Location: Taipei L'ATELIER de Joël Robuchon (Michelin three-star chef)
Travel notes summary: General Manager Liang returned from China and invited Morgan for dinner tonight. I thought about booking at the recently opened Mandarin Oriental Hotel, where a night’s stay costs nearly 20,000 TWD, but both the Italian restaurant Bencotto and the French restaurant COCO were fully booked until late June. So, I switched to this restaurant opened in Taipei by Robuchon, the youngest chef ever to earn three Michelin stars. Strictly speaking, Taiwan doesn’t have any Michelin-starred restaurants yet, but several boast chefs with Michelin stars, and Robuchon is one of the highest-rated and earliest to arrive (November 2009). It’s located on the fifth floor of Bellavita; last time I was here, I ate at the premium hot pot restaurant “He” on the fourth floor, so I found it easily. The concept is to let guests enjoy French cuisine casually, with a counter-style setup inspired by Japanese cuisine, allowing diners to watch the chefs in action. But since it’s still French dining, after saying goodbye to Xiaoping, I put on a shirt and Ecco dress shoes for a formal meal. A French sommelier helped us choose…
