I was invited to the premiere of Taste of Taiwan at Nao Steakhouse, which followed the travels of three chefs on a exciting culinary journey through the beautiful islands.  And, of course there was a little promotion by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau: a few reasons why one should visit this paradise of wonders.  The evening was interesting, sampling a few passed around bites from the kitchen that wet my blogger appetite – so much so I had to come back and explore the real meat off the menu.

  

Inside the decor is luxurious, modern with an old school edge to it.  Large, richly coloured art, metallic panelled mirrors, and oh you know that “Yorkville Flare” lavishly impressed even the die-hard-rain-cloud.  Unfortunately beauty fades and ignorance is a (restaurant) death sentence.

The tablespoon of bone marrow is totally overpowered by oversaturated olive oil housemade focaccia and celery salad with fresh wasabi.  Fluke with ponza is so boring that the spiced rayu and mamiji oroshi doesn’t have a chance. Sides are hardly above average: Togarashi thinly-cut fries served with a house made spicy ketchup and seasonal pickled, crispy, roasted, rayu mushrooms

  

Finally,  lets talk about the issue of the evening.  The steak is a Canadian prime Alberta, dry aged 40+ days 16oz rib eye ($55).   This is what happened. I ordered the rib eye and when the server arrived he said “here is your striploin”, to which I replied,  “I ordered a ribeye, what do you mean?”, and he said “I meant to say ribeye…”.  I spent rest of the evening trying to convince my server and the kitchen they brought me the wrong steak – which they denied.

The kitchen insisted it was a ribeye and clearly they didn’t know or understand how stupid they looked trying to convince me the pen was red when it clearly was blue.  After a post on Instagram and Twitter, my followers backed my position that they messed up and were trying to cover it up.  No offense NAO steakhouse… Well maybe a bit, because it’s not cool to lie to a customer.