.com/gumgumtw
Uchi Grill Bistro
A relative newcomer to Taipei’s East District dining scene, Uchi Grill Bistro is a sedate, welcoming space with dim lights, comfortable seats, and chill vibes: exactly the elements that entice those looking for a modern bistro. With sake-based cocktails designed in collaboration with the renowned Taipei bar Fourplay and Japanese-inspired fusion dishes that are as gorgeous as they are delicious, an evening at Uchi is a relaxed experience to be shared with friends, without the fuss and formality of typical upscale restaurants. In fact, the casual cool of the main ground-level space gives way to a basement-level karaoke room for those who want to kick their party up a notch.
As with its prix-fixe sister location on Fuxing North Road, Uchi’s laid-back, modern izakaya concept puts the food at center stage, but in an à-la-carte menu. One standout dish is the Tomahawk Pork Chops, a generous portion of sliced-off-the-bone meat seared to perfection. It’s flavorful and juicy on its own, but is elevated to stunning when paired with Taiwanese sweet potato purée, roasted garlic, and an Argentinian chimichurri-inspired red pepper relish. The mustard greens served with the dish show Uchi’s attention to detail and incorporation of local ingredients: they’re just the right combination of salty, crunchy, and lightly charred.
Uchi’s small plates are all showstoppers in their own right. The Smoked Salmon Puffs arrive in a very literal sense: under a dome obscured by applewood smoke, which imbues each piece with deep flavor.
The Cheese Okonomiyaki Yam Fries are made with Taiwanese mountain yam, retaining their earthy flavor without any of the okra-like sliminess typically associated with the root vegetable. They are topped with cheese and bonito, which, combined with the yam, creates an umami bomb.
The Beef Tartare Cones are a punch of fresh, salty flavor. Served upright in a glass dish filled with dried adzuki beans, each cone is topped with one of two kinds of caviar: a European-style black variety or a Japanese-style large red fish roe.
Both the Mushroom Cream Soup and Eggplant Purée with Scallops look unassuming when they arrive at the table, but both will surprise you. The mushroom soup is layered, complex, and perfectly textured. The scallops are topped with candied pomelo zest, giving the dish a citrusy nose, and the eggplant purée and accompanying sautéed shimeji mushrooms lend a mild sweetness.
The Basque Burnt Cheesecake is topped with lemon cream and shaved roasted cashew, expertly combining citrus, creaminess, and nuttiness for a dessert far superior to a typical coffee shop cheesecake.
As with any izakaya-inspired restaurant, drinks at Uchi are integral to the experience, especially sake and beer. Options on the curated sake, wine, whiskey, and liqueur lists are mostly available by the bottle, with a small selection sold by the glass. The real highlight, however, is the sake-based cocktails and mocktails. The Ginsake is topped with a Japanese rice crisp; it’s one of the smoothest drinks you’ll ever try. The Perilla Honey Tea is sweeter: it also includes sake, and is topped with a Korean perilla leaf. The Pomelo Qiao is a sake and pomelo soda with a hint of Sichuan flower pepper; it’s topped with a caramelized grapefruit slice.
Uchi Grill Bistro | 吾居炭火餐酒
Tel: (02) 2711-6757
Add: No. 59, Ln. 223, Zhongxiao E. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City
(台北市大安區忠孝東路四段223巷59號)
Hours: 6pm-12am
FB: www.facebook.com/uchi.grillbistrozhongxiao
IG: www.instagram.com/uchi.grillbistro
Potions Magic Bar
Step into something out of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, or a dark German fairy tale at this themed, but excellent, bar near the Ren’ai Circle. The front door requires a heavy push to open, and the dark, tavern-like space with stone arches is decorated with antique-style leather-upholstered chairs and brass lamps. There are regular magic performances, aimed at drawing patrons out of their everyday lives and into something a little more fantastical.
The Harry Potter-themed drinks are the main draw at Potions, the most popular being the butterbeer that featured heavily in the novels. It’s available in alcoholic and non-alcoholic options, each served in massive, barrel-shaped mugs with creamy foam caps. Other drinks include A Glass of the Phoenix, made with Calvados, plum, and tarragon; Ginny, a deep-red drink with Gordon’s, Iron Guanyin tea, and Aperol; Hebrides Requiem, with chamomile, grapefruit, and cumin; and Avada Kedavra, a dark cocktail with secret ingredients (the menu offers only a cheeky “I can’t tell you”).
The food goes beyond novelty, making Potions more of a dinner-and-drinks destination than a themed cocktail bar. Carefully curated appetizers and fried dishes include Baby Cabbage/Beer Clam Sauce/Salmon Roe, White Cauliflower/Grilled Miso/Fromage Blanc, and Iberian Pork Collar/Green Apple/Confit de Tomato. Try one of three kinds of fries or the spicy, crispy fried chicken.
Generously portioned mains are split between pasta and risotto; the Black Truffle Smoked Salmon Risotto and the Bloody Mary Fresh Shrimp Pasta are popular choices. Don’t miss out on the Deconstruction Tiramisu, which plates dollops of mascarpone with liquor-soaked ladyfingers, topped with molded chocolate leaves.
Potions Magic Bar | 魔藥學餐酒館
Tel: (02) 2775-3256
Add: No. 55, Sec. 1, Anhe Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City
(台北市大安區安和路一段55號)
Hours: Sun-Thu 6pm-1:30am, Fri-Sat 7pm-2:30am
IG: www.instagram.com/potionsmagicbar
True Love Station
Most people wouldn’t think to hang out with friends at a train station, but True Love Station takes the concept and runs with it anyway, creating a funky and comfy spot with a vintage Taiwanese aesthetic. Plastic waiting-room chairs and signage imitating a train station adorn the outside; the interior is all brick walls, large leather booths, neon signs, and cane-back chairs, with splashes of Taiwan railway flair, especially over the bar.
The menu is a panoply of design sensibilities, from Lichtenstein-inspired pop art featuring a cartoon Samoyed to pages that look like anything from an old banquet-style restaurant to a vintage Taiwanese advertisement to a lunisolar farmer’s almanac. Some drinks are transit-themed, such as the MRT, Train, Bus, and HSR iced teas. The MRT Iced Tea is made with blue curaçao, pomelo, aloe vera, and wasabi; the HSR Iced Tea is an unlikely but delicious combination of honey black tea, peanut foam, passionfruit, and coffee. Other creative cocktails are inspired by anime, Japanese cartoons, Taiwanese tea, or local rock and pop stars such as Fire EX and Jay Chou.
The vintage Taiwan feel of True Love Station shows in the food, too. Appetizers include three-cup seafood, Taiwanese spicy stir-fried mushrooms, red-braised pork belly, and mapo wontons. Even the pasta dishes are fusion creations with local flair, such as Black Garlic Chicken Risotto, Three-Cup Chicken Pasta, and Mapo Cheese Bolognese. Or, you can keep it simple with classic dumplings; True Love Station makes them with pickled chili and coriander, or thick rice noodles with beef. There are several desserts on the menu, but the most popular are the Honey Condensed Milk Steamed Buns, which are deep-fried and served with a sweet dipping sauce.
True Love Station | 逐愛轉運站 放感情
Tel: (02) 2568-1298
Add: No. 20, Ln. 39., Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan Dist., Taipei City
(台北市中山區中山北路二段39巷20號)
IG: www.instagram.com/true_love_station
Credit Source: TravelinTaiwan.net
