A Housewife’s Tale

V & I had a quick dinner at Tai Pan (her favourite restaurant because her aunt owns the place). Normally we have dim sum so I was quite excited to head over for dinner because I have heard good things about their non dim sum items.

The restaurant is bright, nicely decorated and looked really clean~

Menu is simple 2 pages with a list of appetisers, soups, meat, seafood, rice/noodles and desserts

There is also a set menu for those who are unsure about what to order:

We ordered:

Crab Meat Fish Maw Soup $12

This soup had great consistency and generous amounts of crab meat and fish maw. It was a little bland and did not taste very developed.

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Spicy XO Lamb $16

I absolutely loved this dish. Tai Pan has one of the best in-house made hot sauce and XO sauce. It was shrimpy, spicy and salty. The lamb was so tender and not the least bit game-y. It was so tender one could mistake it for beef. The leeks were tasty as well with a light crunch.

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Walnut Prawn $15

The prawns were lightly coated in rice flour and then deep fried and tossed in a sweet mayo sauce. The prawns were cooked well, still very tender and juicy but the texture was like those of frozen prawns which I was not crazy about. It was still very very tasty with the hot sweet walnuts that surprisingly melts in the mouth from the frying.

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Mu Shu Veg $13

The Mu Shu Vegetable is a stirfry of cabbage, carrots, wood ear mushrooms, onions & chicken. It is then used to create a little roll with the home-made crepes, hoisin sauce and hot sauce.

The filling was sweet & salty with bits of soft and crunchy vegetables giving it great texture. The crepes were warm and a little doughy.

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Extras:

Rice $1.50
2 Teas @ $2 each

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Total Damage: $82 (including tax & tip)

Personal Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (very good)

There is no doubt that the food at Tai Pan is top notch BUT it is very price-y which is quite expected since the restaurant in located in downtown Palo Alto. If it wasn’t for V, I prolly won’t eat here as much as I do because there is very good food around South Bay for at least 40% less.

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Tai Pan

(650) 329-9168