Trendy Sichuan Food with Cocktails at Old Seat Restaurant

Old Seat Restaurant in Zhongxiao Dunhua is one of those cool (almost) new places that every food blogger and their mother has been raving about since it opened. With beautiful decor and a sexy menu of original cocktails and classic Sichuan dishes, it appeals to the young and beautiful and is often completely booked up by the weekend. We had attempted making a reservation multiple times but always left it to the last minute, and were finally able to get one after we had decided to go during the week instead. Our visit was mostly good, but we left feeling unconvinced that it was totally worth the hype or the price, for reasons we’ll go into below.

The first thing to note about Old Seat Restaurant for foreigners who don’t speak much Chinese is that it’s not English friendly, so we strongly suggest you go with someone who can speak and read Chinese well — parts of the menu are in Chinese only, and translating it was hard due to the obscure ingredient list.

Onto the food: the first thing we ordered was the stir-fried water spinach with white garlic ($220). The price was on the high side for a dish this basic, but it was very tasty. We loved how garlicky it was, and that it wasn’t saturated in oil.

Next, we got the cold spicy green beans ($180), which were delicious. Beautifully seasoned with garlic, chilli, rice vinegar and soy sauce, this was one of our favourite vegetable dishes of the night. It was the perfect balance of spicy, salty and sour and we highly recommend you give it a try.

We also got the black fungus with pickled pepper ($220), which was just as good as the green beans if you don’t mind the texture of black fungus. The sauce was almost the same and it was wonderfully tangy, with a nice kick of spice at the end. We would order this again too.

A Sichuan staple that we could never miss is mapo tofu ($280), something we order every single time it’s on any menu anywhere, no matter the occasion. There are hits and misses in the world of mapo tofu, but we really liked Old Seat’s version, which was creamy and flavourful and left our mouths pleasantly tingling without being agonizingly spicy.

Another classic is kung pao chicken ($340), which more than lived up to our expectations. The chicken was tender and very well seasoned, as were the vegetables. It had a lovely nutty flavour from the peanuts and our table found it to be on the spicier side.

As it came heavily recommended by our server, we also got the taro and pork in a sweet soy sauce ($330). We had no idea what to expect from this, but we were won over on the first bite. The fried taro was deliciously crunchy and mild, and the pork had a subtle sweetness that we absolutely adored. This was a nice option to have for those of us who can’t handle much spice.

Another dish we heavily recommend is the Sichuan spicy dry noodles ($160). This was a side dish so the portion wasn’t very big, but it was absolutely magnificent if you like your dishes on the spicy side. Filling and flavorful with a nice kick, this may have been one of the best dry noodle dishes we’ve had in Taipei.

We were rather divided on the beef paired with a chilli-infused oil and bean sprouts ($460). Though it was undeniably delicious, most people at our table felt that it was too spicy to truly enjoy. The beef was tender and garlicky, but the oil/soup base was so hot that it became a talking point for days after. At $460, most of us agreed that it was slightly too expensive and spicy for the average person to enjoy. We would personally recommend trying one of the other dishes unless you can handle your spice!

We hadn’t actually ordered the egg pancake served with mushroom, pork and water chestnut seasoning ($280), but due to a miscommunication with the staff, it arrived at our table anyway. There was an uncomfortable few minutes where it looked like we were going to have to pay for it, but the staff eventually conceded to take it off of our bill, and even let us keep it the dish. Our group was yet again divided — most of us really liked it, but some were put off by the slightly stodgy texture. Other than that, we all agreed that it was seasoned well and was a pleasant surprise.

The thing we’d been most excited for when choosing to visit Old Seat Restaurant — yes, even more than the food — was their speciality cocktail menu featuring Chinese and Taiwanese ingredients. Most reviewers mentioned the cocktails and emphasized how great they were, and we thought it would be a neat combination with Sichuan food. Unfortunately, our experience wasn’t totally positive.

The first issue with the cocktails was that the one specific page dedicated to their own cocktail was only in Chinese (though the rest of the menu, including the drinks menu, had an English version), and difficult to translate due to the obscure ingredient list. We tried asking for recommendations and enquiring a little more about the respective ingredients, but we didn’t get very far. We didn’t have much success with translation apps either, so we weren’t able to make the most informed decisions. Again, we suggest making sure to someone who can speak and read Chinese so that you make the most of your experience.

The menu was really only a hiccup — and our fault for not reading Chinese, anyway — and everything would have been fine if there were no other issues. Unfortunately, though, the drinks took so long to arrive that by the time we drank them they were considerably watered down by the rapidly melting ice cubes. We had originally intended to start drinking together but quickly gave up on this idea as more and more time elapsed. We got the final cocktail as we were almost done with our meal, which we felt was a bit of a joke considering that they were all around $380-$500, plus 10% service charge. We won’t go into much detail about each individual drink because, in all honesty, none stood out to the point where we’d go out of our way to recommend them to anyone. If we went back, we’d skip the cocktails or stick to the classics.

Check out their English menu down below:

We’ll also include the drinks menu for your reference, though do note that their speciality cocktails do not come with an English translation:

Despite being on the pricey side — and spicy, for anyone with a lower heat tolerance — we all loved the food at Old Seat Restaurant. We thought it was genuinely tasty and well made, and if our overall impression were based on food alone, it would probably be quite favourable. What let them down in our opinion was the clunky service (it was really hard to get anyone’s attention, staff often tried to take our plates too early, and the cocktails took forever to arrive) and the underwhelming cocktails. If it wasn’t such a pricey place we wouldn’t mind, but we didn’t feel that the high prices for the cocktails or the 10% service charge were warranted.

What’s the vibe?

Trendy restaurant in a trendy area serving some great Sichuan food and beautiful but (in our opinion) underwhelming cocktails. It’s most popular with groups of young and cool Taiwanese friends.

Worth it?

The food is expensive but very good, but we did not feel that the cocktails were worth $380-$500 + 10% service charge.

Would you go back?

It’s hard to say, but probably not. The cocktails were the real selling point for Old Seat Restaurant and since they disappointed us we’re not making plans to return anytime soon.

Last updated July 2020