I’ll be honest. My visit to Ximending Taiwanese Restaurant at Vivocity was a disappointment. The food that we had was pretty good, but the service from the manager was atrocious.

If you have been reading my blog, I’m sure you’d know that I only blog about restaurants that give a positive dining experience.  I always believe that bloggers must be responsible, and not publish any accusations which might potentially hurt somebody. Restaurants are running a business afterall, and it is difficult to please everyone since we all have different likings.

That said, I decided to blog about this because we enjoyed the food, though, it was a shame that we didn’t exactly had a great time overall.

Right from the start when we first took the menu, the manager persistently persuaded us to go for the pricier items though we had politely refused and specified we only wanted those that we ordered. After placing our order, we asked for ice water and he told us that they only serve it upon request. And again, he tried to convince us to order from the drinks menu. He reluctantly served us ice water after we told him repeatedly and firmly that we didn’t want any drinks from the menu.

Anyway, back to the food. Ximending restaurant’s menu (most dishes are under $20) has quite a few options, and it took us a while before deciding on what to order.

We tried the Taiwanese Salt & Pepper Chicken – a popular Taiwanese street food; Radish & Egg Pancake ($10) – a must-try dish to go along with Taiwanese porridge; and the signature Taiwanese Three Cup (san bei) Chicken ($17.9). We also ordered the Stewed Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables ($9.9), but they only informed us that it was sold-out after we’ve almost finished all our food.

All in all, Ximending restaurant has pretty good Taiwanese food at decent prices, but the service was a let-down. Given that we do not have many Taiwanese restaurants in Singapore, the only places to satisfy my cravings for Taiwanese food are Shin Yeh restaurant at Liang Court, I love Taimei, 4 Season Taiwanese Cuisine (formerly Peng Lai Ge), and Oasis Taiwan Porridge Restaurant.

I don’t think I will re-visit Ximending restaurant again. How about you? Would you go back to a restaurant (with good food) if the service was bad?

Singapore Food Blog
Ximending Taiwanese Restaurant
1 HarbourFront Walk
#01-51A VivoCity
Tel: +65 6376 8018