All Kinds of Grilled Cheese at Mallard Grilled Cheese Eatery
Taipei has lots of great Western restaurants, but once in a while we find ourselves craving some basic comfort food. One thing we’ve been longing for throughout the winter is soup and a grilled cheese sandwich, a vastly underrated dish that gives us flashbacks to sitting at a kitchen table back home. With that said, you can probably imagine how excited we were to discover a restaurant in Zhongxiao Fuxing that actually specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches, with an entire menu dedicated to offering new and unique takes on the western classic. We had high hopes upon visiting Mallard Grilled Cheese Eatery, especially considering that they’ve earned an impressive 4.9 rating from adoring fans, some of whom have sworn that “the best grilled cheese in Taipei” is to be found here. Unfortunately (for us), we unanimously concluded that we did not agree with this statement. Keep reading for our honest thoughts.
After squeezing in at their tiny bench — one downside to this restaurant is that it’s quite small, and has rather limited seating — we checked out their menu to decide what looked best. Feeling thirsty, we ordered the pomelo orange green tea (left, $120) and the dragon fruit and peach yoghurt soda (right, $140). Frankly speaking, the pomelo green tea drink was just okay. It was neither too sweet nor too citrusy, and we didn’t hate it despite unwittingly swallowing a few stray chunks of pomelo peel once or twice, but it didn’t make much of an impression either. On the other hand, the dragon fruit and peach yoghurt drink was actually really good. It was refreshingly fruity and quite unique, and we’d definitely order it again if we went back. Who knew they would be such a good combination?
Next, we ordered the truffled pumpkin soup ($120). We’re huge fans of pumpkin soup normally and this smelled divine when it first arrived, but we were left feeling slightly disappointed. This was such a shame because basically everything about it was great — the texture was creamy and thick, and the truffle smell wafted invitingly across the table. The one and only issue was the total lack of seasoning, which left us scratching our heads and wondering if we had totally different standards for how salted something should be. No matter, we added our own salt and enjoyed the soup a lot more.
We had been looking forward to grilled cheeses all day and were excited to try our first. The first one we got was the ratatouille grilled cheese ($195), which came recommended on the menu and contained grilled zucchini, grilled eggplant, roasted pepper, tomato stew, kalamata olives, cheddar, and mozzarella. This sandwich sounded so promising and smelled great, but once again was a disappointment due to a total lack of seasoning. We can’t say for sure, but we strongly suspected that the vegetables hadn’t seen a speck of salt while they were being cooked, and the cheese they were using just wasn’t salty enough to make up for it. We will say that the bites we took that had some olive inside were much better, as the saltiness of the olive really brought out the rest of the flavours.
We felt similarly about the Caprese grilled cheese sandwich ($195), which was made with fresh mozzarella, tomato, basil, pesto, olive oil and balsamic. This wasn’t quite as bad as the first sandwich as the balsamic reduction they used added a nice sweet, slightly salty kick that we really loved, but it definitely could have used a little bit more salt. We added some fried chicken for an extra $60, which was okay but some of us found it to be on the soggy side.
The last sandwich we ordered was the priciest: black truffle, wild mushroom, ham and sunny-side-up egg with tomato, cheddar, and mozzarella ($245). This was another recommended menu item, and if you’re about to guess that it was criminally underseasoned, you’re absolutely correct. Once again, this grilled cheese smelled incredible and sounded like a winner, but it just didn’t quite nail it. The most glaring offence was definitely the lack of salt, but there was also an element of “adding truffle doesn’t automatically make something better.” Honestly, if they’d swapped the truffle for some mustard and added some flipping salt this would have been awesome.
Overall, everything we ordered here would have been really tasty if it was better seasoned. Now, we’re willing to take a little bit of responsibility for this: maybe we expect a higher level of salt than the average Taiwanese person or maybe we should have salted it ourselves as soon as we realized it was underseasoned. Whatever the reason, you could probably still have a great meal here if you added the salt yourself, which is why we wrote the review despite our lack of enthusiasm. The concept of this restaurant is pretty neat and we loved that they had so many sandwiches to choose from, but we really wish they’d start taking seasoning more seriously. All things said, we wouldn’t urge you to go out of your way to try the grilled cheese here, but if you’re in the mood for some comfort food, why not? (Just salt your food.)
Check out their menu below:
What’s the vibe?
Super small restaurant serving up grilled cheese, soups, and salads. Customers were mostly Taiwanese when we visited, which perhaps explains why we didn’t get what we were expecting in terms of flavour.
Worth it?
It’s hard to say. It’s a cool concept and we enjoyed our meal, but the sandwiches at Toasteria are better and just as varied.
Would you go back?
Eh, maybe. We’d be more likely to return if a friend really wanted to go than go by ourselves.
Last updated February 2020
| Mallard Grilled Cheese Eatery |
| Chinese Name: 野鴨小餐館 |
| Hours: Tues-Thurs, Sun 12pm – 9pm Fri & Sat 12pm – 10:30pm |
| Phone: 02 8771 0690 |
| English Address: No. 75, Section 4, Civic Blvd, Songshan District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 台北市松山區市民大道四段75號 |
