Le Palais, Taipei

Le Palais Restaurant, Taipei (NTD 3278, 4/3/2019, 8-Course incl. Taxes & Gratuity)

頤宮 (yee gong) is the Chinese name of Le Palais. The 1^st character means “nurturing with healthy and tasty food” and the 2^nd character means “the palace”. Together, they mean “the Palace of Nurturing”.

Le Palais is on the seventeenth (top) floor of the Palais de Chine hotel, nearby Taipei Train Station, in the Datong district of central Taipei. Despite its French name it has a broad a la carte menu serving dim sums, chef’s specials, Abalone and Bird’s Nests soup (an ultra-pricy item), Cantonese traditional and fine Cantonese banquet dishes with an emphasis on nurturing health, flavors and fine ingredients. In addition, there are 7 sets of Tasting menus ranging from NTD 2948 to NTD 16280, the two most expensive Tasting menus are named special Michelin 3-Star Set Menu and distinctively marked with 3 Michelin stars on the menu. Each of these Tasting menus has different price and with one or two dishes different from what on other menus. There are a couple of Le Palais signature dishes that need to be pre-ordered – the Cantonese style Crispy Roast Duck, Crispy Roasted Baby Duck, Barbecue Pork and Crispy Deep-Fried Chicken.

Helmed by head chef Ken Chan, originally coming from Hong Kong and became head chef in 2010, and hotel executive chef Matt Chen who joined Le Palais in 2017.

After being in operation since 2010, Le Palais was awarded 3 Michelin Stars in both the inaugural Michelin Guide Taiwan 2018 and 2019. There was suspicion of Michelin’s inaugural guide for Taipei because it taking sponsorship from the Taiwanese government.

Le Palais resembles a tastefully created East-meets-West design set in royal purple accentuated by emerald and black, and lustrous brass, dark steel, golds and mirrored ceilings. In its opulent ambiance with traditional touches of oriental ceramic arts, calligraphy and Chinese paintings, the place looks chic and classy, and high class. It reminds me of “Sketch” in London decorated in a more westernized flavor.

The interior of Le Palais was set up with private rooms and public dining room. Private rooms are around the perimeter monopolizing the exterior view, while the public dining room inside has no real exterior view. However, the interior designer cleverly made each table set in its own screened off area and devised a window behind each table which provided an illusion of an exterior view. The restaurant does not use any tablecloth, instead sets the table with placemat which are matched by the Chinese painting and calligraphy on the table wares.

I have studied all Le Palais menus three times before I came up with the decision to choose the 8- Course Tasting Menu priced NTD 2980 + 10% because it offered the best value. I inquired my server; he agreed with my conclusion. Throughout my 20 years of fine dining experience in Europe and US, I have not come across any Tasting Menu with a base price > $500. I need to convince myself of the worthiness at Le Palais by trying out a more moderate set menu initially. As I was ordering, I also found out that Le Palais’ set menus didn't offer any Amuse Bouche.

Before the 1^st course started, there was a small glass of red-orange color of tea served. It was Roselle-Hibiscus tea, sometimes people called it vinegar because of its sour taste. It was served to help guests to open the palette.

1^st Course – Roast Suckling Pig

I had Roast Suckling Pig in Northern Spain a few times. But I have never had such a cute portion of Suckling Pig. I noticed the cracked line on the skin, I knew right away this would be a succulent and crispy piece.  It was comprised 3 parts – skin, meat and sauce, and steamed pancake (陈饼).

My server informed me the prep work started the night before, requiring marinating the whole pig in the special house-made sauce overnight. Then, roasted on charcoal tank/oven for about an hour until the skin was golden brown. Chef preferred to use piglet weighed no more than 9 kilo.

When the dish was ready to serve, removed the excess fat under the skin and placed a good piece of lean meat under the skin.

At the bottom of the serving, there was a small steamed pancake made with white flour slightly fermented by natural yeast.  

Decoration was minimal, with rocks at the bottom and bamboo leave nicely slanted on the side of the bowl. Sauce was house modified by thinning out soy bean paste which often used for the duck sauce.

Skin was the best part, delicious and crispy. The overall taste with the sauce and piglet’s tender meat was a real treat.

2^nd Course – Chicken Soup with Fish Maw

It required two lengthy preparation for this dish – the soup part and the fish maw.

Soup was made of brown rice, dry scallop, old chicken and the Brazilian mushroom.  Although the medicinal mushroom was originally from the Brazilian rain forest, it is currently cultivated commercially for the health food market in Japan, China and Brazil. It has been shown to have the anti-infection, anti-tumor, anti-allergic/-asthmatic properties in mouse models, in addition to anti-inflammatory effect in inflammatory bowel disease patients. Broiled soup for 4 hours until rice grains dissolved. Strained other ingredients and kept the healthy thick and smooth soup.

Separately, prepared fish maw which is the dried form of fish air bladders, preferably deep sea large fish like croaker and sturgeon. It has no fishy taste and absorbs the flavors of other ingredients. It is graded according to sex: male bladders are better than female ones. Fish maw contains rich proteins and nutrients such as phosphor and calcium. It nourishes “yin”, replenishes kidney and boosts stamina. It is effective in healing weak lung and kidney, anemia, etc. The preparation started with soaking fish maw for about 2 hours and boiled for 2 hours before mixing it with the brown rice-based soup. Half an hour before serving, adding a good piece of boneless chicken meat.

This hearty soup was made with a goal of nurturing on health and taste, just like its Chinese name 頤宮stands for.

3^rd Course – Stir-Fried Prawns and Scallop Muscles

Scallop was from Hokkaido, Japan. It was seared first before broiled to half-done. It was succulent, fresh, sweet, tasty and tender.

Prawn was a good size, farm-raised. It was peeled, poached, then stir-fried in XO. Still scallop was tastier because it was wild scallop from Hokkaido. I wish Le Palais has chosen prawn from Costa Brava region of Spain.

Asparagus was from US, poached then sautéed. Together and adorned with a piece of red pepper.

4^th Course – Braised Abalone (6 head) with Shitake Mushroom

There are three grades of abalone – 1^st being the dry abalone requires soaking; 2^nd being the canned abalone; 3^rd being the fresh/frozen ones. In this course, it was the 2nd grade abalone. There are three grades of mushroom - 花菇, 冬菇 and厚菇 (They look almost alike except the appearance and fragrance). The type being used in this course was the 2^nd grade. “6 head” abalone refer to the size of abalone, the size served in this course would fit 6 heads in a can.

The preparation started with braising abalone in soup made with old chicken, pork, chicken feet and house-made ingredients for a few hours until abalone was tender enough to serve.

Chef came to the table side to deliver the final touch by making the special house-made sauce incorporating oyster sauce and other ingredients. In addition, a cute looking diamond shaped, two-color toned cauliflower adorned the dish.

Abalone was delicious, tender and with the right texture. In Asian culture, abalone has long been appreciated for its healthy benefits, including healthy eyes and skin.

5^th Course – Steamed Grouper with Ginger and Sea Salt

The type of fish serve in this course was very special, it was a hybrid of Giant Grouper and Brown Marbled Grouper, farm raised. The Giant Grouper, being the largest bony fish found in coral reefs, has been famous for its smooth and elastic-tasting skin and the Brown Marbled Grouper has been famous for its smooth and elastic-tasting flesh. Therefore, the hybrid offers both. If you know how blue fish tasted like, you know blue fish’s flesh and skin are both not elastic-tasting.

Fish was steamed with 80% done, nicely moisture and tender, garnished with chopped scallion and finely chopped ginger which added a nice touch of sharpness. At the bottom of the plate, it was a piece of turnip cake. This was a rather unusual combination. Turnip cake has been a traditional dim sum item, and usually served in pan seared style. However, it was very tasty and flavorful in this course probably due to its fine quality ingredients including cured Chinese ham, dry shrimp, julienned daikon, daikon juice and rice powder. In addition, lightened brown sauce was prepared in conjunction with steamed fish sauce and turnip sauce. It was a well-balanced dish.

6^th Course – Braised Spinach with Salty Egg and Preserved Egg

Firstly, spinach was sautéed with garlic, I noticed the slightly browned garlic in the bowl. Only the yolk of the salty egg was used probably the egg white part often was too overwhelmingly salty. But, the whole egg of preserved egg was used. Eggs were diced and mixed with spinach before the thickened scrambled egg white sauce was sprinkled right on the top. It was a dish for palette transition. In addition, a similar dish using watercress was made into dumpling on the dim sum menu.

7^th Course – Daikon Radish Puff Pastry

Traditionally, daikon radish pastry requires two types of doughs, one oil based and the other water based. Chef at Le Palais went extra step to refine the texture by using two different types of flour as well as two different bases for the doughs – one low-glutton flour and one medium-glutton flour. Each of the two types of dough were rolled flat, placed intersperse and rolled flat again. Repeat the process at least twice before making individual wrapping. The crust in this course was super crunchy and flaky probably because of the impact of different types of flour and chef’s technique.

The traditional daikon radish pastry usually contains filling on the dry side because extra sauce would make the exterior crust soggy. However, the daikon filing in this course was so tasty and moisture and crust was so flaky. The best radish pastry brioche that I have ever had.

8^th Course – Almond Milk with Sesame Rice Balls

Almond milk was made from three different types of almonds – Northern almonds (bitterness), Southern almonds (sweetness) and dragon king almonds (fragrance). The manager emphasized that the portion of each type of almond used was a house secret. In general, the Southern almonds have a bit sweet taste and the Northern almonds have a bit bitter taste. Almonds can help suppressing coughs, cleansing intestinal system. However, it is advisable not to eat too much of the Northern almonds.

After each of three types of almonds were grinded into milk and boiled, almond milk was served with a cooked gluttonous rice ball filled with molten lava-type black sesame fillings. The richness of almond milk and the black sesame fragrance on my taste bud made me yearning for more. It was a wonderful desert. 

Le Palais’ menu configuration is rather unconventional, different from all other European Michelin 3-Star restaurants. The European Michelin 3-Star restaurants usually do not mark any particular set of Tasting Menu with Stars. I have made inquiries of the significance of the “stars” marked on two sets of menus, the management dodged my question and elusively replied “due to the different ingredients used and the different customer needs, there is a difference in the menu name and price.”

Although Michelin stars are only awarded for the food on the plate, the interior décor, service and table setting have a profound impact on our perception and enjoyment of the meal. In this regard, Le Palais is definitely a unique experience.