富錦樹台菜香檳
Recently a new friend asked me to recommend a restaurant in Taipei, and one name came out before I’d really thought about it: 富錦樹台菜香檳.
It’s the place I’d picked for a 中秋節 dinner with my family. I wanted Taiwanese food with a bit of a Western twist, somewhere cozy enough that the meal would actually feel like a celebration. Fujin Tree has three locations. The other two are the obvious choices: one inside Taipei 101, one in the more commercial 大直, both bigger and flashier. I went with the third, tucked into the 民生社區 residential neighborhood.
You almost miss the entrance. It sits behind a lush garden that hides it from the street, which gives it privacy and makes people walking by curious about what’s inside. Unlike the other two, this one isn’t fancy at all: wooden furniture, plants spilling in from the garden, fewer than twenty tables. It’s the smallest of the three, and it almost makes you feel like you’re eating at someone’s home instead of a restaurant. The seating is close, but not crowded. You’re never stuck sharing a conversation with the table next to you. The catch to being this small: there’s a single bathroom for the whole dining room, so on a full night you’ll probably wait your turn.
The menu works the same way. Nothing experimental, nothing over-the-top, just the comforting dishes you’d want on a good family table. The name spells it out: 台菜香檳, Taiwanese cuisine and champagne. A place built on that combination could easily lean into spectacle, but this one doesn’t, and I think that takes a quiet kind of confidence. You order without overthinking it, because you already know it’s going to be a good meal.
The dish I still think about is the 菜脯蛋, a preserved-radish omelette. It’s fluffy, rich, and fragrant, with the savory-sweet 菜脯 mixed into soft egg and the edges perfectly crisped. Of everything on the table, that’s the one that stayed with me - a humble little omelette. That pretty much sums up the place.
So when my friend asked where to eat in Taipei, this was the first place I thought of. Not the fanciest meal they’ll have, but probably the one that feels most like home.
If you go, the original location is at 1 F, No. 17, Lane 199, Dunhua N. Rd., Songshan District, Taipei. Google Map