Build Your Own Salads and Healthy Rice Bowls at To Be Smoothie

December 2, 2019 Taipei Expat

New safety measures for COVID-19: Number of tables reduced, temperature scans at door (customers with a temperature with 37.5°C or above will be asked to leave), and alcohol spray provided to customers.

Delivery information: contact them on Facebook (preferred, but must be done in advance), UberEats, and Food Panda.

A good salad can be hard to find in Taipei, which is why we’re excited to share one of our new favourite places — To Be Smoothie, a salad, rice and smoothie restaurant with branches in Nanjing Fuxing and Minsheng Community. We’ve been coming here for a month or so now, introducing new friends to it each time so that we have even more excuses to go. If affordable, healthy food and drinks sound like they’re up your alley, just keep on reading.

We’ve only ever been to the Nanjing Fuxing branch of To Be Smoothie, which is extremely convenient to access, as it’s a mere two-minute walk from the MRT Station (exit four). The restaurant is clean, bright and modern, with plenty of seating. It can get busy during lunch and dinner times, but there’s usually space for everyone to sit. If it’s full — or if you come right before closing time — you may be asked to take your food away.

The restaurant is self-service, meaning you’re expected to check off what you want on the menu, bring it to the front, and pay before you get your food. The menus are kept next to the cash register at the front of the restaurant. Check that you have the right one, as the smoothie, salad, and rice bowl menus are all separate. If it’s your first time or you look especially lost and foreign, a member of staff will probably come to help you out, and you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it — most of their workers speak at least some English.

As we mentioned earlier, we love the salads at To Be Smoothie. You can have them in-store or pick them up to go — they’re great either way. If you’re a first-time customer, the staff will explain to you how the salad menu works. It’s pretty simple, as everything is in both English and Chinese. Just choose a dressing, eight ingredients to make up the base of your salad, a complimentary side order, and any extra toppings you might want (meat, fish, avocado, or cheese). A salad is only $160 if you don’t add anything extra, but we usually get some chicken breast on it, bringing it up to $190. The salads all come with nuts or seeds, which you can opt-out of.

On this salad below, we got steamed carrot, steamed pumpkin, red onion, asparagus, egg, cucumber, tomato, and yellow pepper, with grain rice as our side order and extra chicken breast with passionfruit dressing. It came with a cup of mushroom broth too (which we did not care much for). This salad may seem basic, but it’s so light yet filling, and absolutely delicious. We love that we get to choose each one of our ingredients and that we get a good-sized portion for what we pay for.

Another superb option that’s a little heartier than a salad is their customizable rice bowl. The menu works in the same way — choose eight ingredients to put on top of a bed of mix grain rice, and pay for any extra toppings (meat, fish, or avocado) you might want. It comes with nuts and a spicy dressing, which is really fantastic. The rice bowl is only $130 (although if you want meat on it, it will be pricier), making it a great, healthy option that’s satisfying enough to curb your cravings. This is what we order when we’re not feeling motivated enough to get a salad!

True to their name, To Be Smoothie really does do excellent smoothies. They have a massive smoothie menu that’s really fun to look at, as it clearly shows what goes into each drink, and advertises their nutritional value. We’ve tried a number of smoothies that we’ve loved, but on this occasion, we went for the Supreme (left, $140) and the Strawberry Slam (right, $140). The Supreme is a breakfast smoothie made with banana, apple, kiwi, berry, orange, soy milk, yoghurt, tofu, and flax seeds, and it didn’t disappoint: the tofu, yoghurt and flaxseeds made it substantial enough to enjoy by itself, while the fruit kept it from being too heavy and added a bit of sweetness. The Strawberry Slam was also nice, though much lighter than the Supreme — this was a low-calorie smoothie made with milk, coconut milk, organic strawberries, peaches, bananas, and a touch of honey. It was light and not very sweet, which made it a great addition to our healthy lunch.

Check out their menu down below. They actually have a massive book for the smoothie menu too, but we’ll let you browse that in-store — it’s part of the experience! (Be sure to check out their red wine smoothie. We haven’t tried it yet, but are dying to hear what it’s like.)

What’s the vibe?

Bright, clean restaurant with customizable salads, smoothies, and rice bowls. It’s self-service, so you won’t have much interaction with the staff. Customers are mostly locals of all ages.

Worth it?

Very! We’re massive fans of this place, and we think it’s tasty, healthy, and affordable. It’s nice to have the option of choosing between the salad and rice bowl, both of which are healthy, but satisfy different cravings (light vs heavy, cold vs hot, etc.).

Would you go back?

We go back all the time. This is one of our favourite salad places, along with The Greenery and Saladay. We also love the salads at Sprout in Tianmu and the all-you-can-eat salad bar at 52 Salad Bar.

Last updated December 2019

To Be Smoothie (Nanjing Fuxing Branch)

Chinese Name: To Be Smoothie 台北南京復興店

Hours: 8am – 8pm

Phone: 02 2778 0308

English Address: No. 48, Lane 105, Liaoning Street, Zhongshan District, Taipei City

Chinese Address: 台北市中山區遼寧街105巷48號

To Be Smoothie (Minsheng Community Branch)

Chinese Name: To be smoothie 民生店

Hours: 8am – 8pm

Phone: 02 3765 1033

English Address: No. 14, Lane 8, Xinzhong Street, Songshan District, Taipei City