I’m always on the lookout for small, unknown restaurants which might pleasantly surprise you with some excellent food. Artarmon isn’t an area I am at too often, but I happened to be in the area with my friend the other week. She told me she had recently gone to Taipei Chef, and since we were in the area we decided to grab lunch there.
Situated about a street away from Artarmon train station is Taipei Chef, a small restaurant which serves a variety of Taiwanese and Chinese food. A quick glance at the menu shows some classic homely dishes. It isn’t too busy today during lunch time but there is still a slow flow of takeaway customers. There are only two of us dining today and we choose two types of noodles along with an entree.
Deep Fried Sweet Potato Plum Powder – $4
To start us off, my friend recommends this sweet potato dish. It is essentially tempura sweet potato soldiers. They are cooked well with a lovely sweet potato flavour – the inside is soft and the outside is a bit crispy. In addition to this, plum powder is sprinkled softly on top which gives it an extra kick of flavour – probably the best sweet potato ‘chips’ I have ever had!
Taiwan Noodle with Hot and Sour Soup – $10
My noodle dish comes out in 5 minutes which is a very impressive service time. It consists of lots of noodles in soup, accompanied with assorted vegetables and pork. The soup is thick and very hot and I have to eat it slowly to avoid burning my mouth. I find that the soup is very peppery as well, leaving a spicy lingering taste on my tongue. I think it would have tasted better if it had a bit more ‘sour’ than ‘hot’, but regardless it’s a tasty dish.
Taiwan Style Noodle Broth – $10
The next bowl of noodles goes to my friend and she didn’t finish it so I finished it for her…(shh I’m a fatty :D). The soup is very peppery, quite similar to my bowl of noodles, however it has a seafood/mushroom base flavour. I actually much prefer this noodle soup over my own as I find it a lot more flavoursome.
Overall, although I didn’t try that many of their dishes, my impressions of Taipei Chef were positive. The dishes are very affordable, the noodle soups hot and tasty and oh man those sweet potato chips are definitely worth going back for!
Taipei Chef Restaurant
1A Broughton Road,
Artarmon, NSW 2064
Ph: (02) 9419 7719
