Taipei Station Cafe

I've been hearing rave reviews about this place from multiple people. However, I've also heard bad reviews... mainly my sister and my parents, who I totally trust when it comes to Chinese food. So I was skeptical, but I needed to try it for myself. I also heard that there's always a line, the service is really slow (and not very good), and that they're closed on Sundays and Mondays. Well... that doesn't really work for me since I'm not in the area on the weekdays, and Saturdays are usually already packed with other activities.

Taipei Station Cafe
930 W. Parker Rd. Ste. 410
Plano, Texas 75075
(972) 423-7576
Price: $-$$

One Saturday, my fiance's morning plans fell through so we were able to go check this place out right before it opened its doors. We arrived at around 10:55AM. There were already 2 people waiting in front. I think we waited for at least 20 minutes before they opened the door. Their listed hours says 11AM but according to the 2 people in front of us, they never open on time. By the time we went in, there were around 4-5 other parties waiting to go in. We were seated immediately. The place is more like a hole in the wall. Random decor, the chairs and tables were not anything fancy. But I wasn't expecting it to be anything more anyways. I'm here for the food! :P

We looked through the menu. I liked that they showed a lot of pictures of the different dishes. I wanted to try a bunch of different things, but 11AM is way too early for lunch typically so neither of us were really that hungry. We decided to be good and just order one thing each. 

OH YEA... it's CASH only!! So make sure you hit up the ATM before going.

#R03 Marinated Chicken Over Rice. He wanted to try a rice dish but didn't want anything fried, so I said this was a good choice. It was a big plate, lots of chicken. The chicken was a tad greasy but very tender and juicy. Careful of the bones! :P It was pretty good and definitely very filling.

#N03 Spicy Beef Stewed Noodle. 

 

This was at the top of my list. My next choice was the Chinese Style Bean Paste noodle, which is usually one of my favorites. But everyone hyped up the beef noodle soup, saying how legit it is, so I had to try it. It was a big bowl, with lots of tender beef. I liked the texture of the beef a lot. The noodles were the wide, hand-pulled kind. My favorite. It was slightly softer than I would've liked but just slightly. I enjoyed the noodles a lot. As far as flavor goes... it was good! Comparable to King's Noodle and Mian Cuisine (I can't say anyone is better than the other.) I don't know why my family would say it was terrible (although both my mom and sister are a lot more picky than I am...). My sister had said the soup was too sweet, which I can kind of see. The tomatoes made the broth slightly sweet. And she doesn't like the sweet and savory combo. But I do. I could taste the spiciness, which was important. My only complaint (aside from the slightly softer noodles) is that it's quite greasy. I could feel a layer of greasy developing inside my mouth the more I ate. Definitely drank a lot of tea during this meal! But I would eat this again.

So... pretty good experience here. Not the most fantastic food, but with limited Taiwanese food in Dallas, I'd say it's up there. I definitely have to go back and try other dishes though.

Now to the other aspects of the meal. The waiters are hit or miss. There seemed to be one guy that knew more than others. We had ordered hot waters at first, which they brought out in mugs. When we ordered the food, we also ordered a pot of tea. They brought the tea with no cups and wanted to dump out the hot water and give us back our existing mugs. I said I wanted to keep my water. They took that as me saying I don't want tea. They never brought me another cup. I had to go up to the counter later and ask them to pour the water out... Really? No extra cups to spare? But again, it's a Chinese place... can't say I'm surprised. -__- Sigh...

I was also excited to know that they do an afternoon tea thing between lunch and dinner. All the desserts looked so amazing on the menu. However, I went up to the counter where they kept all the desserts and it looked terrible. The place just opened but all the desserts look like they've been there for several days. I'm assuming they keep the cakes until they sell out. Ew... I guess I won't be doing afternoon tea there anytime soon.

Oh well, some pluses and some negatives. The main thing is the food was good. Not sure when's the next opportunity is to go and not have to wait in line, but I'll probably go again.

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~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~