Italian-US chain restaurants are not new to Taipei, but over the years the menus at some of the long-serving joints have become rather, well, boring. After all, one can only eat the same meal a certain number of times before it becomes more of a chore than a pleasure to dine on.
While I won't name or shame here, I will happily point diners looking for something new on the Italian-American food front in the direction of Taipei's latest restaurant, Romano's Macaroni Grill. Opened in late June on the ground floor of the Neo 19 shopping mall adjacent to the Warner Village multiplex, the restaurant offers a pleasing alternative for those looking to wine and dine and enjoy on-the-ball service in a pleasant Western-style dining environment.
The menu isn't huge and the variety of meals isn't going to break any records, but what there is should suffice for anyone looking for large portions of well presented and tasty appetizers, grilled meats and pastas.
PHOTO: GAVIN PHIPPS, TAIPEI TIMES
Appetizers include the old favorite mozzarella alla caprese (NT$380) and mushroom ravioli (NT$340) as well Romano's sampler, which for NT$400 allows patrons to nibble on a selection of tasty bar-style nibbles. Although it's not a steak house the joint's grilled dishes, like the Tuscan rib-eye (NT$980) and the filet padano with truffle demi glaze (NT$930), are popular.
It's the pasta and risotto dishes, however, that really impress. Whether it's the green but wonderfully healthy and satisfying sauteed shrimp and scallop pesto and asparagus risotto (NT$580), the wholesome chicken rigatoni (NT$460) or the rich veal marsala served with mushrooms and capellini pasta (NT$680), all hit the spot.
Along with the standard menu, Macaroni's also offers family set meals. Costing NT$3,200 the meal gives diners three courses and is enough to feed five.
There are only a handful of desserts on the menu but any one of them should meet your requirements if you have a sweet tooth.
In addition to the food, Romano's Macaroni Grill also boasts a pretty good selection of North American wines and even serves live opera in the evenings, when a female singer strolls around the joint once every 15 minutes or so and belts out well-known arias from famous operas.
A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery. The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry,” according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue center” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to
They were four years old, 15 or only seven months when they were sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald and Ravensbruck. Some were born there. Somehow they survived, began their lives again and had children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren themselves. Now in the evening of their lives, some 40 survivors of the Nazi camps tell their story as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most notorious of the death camps. In 15 countries, from Israel to Poland, Russia to Argentina, Canada to South Africa, they spoke of victory over absolute evil. Some spoke publicly for the first
RSS