Okay, is it bad if I said the most exciting part of today was the Sapphire Reserve Lounge by Chase Sapphire Reserve?! I am beyond thrilled to be able to check out one of these lounges! As a cardholder, I am proud and this lounge exceeds my expectations even after perusing reviews and pictures.

We made it just in time for the lunch menu. It has changed since the last reviews posts of it but it is still very good nevertheless.

There are multiple self-serve stations of food, including for hot, cold and dessert. There is even a full bar that looks very pretty. So many different types of seating arrangements. So spacious everywhere. The service is top notch. For me, I enjoyed my latte and still very much.

The bathrooms are super nice and clean and spacious. They even provide L’Occitane lotion!!

In each table, there is a barcode to scan that’ll take you to an online ordering menu that you can order additional items from. I ordered one of each to try. I love that they came in small servings so you can gauge how much more you can eat and still try all of it.

Viaggiare. Bourbon with amaro nonino, Darjeeling tea syrup, lemon and foam.

Castle Peak. Rum, triple sec, lychee syrup, apple juice, yuzu juice.

Steamed fish fillet with tofu in fermented soybean sauce. This was crazy good! Fish sitting on top of tofu. And only one piece of broccoli. With delicious sauce. This dish is catered to Cookie’s style! The fish was so tender and soft and flaky. The soft tofu was so soft… I ordered extra of this!!!!

Roasted pork ribs with barbecue. Pork ribs, grilled seasonal vegetables. This was also delicious. The pork ribs were very tender and fell off the bone. The sauce was not too sweet.

Stir-fried glass noodles. Smoked tofu, shiitake mushrooms, garlic, ginger, glass noodles, sherry wine glaze. This was also stupid good and especially adding two extra chili oil packets. The noodles were soft. The smoked tofu and mushrooms were such a delight to eat. I ate extra orders of these too.

Fish block noodle soup. Fried fish block, fish soup, tang celery, fried garlic. This was a very light and clear soup. The fish balls and tofu were a nice added touch. I do think they gave toooooo much vermicelli. I only ate 1/4 of it.

Braised chicken. This was part of the self serve station and my favorite from there. I also got an extra bowl to eat as seconds. The sauce was so creamy. There was plenty of shiitake mushrooms and carrots and onions and potatoes too!

Massaman curry with vegetables. This was also mildly flavored and decent. Not my favorite.

Doubled boiled soup. This was part of the self serve station and was very light and clear. It had chicken and mushroom and onions.

Sweet red bean soup. This was part of the online ordering and was very comforting to eat. Loved this and ordered extra too!

Matcha red bean cream tart. What a delightful little treat! It was so tasty! The tart cake was soft and crumbling. The matcha cream was soft and light and airy. The red bean was sweet.

We just checked into our Taipei Garden Hotel and we love it!! We were greeted with welcome Thai milk tea drinks. There was a tray of a bunch of Thai milk teas!! They also gave us a clear little bag to redeem snacks and candies from a store next door.

On our bed there were two small bags of popcorn snacks. Part of the complimentary drinks was 4 bags of very high end tea bags that consist of the actual tea leaves instead of your generic tea bags either powder like teas.

There is even a real little plant in our bathroom as part of decor. I think that alone speaks volumes to the attention to detail of this hotel.

First night in Taipei and we walked to the closest night market from our hotel, which was a 15min walk called Nanjichang Market. It’s a smaller market but I heard more locals go here.

Vince and I shared a chicken heart and a chicken butt skewer to start. They were sooo delicious. Both slightly crunchy and mildly spicy and extremely flavorful!

Then we got some popcorn chicken because Vince loves fried chicken. We also ordered this mild and it was perfectly seasoned. Very flavorful and juicy on the outside and crispy on the outside.

I heard that we needed to try Fuzhou pepper buns while in Taipei. It is a must!! They are these fried pepper buns that are stuffed with pork and scallions. It was very crispy and crunchy on the outside while very juicy and flavorful on the inside.

We tried a different stand for blood cake and chicken cartilage. It was also good but this stand seasoned it more so it got really salty.

I got a big tub of soy milk from one of the stands. I personally love soymilk so I was excited for it. But to my disappointment, it was a lot more milder than I would have liked. And less creamy/milky too. It was still okay and I did finish most of it.

Our stomachs were near the limits. We got ourselves a chicken butt and heart skewer each to tap the night off. We actually ate it back in the hotel room because we were so thirsty and were drinking our drinks first on the way home for fear of peeing.

Vince got brown sugar milk with boba and grass jelly. Now let me tell you, we went to a random stand. AND, the boba was ridiculously good. It was so soft and chewy. Best boba I’ve ever had!!! Wtheck!!! And this was from a random stand!!!

Ugh, this has been my dream to finally go to Taiwan to drink boba where it originated from. But now my fear is that, is it going to be so good that it will ruin boba for me back at home?! Ugh, for the love of boba, I will definitely have to revisit.

The grass jelly was very good and very soft. You can tell from the taste and texture it is fresh and not from a can. The milk was good and creamy. Brown sugar was amazing.

Okay, I’m going to focus on the good and that means boba every day for the next few days! 🙂