Tresors de la Mer restaurant at AADC. Look at those uniforms! Second-hand embarrassment.
Reservations
We had our hotel concierge make the reservation for us, and we ended up with an 8:30pm reservation on a Sunday night in outdoor seating. Initially I was apprehensive about the outdoor seating (because it was hot and humid as balls), but it was actually quite lovely! There was an air conditioning vent nearby and we had a great view of people below eating their charcoal grilled food on a big patio.
Menu? NOPE. In terms of a menu, you will not find one online or in any reviews (apart from pictures of a leathery drink menu) because I don't think they have one. They have tanks of seafood at the entrance, and a chalkboard with some things written on it that I could not read (maybe one of you could translate and give me the gist? haha).
For those able to read Chinese, this is probably pertinent information.
Ordering
Fresh seafood tanks in front of Tresors de la Mer
We were greeted by a sharply dressed man (possible a maitre d) who spoke perfect English, and gave the impression of being extremely cosmopolitan. They probably prepared for this when they took down the reservation for "Mr Purner" (NB: They butchered my husband's last name).
The host sashayed towards the tanks and asked us what we wanted to eat, pointing to one thing after another, rapid-fire style. He asked if we wanted sashimi. Considering the omakase we had just had the night prior, I said we didn't want sushi, or hot pot for that matter.
Geoducks. I declined.
Cute prawns
I came prepared (as I always do to any establishment that I intend to eat at) and whipped out my iPhone and showed him pictures of food I had found while perusing the internets (LINKS AHOY! If you are as illiterate as me, you can use the same tactic by googling the Chinese name of this restaurant and saving pictures of whatever strikes your fancy: Peray1, The Thousandth Girl, Tricky Taipei.com, Edninja @ Pixnet, Anrtifafa, Luckbear123, Mobile01, Maverick Huang).
Some things were either out of season or sold out. The scallops were all sold out :( He even asked about "next door", so I guess when they run out of seafood in the tanks, they try to replenish from the main building. As an alternative, he asked if we'd like abalone instead (smooth upsell attempt there), but we declined saying we had had abalone 4 nights in a row already (how's that for baller). Usually we are pretty easy going when it comes to food, but given the selection they had, and how quickly our host went through the various options, we felt totally fine saying "mehhh", "No", "something else" to many of his suggestions. He didn't seem phased by it either!
This employee was showing this crab to a family, but he was moving so fast I couldn't get a great shot of it, lol!
We finally completed our seafood selections, and he asked what (obligatory, if you're Chinese, YKWIM) vegetable we wanted. There was a display of veggies near the tanks (you can see it in the first picture of my post). He held up a bunch of asparagus (in the way that one might display a prize from the Price is Right). Cory hates asparagus, so we shook our heads. Next, he held up a head of broccoli. We both love broccoli, but I didn't come all the way to Taiwan to eat frickin' broccoli. Next, he held up a bushel of something vaguely chive-looking. Unrecognizable food? WE'LL TAKE IT.
He put in our order for us, and send us upstairs with a card:
We were given this card with our number and # of seats and then headed upstairs and handed it to an employee.
We were seated, ordered some drinks (Asahi is only 100 TWD a bottle, so, drink up) and waited for our grub!
Cory is excited to eat!
So am I!
First up, a super yummy fried fish with some pepper and salt to dip into
Delicious fried fish!
Fishhead-sucking good!
Our mystery seasonal greens!
One of the pictures I showed to our host to order, fricking delicious!
At this point, we decided we probably wanted another fish since our first was so yummy. I flagged down a waiter, who apparently had 0 English skills. They sent a more capable waitress to us, and I showed her a picture of a fish that looked good from my internet research. She ran down to see what they had (I asked for a smaller sized fish), but said the only one they had left was enormous (she held her hands about a foot and a half apart). She said she'd suggest some other fish to us, and that it would be good. We decided to trust her, and put in our order for 1 mystery fish!
In the meantime, our crab came! Cory and I aren't fond of crab roe, and I just KNEW our waitress would make a comment that we hadn't eaten ours. She said, in English, "Ummmm, this is really delicious!", but I said we tried it and didn't really like it. She volunteered, "Too salty?", to which I responded the Chinese sound "Mmnn" (you know, the smile-and-nod sound Chinese people make? That one.)
Our delicious wee crab
Here cometh our mystery fish!
A pan-fried fish. Oily like mackerel, but super tasty. Loved the lime with it.
Fresh fruit dessert - passionfruit, pineapple and guava. Man, I don't really like guava. It doesn't taste like anything to me!
Finally, our bill came. THAT IS CHEAP, MAN (about $55 USD including a 10% tip). Totally impressed, given the extremely delicious stuff we ate.
Maybe you can reverse engineer what the hell we ordered.
Bottom Line: If you like seafood and are looking for a good time, definitely come here! I had such a memorable dinner. get your hotel to make reservations, and if you want some English help, make the reservation with a foreign name. Booyah!
Basic Information:
Tresors de la Mer 上引水產 (Shàng yǐn zhǔ hǎi)
Address: 台北市民族東路 410 巷 2 弄 20 號 2 樓
Addiction Aquatic Development Center
2EN FLOOR, NO 20, LANE 2, 410 ALLEY, MINZU EAST ROAD, TAIPEI, TAIWAN
Phone: 02-2508-1268 Ext 233-234
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