Girly, Insta-Worthy Brunch at Muko
There’s a new Instagram-famous spot in town — the very popular, very beautiful Muko Brunch in Da’an. Although dubious the quality of food would be on par with the aesthetics (remember the gorgeous but ultimately forgettable HEXA Cafe?), we were bombarded by so many pictures of delicious-looking French toast on their Instagram that we eventually gave in and decided to check it out.
From the get-go, we could see that this place was designed for social media. Both the entrance and the side of the building are the perfect spot for taking photos due to colourful murals on the wall.
The inside is the same. Bright, open, and airy, with lots of gorgeous little touches make this a beautiful setting for a girls’ brunch out, and that’s exactly what 90% of the clientele were there for. Other than two guys who were there with (we assumed) their girlfriends, there were no men in sight. Gentlemen, take note.
We had tried to make last-minute reservations on a number of occasions, and each time were denied because it was too busy. Finally we lucked out; either because the hype had started dying down, or because we came much later on in the day — around 1:45pm. As you can see the restaurant was still chock-full of brunching ladies.
It really is a beautifully-designed space — someone has taken great care to make sure that almost every corner is the perfect backdrop for a photo.
The staff don’t speak much English but are very sweet and accommodating. We were given menus (an English version is available, but you may need their assistance marking the items you selected) and ushered to our table. We immediately noted that prices were comparable to other places in the area, although still relatively affordable.
We made our choices and then ordered at the front counter. Food and drinks started arriving soon after.
Taking advantage of an option to add +$80 to our meal and receive a free drink (if it is worth $100 or less) or a soup of the day, we started off with an Americano. It was a good coffee, though not particularly memorable.
The soup of the day was a corn soup, and it was the most delicious corn soup we’ve had. Seriously, this blew our minds. It was creamy and sweet, and for some reason stood apart from every other corn soup we’ve tasted.
Another option is to add $120 to receive a drink and a home-made yogurt with dried fruit and nuts and brown sugar. We were intrigued at first, but we left feeling a little disappointed. The yogurt was pretty standard, and the brown sugar didn’t do much to improve the flavour. Still, it was a nice pre-brunch treat.
Our first brunch choice was — of course — Muko’s famous French toast with seasonal fruit ($280), or as it was confusingly labeled on the menu, “Health.” You can choose between ice cream or sour cream as a topping. Confused as to why anyone would ever order sour cream on French toast, we assumed it was mislabeled and would, in fact, turn out to be yogurt or mascarpone, but we were wrong. It really was sour cream. Once again, we wondered how this combination came to be — the sour cream was very sour and did little to complement the French toast, which was actually quite delicious on its own. The accompanying, perfectly-ripe fruit was also great. All in all, we didn’t fall in love with this dish in the way we hoped to, but it wasn’t too bad. We would recommend ordering the ice cream over the sour cream.
Next, we went for the eggs benedict ($290) after looking around and noticing that the vast majority of people had ordered it. This dish was dominated by a huge, undressed salad which largely consisted of different types of lettuce and two pieces of fruit. There was some kind of thick, sweet sauce accompanying it, but we weren’t huge fans of this as a dressing. The eggs benedict itself was just okay. While the eggs and sauce were pretty good, the English muffin had a squeaky, plasticky texture that made the dish taste like a cheap imitation. It wasn’t worth the price and we wouldn’t order it again.
Last, we went for the ham, mushroom. and sunny-side egg crepe ($230). While it wasn’t anything to write home about, this was our favourite of the mains and was actually quite good. The creamy egg yolk complemented the ham and mushrooms excellently, and that same sauce that we hadn’t loved as a salad dressing worked well with these flavours. We would consider ordering this again.
All in all, Muko Brunch didn’t really live up to our expectations food-wise. Most of what we ordered was fine, but there are so many excellent brunch places in Taipei that there’s really no need to come here for the food. That being said, the corn soup was absolutely brilliant, and there may be other things on the menu that we would have enjoyed more. This would be a great place for someone coming purely for the aesthetics, but that just isn’t us.
Check out their menu:
What’s the vibe?
Made-for-Instagram brunch place. Most customers were well-dressed Taiwanese young ladies. The staff were very sweet and tried their best to help us despite the language barrier.
Worth it?
We wouldn’t recommend the food here, but it’s a gorgeous place. It really depends on what you’re looking for! If you don’t particularly care about the food (or if you aren’t craving genuine Western food) and want somewhere to post some bomb Instagram stories from, you’d probably love Muko.
Would you go back?
Definitely not. Apart from the corn soup, we didn’t enjoy anything enough to bring us back, and there are plenty of other pretty restaurants in Taipei that we haven’t explored yet.
Visited: October 2018.
| Muko Brunch |
| Hours: 9am – 5pm |
| Phone: 02 3393 1699 |
| English Address: No. 8, Lane 183, Jinhua Street, Daan District, Taipei City |
| Chinese Address: 106台北市大安區金華街183巷8號 |
