TENTEN Gelateria (轉轉 吉拉朵)

Eager to chill out at a cafe with a nicely designed lush green yard? Sounds very rare in Taipei, right? We’d love to share this place with you and let’s see if you guys exclaim it like we do. To be honest, don’t expect too much from this yard, because it’s merely a tiny one. TENTEN Gelateria is a gelato shop in the secluded suburb of Songshan. Located just across Min Sheng park, it has a nice park view apart from its very own patch of grassy patio (if it’s not blocked by cars parked outside the shop, of course).

With limited space of just about 20 seats, it does not fail from appealing to wide range of customers. It offers not only brunch sets, light meal for lunch and dinner, gelato and serbet, but also complete selection of beverages: soft drinks, tea, wine, and coffee – including drip coffee and espressos. However we want to mention one downside here as we found a number of drinks were not available (e.g. its chocolate which I would love to try as well!).

 

We went there on reservation for lunch on a Saturday and were seated upon arrival. However we were placed at the back at 6-seat table only for two of us since their front tables were occupied. We have nothing to complain about this; we had a lot of space to put our things and simply were satisfied we did not need to share it with other customers.

Personally, I like how the place is made cozy and spacious. I roamed casually around the shop to take the photos of the decorations etc. in a way without having to be a distraction to other people (though I guess I made some staff working at the bar uneasy 😈 ).

Alright, I guess enough of the intro. To the stars of our (light) lunch.

Salmon Panini

Smoked salmon panini

We had three choices of dishes hoping to have a fulfilling meal. First ordered was Smoked Salmon Panini (煙燻鮭魚轉轉包) with a side of egg salad. It tasted unique. As I was biting I found a sweet fresh pear-ish hint along with the salmon. I confirmed with my partner who already finished his part in no time. He seemed not too sure, I guess he was too hungry to notice. Luckily I still have half of my cut uneaten. *detective mode switched on* We were surprised to see a thin slice of apple inserted into the toasted sandwich. Good move yo!

Next dish was French Bacon Quiche (阿勇法式洛林鹹派). Quiche is one of my favorite pastry, and IMHO nothing can go wrong about it. Hmm, maybe because it is easy to make? Anyway.. if you are craving for it you can grab it here in TENTEN or you can check Picnic Cafe (野餐咖啡) around Gongguan area – they are famous for their quiche as well as their scones (yes they have my acknowledgement too *thumbs up*).

French bacon quiche

French bacon quiche

Same goes with the panini, it came with a side of egg salad (nothing special about it, but it is not bad either).

Last one, this case is really “last but not least”, we truly mean it. It was TENTEN special waffle (轉轉格子樂). This dish was the highlight, literally it came with some “stars” on the plate.

"Starry" TENTEN waffle

“Starry” TENTEN waffle

See the stars? They are star-shaped ice cream arranged neatly on the waffle-tree.  😯 When this dish was served, we wondered the effort required to decorate it. Probably longer than the time baking the waffle, huh? The waffle itself was crunchy and soft at the same time, made of dough with balanced sweetness too. Cuts of fruits (strawberry and blueberry) were quite generous. I just found one issue here; there was just not enough ice cream to go with the waffle. That was the first time I actually swept the remaining chocolate syrup on the plate to avoid eating my last bits of waffle plainly. Normally a scoop of ice cream will do, but not the scattered stars I’m afraid. It will be a much better story if it were to have a bit extra ice cream.

Well.. for an ice cream shop, TENTEN is definitely a good option. Their offerings taste more than average for sure. Price wise maybe is much on the high side, but price assures quality, doesn’t it?

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