Miacucina: Italian Food That Makes You Forget It’s Vegetarian
With 5 locations spread across Taipei, this popular Italian chain restaurant is always within reach – and that’s a good thing, because it serves some of the best vegetarian food in the city.
The menu is huge, the service is excellent, and many of the dishes are so tasty you’ll forget they don’t have meat. Though it’s not cheap, Miacucina is worth visiting if you’re craving Italian flavours.
We visited their newest branch, located right next to Zhongshan MRT station on the second floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store. The restaurant juts out of the building to overlook Nanjing West Road.
We made sure to visit early in the afternoon on Saturday because we’d heard it can get crowded and lined up in the evenings. We enjoyed the great service and the jazz music while watching cars pass by outside.
The menu is big, with a lot of different options that made it hard to decide what to order. But we managed to narrow it down and chose a variety of dishes, which turned out to be very hit and miss.
The Pear Pesto Panini was everything we’d hoped for. Its flavourful combination of pear, caramelized onions, caramelized pecans, dried cranberry, melted mozzarella cheese, and pesto sauce had us gushing. It only cost NT$280 and came with side dishes of egg salad and potato wedges. This one was definitely worth the price!
The Very Blue Cheese Lemony Pecan Salad was big and satisfying, but it didn’t leave enough of an impression to warrant the steep price of NT$420. There weren’t enough ingredients – especially blue cheese – to mix in with all of the greens. I’d appreciate this salad if it was handed to me but wouldn’t pay that much money for it again.
The Duo Colour Pepper with Asparagus and Goat Cheese flatbread wasn’t bad, but it didn’t come close to validating the unreasonable price of NT$395. The tastes were basic (we could barely taste any goat cheese) and it seemed to be lacking some flavour.
The Sundried Tomato and Mushroom Pasta with garlic and homemade alfredo was creamy and delectable. The depth of flavour in its sauce made this pasta the big winner. It was worth the NT$430 we paid for it.
What’s the vibe?
Modern Italian chain restaurant with a large menu. It’s usually busy but the service is good and the smooth jazz in the background is calming.
Worth it?
Depends.
The dishes were very hit and miss. In our experience, the pasta and panini were both worth it (they were delicious) but the salad and flatbread were only mediocre considering the price. If you’re dying for Italian food we recommend Miacucina – just be prepared to spend quite a bit of money.
Would you go back?
Yes.
Even though it’s pricey and some of the food was underwhelming, we were also very impressed with certain dishes – enough that we actually forgot they were vegetarian. Good Italian food can be hard to find in Asia, but Miacucina stands out as a restaurant worth returning to.
Visited: November 2017
| Miacucina |
| Hours: Mon - Fri: 11am - 11pm Sat & Sun: 9am - 11pm |
| Tianmu Address: No. 48, Dexing West Road, Shilin District, Taipei City, 111 111台灣台北市士林區德行西路48號 |
| Neihu Address: No. 601, Ruiguang Road, Neihu District, Taipei City 內湖區瑞光路601號 |
| Da'an Address: No. 11, Lane 107, Section 1, Fuxing South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106 大安區復興南路一段107巷11號 |
| Xinyi Address: 11 Songshou Road, Xinyi District, Taipei City, 110 台北市信義區松壽路11號 |
| Zhongshan Address: 14 Nanjing West Road, Zhongshan District, Taipei City 台北市中山區南京西路14號 |
