Olala

When my husband and I first moved to Taipei about a year ago, I would crave non-Asian food so much that I would force Luke to eat at all the American chain restaurants like TGIFridays, Chilis, and sometimes even – gasp! – McDonald’s, just to have a taste of home. It’s funny because these were the sorts of places that I looked down my foodie nose at back in the States – places that were too “mainstream,” not to mention unhealthy. But the first few weeks here, we didn’t know of any places besides the big chain restaurants, and sometimes I was really homesick and just wanted to be somewhere that reminded me of home, even if it meant that I had to eat hamburgers the size of my head.

Luckily for us and our waistlines, we discovered Olala not long after we came here, and were thrilled. The French cuisine at Olala is authentic and fantastic, with a cozy ambience and friendly staff.

For 1000NT, you can get a set meal that comes with a soup, salad, entrée, dessert and coffee/tea. I recommend going for this option, since unlike some other restaurants that have it so that you don’t have a choice of the entrée in a set meal, at Olala you can pick your entrée off the regular menu. You definitely get more bang for your buck this way.

Usually I’ll order the special set meal of the day, which doesn’t include soup but does include a pasta. My husband likes the duck confit, so he almost always orders that. The last time we went though, I ended up ordering the duck confit and he got the special set meal of the day.

Carrot soup with creme fraiche.


Romaine and frisee salad.


The skin on my duck confit was nice and crispy, and the meat was so tender that it just fell off the bone when you cut into it.


Here’s Luke’s steak and frites, cooked "si fen so" (medium rare). Last time he ordered his steak "wu fen so," (medium) and he said it's better "si fen so."


For dessert I had the crepe flambee with a scoop of strawberry ice-cream, and Luke had the crème brulee. As an added bonus, the ice-cream was from Movenpick, which happens to be my favorite brand of ice-cream here.




Oh, and they also have special nights that feature salsa and other kinds of dancing. I think they might have lessons on those nights as well. We’ve never been to any of those, but maybe we’ll check it out sometime.

Olala
Ren Ai Road, Section 4, No. 371*
(02) 2773 – 9577

*I would recommend calling for directions; it might be a little bit hard to find the first time you go, since it’s a little hard to spot it from Ren Ai.