Modern Toilet in Ximending, Taipei

Or what me and my girlfriend call the shit restaurant*, hehe...

The Modern Toilet (Chinese: 便所主题餐厅) is a famous bathroom-themed restaurant in Taiwan, Taipei. I've written about theme restaurants in Taipei before and I've been in the Modern Toilet before, too. But that one was located near the Shilin Night Market and my girlfriend and I only shared one ice cream. This time we went for a full meal and we were accompanied by the awesome blogger Shingo, his wife and his wife's parents, who came all the way from Singapore to see all the beautiful spots of Taiwan and try some of the unique (and sometimes crazy) food you can find here.

We went to the bigger restaurant located in Ximending, which is the biggest pedestrian area in Taipei. Now you wonder where exactly is Modern Toilet located? Well, if you check their homepage moderntoilet.com.tw you'll find an address and a map, but that probably won't help you a lot. Let me show you how to find Modern Toilet in Ximending:

We went out at Ximen Station Exit 6 (see here) and then walked into the lane on the right (click on my map to enlarge and save it). We were lucky, because my girlfriend, who is a local, brought us to that place, but you can ask some people for directions, if you're not sure. Ximending is full of young people, I'm sure there's plenty of them who speak a little bit English and will help you. Just remember to turn left when you see a 7/11 and Starbucks building.

The first photo above is the restaurant's main entrance. We had to go the upper floors and were directed to our bath tub table.

That's how it looks inside. Pretty crowded, right?

Our neighboring table: The toilet-shaped chairs, we sat on the same ones.

Another photo of the Modern Toilet's interior. Not bad, huh? :)

Shingo's dish came in a mini toilet bowl. That "brown dung pie" is actually just a plastic cover for a small salad.

Shingo's father-in-law had in my opinion the coolest dish: A green toilet bowl with curry, that was still sizzling. That really looked cool in real, because of the color, hehe.

Our dish was also great, albeit less "toilety", hehe. And the drinks came in urinals (尿壺).

The tea inside really looked a little like...... :-P

And you the worst best thing is, you can keep the urinal :-P

In the end, we had dung ice cream, vanilla flavor. It was yummy.

All and all it was a great experience. The food was yummy and all of us had to chuckle few times. I'm happy that I could enjoy that food with Shingo and his dear ones. We had a great time and I'd definitely visit Modern Toilet again. So I definitely recommend you this place.

And to unravel the mystery behind Shingo in my previous post: None of the guys in the photo is Shingo. I think few of you guess it right, kudos to you all. You know me well, hehe. But I took the photo, just a random pic of the Ximending crowd. But regarding Shingo, I think it's better that the mystery behind his identity lives on :-P

Would you go to the restaurant and try the food?

Related: [Sweet Dynasty with Shingo][Wiki][My TAIWAN page][All photos by MKL, 2010]

*hey, even on their hompage they ask "Shit or food?"

Sweet Dynasty 糖朝 restaurant, Taipei

Another foodventure with uncle Shingo

When my girlfriend and I met up with uncle Shingo, his wife and his lovely in-laws (read about it here), he suggested to go to a Hong Kong style restaurant at the Zhongxiao Dunhua road in Taipei city, one of the most famous roads here. It's known as Taipei's fashion street, with great restaurants, bars and shops. We weren't sure about the restaurant's name, but my girlfriend somehow found out the name of the restaurant and she immediately knew where it was. The place is called Sweet Dynasty or 糖朝 (or Tang Chao) and it's famous for delicious food and especially delicious Chinese or particularly Hong Kong desserts. Let me introduce you the restaurant and the yummy desserts we had.

The Sweet Dynasty from the inside: The traditional Hong Kong style is predominant.

There's many main dishes, but we came to try their famous desserts.

Our dish was Sago soup with fresh fruits: Mmm, simply delicious!

I think this one on the left is Tofu pudding with fresh mango. Looks yummy.

Tofu Pudding with red beans close-up.

After we finished the individual deserts, we ordered Tofu pudding in cask.

It says it's for 5 persons. We were 6 and couldn't finish it. It was very yummy, though.

Hong Kong styled tofu pudding: Even my girlfriend said it's the best she ever had.

The Sweet Dynasty is really a great restaurant. I can only pass my judgement on the two desserts I tried. They were very tasty. And Shingo and his dear ones also said they liked the desserts and they came all the way from Singapore to try them. That speaks volumes and also says a lot about the place, since Singaporean's are renown to be great food critics :-) Thanks again for the good company, Shingo and another time thanks for treating my girlfriend and I. You're truly a generous man.

[Modern Toilet with Shingo][Sweet Dynasty hp][All photos by MKL, 2010]

Famous bloggers finally meet in Taiwan: Shingo rocks Taipei with MKL

I met Shingo T! I saw him! Woohoo!

Everyone reads Shingo's blog, right? And Shingo reads everyone's blog, right? ^_^ That's the impression I have, when I browse your blogs. A while ago, Shingo contacted me and asked me, if I was open to meeting up during his trip to Taiwan. And of course I said yes! Who wouldn't want to meet the mysterious Shingo T and unravel the mystery behind his identity? Manju, do you remember, when we chatted on MSN few months ago and wondered, how Shingo might look like? How old is "uncle" Shingo really? Is he really so handsome? Well, I'm one of the few lucky humans, who had the chance to get all the answers of these questions answered in a single afternoon. I feel so honored :-)

If you read his blogger profile, he says:

"A very handsome chick magnet with irresistable charm. Also known to be thick skinned, self-obsessed and living in his own world."

You know, we've met in Taipei's trendy district Ximending and I can tell you, the girls really looked at him a lot. And there were at least 2 girls trailing him all the time. It was amazing. He does have charm, that's really true. I haven't hung out with him so much as to test the thickness of his skin and check, if he's so self-obsessed as he claims. All I can say is, Shingo is really really nice, he always smiles and it's very interested in many things. And he's very generous, he treated me twice, so I want to say thank you again here. Shingo, you are a very nice man. And I must add, that I also met Shingo's lovely wife, who's also extremely friend and his in-laws, who followed us to every spot and tried every food. They were very friendly and in-laws like them are a dream of every man. Shingo is truly lucky ^_^

Ok, for those who are so curious, I took a photo in Ximending and I give you 5 answers to choose. And my question is: Which one is Shingo T?

1 Is Shingo T a Nike fan, who carries the bag awesomely like that?

2 Is Shingo T a fast-paced casual traveler, who loves to wear red?

3 Is Shingo T a hunky muscular young man with a crew cut?

4 Is Shingo T a guy, who rolls up his pants' sleeves, but prefers his tees sleeveless?

5 Is Shingo T none of the above and a totally different guy?

The right answer will be revealed in my next post. :-P And that one will be about the Taipei's awesome theme restaurant Modern Toilet. I will post some photos and write my review and you'll be able to read more about Shingo and the good time we had. So stay tuned for my next post. Here's a sneak peek of what follows...

We had delicious curry from a toilet bowl

Another thing I want to add: A special thanks to my lovely girlfriend, who helped me to guide Shingo around Taipei in that afternoon we spent together. She's really such a great guide and knows so many places. It reminded me of the first days when I came to Taipei, when she showed me around this awesome place. Thanks a lot again. You're great. :-)

So, is uncle Shingo, a lesser or a bigger mystery for you now?