Le Palais Taipei 3-Michelin Star Restaurant 君品酒店- 頤宮中餐廳

Le Palais is the only 3-Michelin Star restaurant in the Taipei Michelin Guide - an honour it achieved consecutively in the inaugural 2018 edition and again in 2019. Le Palais serves classical Cantonese cuisine done to exceptional standards. Chefs Ken Chan 陈伟强 and Matt Chan 陈泰荣 each have 30 years of culinary experience under their belt. The chefs emphasise the importance of using fresh premium ingredients, and bringing out their best qualities through careful preparation and cooking. The down to earth chefs are dedicated to innovation and daily improvements to their craft creating surprising delights with familiar dishes. Le Palais' signatures include their *Peking duck. Flamboyantly presented, the spectacle of the flaming golden brown duck is always greeted with delighted ooo....s and ahhh...s. The Peking duck is made with 3.5kg birds from Yilan county. The duck is roasted till the skin becomes a gleaming crisp golden brown coat. Alluring aromas filled the air when the liqueur doused on the duck is set alight. It adds a delicate sweet overlay on top of the crisp golden brown skin's toasty savouriness. The Peking duck is served in three courses. For the first course, the crispy skin with a bit of juicy fat beneath is shaved off the duck and eaten wrapped in a thin crepe with a stalk of cucumber, spring onion, and special savoury sweet sauce. You can also eat the savoury roast duck skin with a stick of fried mozzarella cheese and fragrant sweetish osmanthus sauce wrapped in translucent, tissue thin crepe. Tender juicy duck meat wrap is served as second course from the Peking duck. Alternatively, the duck breast meat is sliced thick and juicy, and eaten by itself. The duck bones are made into a porridge for the third course. The third course can also be made into duck bee hoon soup. La Palais also have another signature duck known as *先知鸭. It is a crispy roast baby duck made with 28 day old birds. The golden brown roast duck is presented whole and the staff will cut the duck into bite size pieces with a pair of scissors. You can hear the skin crackle and smell the escaping aroma as the scissors snips through the bird. The bird is dressed with a squeeze of fresh lime before eating. Savoury crispy skin with tender juicy savoury sweet meat. Other popular dishes at La Palais include stir fried grouper with asparagus, stewed abalone with goose web, *stir fried sliced tofu with chicken & ham, *stir fried pork tendon with XO sauce, *stir fried mala spicy "jumping" chicken, stir fried beef with kai lan, roasted sucking pig, *pork collar char siew, crispy fried chicken, stewed cabbage, lobster with 15-year old chai poh (preserved turnip), Cantonese style steamed grouper, sweet and *sour pork belly, Yangzhou fried rice, bird nest soup, etc. They also serve familiar dim sum dishes like *fried carrot (radish) cake, liu sha bao (salted egg yolk custard bun), *char siew bun, shrimp dumpling, fried sesame seed crusted mochi balls with sesame paste filling, *chee cheong fun, Malay sponge cake etc. *Must order Most likely you have tasted many of these dishes before, but it is unlikely that most of us have tasted them done to this exceptional level before. La Palais have a good range of premium teas which you can enjoy with your dishes. Decor wise La Palais looks like a typical posh hotel Chinese restaurant with plush furnishings and chock a block with props like chandeliers, vases, decorative plates, bowls, gilded mirror, calligraphy, paintings, dim orange lightings with flood of sunlight from the large windows draped with drop down curtains on one side. Personally, it doesn't feel very memorable in the aesthetics department.  Customer chatter is audible in the restaurant - I am used to such as this is normal in Chinese restaurants but just so you know 😄 Service is impeccable. Pricing is competitive at average NTD2,000 (SGD100) per pax spending for tasting menu. La Palais is probably among the most affordable 3-Michelin Star restaurants. Restaurant name: Le Palais 君品酒店- 頤宮中餐廳Address: 103, Taiwan, Taipei City, Datong District, Section 1, Chengde Road, No. 3, Level 17 (Palais de Chine Hotel)Nearest MRT: Zhongshan (Green Line)Tel: +886 2 2181 9950#3261Hours: Lunch 11:30am – 2:30pm Dinner 5:30pm – 9:30pm  

Date: 15 May 2020