Le Palais: Taipei’s Longest-Standing 3 Michelin Star // Taipei, Taiwan
Located on the top floor of the Palais de Chine hotel, near Taipei’s Main Station, Le Palais was Taiwan’s only only three-star Michelin restaurant for five consecutive years, before Taïrroir won three stars this year. They serve Chinese cuisine (despite their French name), and are helmed by a chef from Hong Kong.
Before going, we read a lot of reviews questioning the star rating, saying that it wasn’t really worth the visit. Despite hoping the restaurant would live up to the hype given that it’s run by a Hongkonger (aka, my people), it only lived up to three-star standards in price, not in flavor or creativity.
Ambience
The hotel’s exterior is a modern complex with a giant “Palais de Chine” sign that’s hard to miss from the road. The interior is a little more sophisticated, with a large lobby and elevators that take you up to the 17th floor.
Once there, the restaurant is quite dark, and all the booths are well-separated so as to not disturb the others around you. There were other dining areas that were more large banquet hall style, but we didn’t enter those, so I can’t speak to their feeling. The booth we sat in was lovely, and the light directly overhead illuminated the food well, but maintained a sense of privacy.
The Menu
The menu is a very standard Chinese banquet hall style menu. The first half is a la carte, with dimsum starting at NT$380 (~$12). Theoretically, you could walk out with just that, and Le Palais would be one of the cheapest three-star restaurants you could dine at.
The second half is their set menus, which range from NT$4,880+10% ($153.73 + 10%) to their Michelin 3-Star Set Menu, NT$24,880+10% ($783.80 + 10%), making Le Palais one of the most expensive three-star restaurants you could dine at.
We went in intending to order a set menu, but decided at the restaurant to order a la carte instead so we could try some of their signature items (which include roast duck, barbecue pork, and stuffed white gourd), many of which are not offered in an individual set menu.
Amuse-bouche
Vinegar
This red drinking vinegar was meant to stir our hunger, and it definitely worked. It was fresh and delightful, and if you’re heading to Le Palais, you should definitely try it before knocking it for being vinegar. (16/20)
Pickled Tomatoes with Lychee Jellies
We were a little confused when this was presented, but these tomatoes were skinless, pickled, and burst of fun in the mouth. The lychee jellies also offset the acidity of the tomatoes. M doesn’t like tomatoes, so didn’t like this dish, but I found it amusing. (12/20)
Drinks
Longan Herbal Tea
Le Palais has both a tea and a wine menu, but we opted for tea, having drank a lot the week before. The tea menu is beautiful, with detailed descriptions of each tea, including origin, aroma, color, and taste. They have both caffeinated and non-caffeinated options, which I both deeply appreciated and opted for.
We chose the Longan Herbal Tea, and it was beautiful, a perfect pairing for our meal. It is also unlimited and they refilled our cups throughout the evening — my cup never went empty. The lid for the teacup also kept the tea warm, and they set the teapot on a flame so it was always piping hot. This is a place that knows their tea. (18/20)
However, I wish we had known the tea was unlimited because we then wouldn’t have ordered water, which we drank very little of, and which was $15 (NT$420). Heads up if you go.
Dimsum
Steamed Chicken Dumplings Topped with Abalone (Siu Mai, left)
Both of these dishes were NT$680 (~$22) for their 3 pieces, making each bite almost $7, or $3.5 if you ate it in two bites. While the abalone here was good, it wasn’t mind blowing. And it was more pork than mushroom, which threw me a little off. (14/20)
Palais de Chine Steamed King Prawn Dumplings (Har Gow, right)
Again, definitely above average but not mind blowing. The flavors were good, and the skin (really hard to get right on har gow) was some of the best I’ve ever had — nice and thin, beautifully folded. The shrimp was a little too chunky inside, though, and for this price, I expected more. (14/20)
Daikon Radish Puff Pastry
These were a recommendation from our server, and came out so beautifully. Buttery, flaky, warm, and filling in the mouth. The daikon inside is shredded, and it crumbles nicely — a really fun take on daikon. It felt Cantonese and nostalgic, but I had never had anything like it. M also thought it was unique but lacking flavor (which I agreed with). We agreed that it was nice to try once but we probably wouldn’t order it again. (14/20)
Mains
Roast Duck
Many of this restaurant’s signature dishes have to be ordered ahead of time, and this flaming roast duck is no exception. It serves 3-4 people, and because we didn’t expect to order a la carte, we didn’t notify them. This is definitely the dish here, though. The spectacle value is quite high.
Fortunately for us, they had extra roast baby ducks (probably made for under-prepared people like us), which serves 1-2 people, so we settled for that instead.
Roast Baby Duck
They first present the duck whole on the table, then take it away to cut him up. They don’t light him on fire, though, so we just enjoyed all that spectacle at various tables around us. While the duck was being prepared, they read us a beautiful poem about the duck.
Then they cut up the duck and served him to us.
The server explained that their baby ducks are 26-28 days old, and they had a really nice flavor. Unfortunately, the skin could have been crispier, and it was difficult to eat it off the bone — maybe less wasteful, but not a three-star experience. The poem reading was really nice, and the duck was not overly fatty, an issue many ducks suffer. In general, we felt that it was good, but we’ve had better (eg. at Nan Bei in Bangkok). (16/20)
Stir-Fried Grouper Filet with Vegetables
This dish was almost $100, so it was quite difficult to look past the price. The flavors were very Cantonese — not overly flavorful or spiced. If you don’t like Cantonese flavors, this restaurant is definitely not the place for you. Even as someone who loves Cantonese food, I thought this dish was underwhelming. The grouper was beautifully cooked, but I didn’t love the skin of it, and the veggies, though fresh and really beautiful, were slightly undercooked. (13/20)
Spicy Wok-Fried Duck Bone with Garlic
The roast baby duck comes with a second preparation and our server recommended this wok-fried option (over the Duck Porridge or Duck Soup). This was much more interesting than either two previous dishes, but pretty difficult to eat (it was mostly bones) and fatty. The fried garlic, though was delicious, and it wasn’t overly spicy. (15/20)
Jasmine Tea
We all know that Taiwanese tea is the best, and this was no exception. It was very floral on the nose, and an excellent palate cleanser. Really good tea. (18/20)
Dessert
Deep-Fried Cheese Pastry (炸豆腐奶 | Fried Tofu Milk)
We were very confused when this was first served. This is the dessert served in the Michelin tasting menu?? It looks and tastes a bit like an elephant ear you get at an American county fair.
They cut it in half for us, and I clearly got the bottom half because M’s had almost nothing in it, and mine was stuffed with the cheese/milk. It was okay, just strange. (13/20)
Gifts
We almost asked if we could take this baby plant to go as well, but decided against it. It was nice of them to gift us some tea, though, as their tea was excellent, and clearly sourced very well.
Service
We read really negative reviews about the service, but I didn’t find that to be true. Our server had good recommendations and was always ready to answer questions or offer suggestions as we needed them. Our teas were also always kept full and they checked in on us appropriately. They even read a poem for us and took photos for us during and after the meal. My only nitpick was that they didn’t really explain the dishes, which I would have loved.
The dinnerware also felt generic, though most of it was branded. I guess it’s more in line with the traditional style they were going for. (18/20)
Bathroom
This bathroom is beautiful, with a massive center expanse and rooms to the sides. They also provide mouth wash and hand towels. (18/20)
Final Thoughts
5 years ago, this might have been okay as Taipei’s only 3-Star restaurant. But the Taipei food scene has evolved and developed so much, the very traditional style maintained here will be hard to continue to lure people to over other options.
I struggled to find the food here better than Michelin-Starred Cantonese food in Hong Kong, such as Lung King Heen, which recently lost a star. And the prices are borderline astronomical for Taiwan.
We paid NTD$11,150, or $353.00 ($176.50pp), for a few a la carte items, tea and water. I think this is some of the worst value in Taipei. To conclude, I’d say food was 14/20, ambience was 18/20, service was XX/20, and value for money was 10/20. Overall, 14/20, but with so many other amazing Taiwanese fine dining options we probably won’t be back anytime soon.
