Yesterday, I received a 50% discount coupon for two at Tao Ban Wu in Hsinchu. I didn't know what to expect from this restaurant. My husband and I went there without knowing anything. When we got to the building, we were confused because the first floor had nothing except a small area of empty lobby and then stairs. So we went to the second floor and was impressed by the real lobby. It was nice and welcoming.
We had to make reservation to get the seats. When I checked out the menu, it was actually a fix course for NT 499 + 10% service charge. They have some selections on the appetizer, soup, main course, dessert, and drinks. We took sometime to decide because it's in Chinese and very limited pictures of the dishes for our reference. Anyhow, they did not have the vegetarian option in that menu. So we ordered based on the menu given. After we were almost ordering the dessert, the waitress said the vegetarian option was another menu. I didn't know why I didn't ask earlier. Anyhow, it's just way too complicated to check out the vegetarian menu again. I was not interested in the vegetarian menu because in Taiwan, most of the normal (non-vegetarian) restaurants had less appetizing vegetarian food. I might as well get the non - vegetarian dishes with the least amount of meat or fish. Besides, my husband would finish my meat or fish.
First course: Appetizer
Oyster Mushroom: Tasty Sauce
Second Course Option 1
Appetizer: Tomato Salad – love the sauce and the combination with the chocolate colored sauce, it was excellent.
Appetizer: Seafood and fruit salad – this is just as tasty as the tomato salad.
Soup: Creamy Asparagus Soup with Seafood and Herbal Chicken Soup - The creamy soup tasted like cream of mushroom soup. It felt rich. The chicken soup was refreshing and not thick at all. Love them both.
Rice: Deep Fried Rice Ball - It’s a bit too hard for my taste. The rice tasted ok.
Rice: Steamed Rice - The taste was excellent. Love it. I could have more. Love the presentation too.
Intermittent: Mulberry Vinegar Juice - Supposedly the drink would reduce the oily taste from your mouth.
Fifth Course Option 1
Main Dish: Beef Steak with Garlic - We asked for 50% cooked but when it came, the beef was more like 30% cooked. So my husband didn’t really like it. Even though he said the beef was soft.
Fifth Course Option 2
Main Dish: Grilled Pork and Fish - The sea salt was good :P I didn’t eat the pork or the fish. My husband did. He said the pork was tough and he felt like eating ham. As for the fish, it was just ok. We didn’t know what type of fish it was though. In the picture, you can see the pink vegetable. It was pear pickled in some sort of plum alcohol. It was good.
Sixth Course Option 1
Dessert: Tiramisu - It didn’t taste or look like tiramisu at all. It tasted like birthday cake made in Indonesia. So yeah, don’t order this one.
Sixth Course Option 2
Dessert: Cheese Cake top with Ice Cream - One word “Delicious”.
For drinks, we ordered the Okinawa Brown Sugar Milk Tea and the Chrysanthemum Tea with Medlar and Dates. The milk tea was way too sweet. the Chrysanthemum was good. So you decide.
Overall this place is worth to go. The ambiance was more towards fine dining. The food was served one after another instead of all at once. This was refreshing after all the Chinese style dining in Taiwan. The service was excellent. We never ran out of tea or the plum juice, empty dishes were cleared up after done, and very friendly.
Restaurant Name: Tao Ban Wu (陶板屋)
Address: 新竹市北大路338號
Tel: 03-526-5160 (Call to reserve before you go. Normally it’s full)
Open Hours: 11.30 am – 2.30 pm; 5.30 pm – 10 pm
Website: www.taoban.com.tw 
I'm hungry!!!
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