Teresa's Restaurant

黛麗莎

No. 146-2, Wufu 4th Rd, Yancheng Dist
高雄市鹽埕區五福四路146號之2
(07)551-3233

Monday-Sunday
11:00am-10:00pm

English friendly: yes
vegetarian friendly: yes
average cost: 200-300NTD

The most interesting part of this exotic Spanish/ethnic restaurant storefront is their incredible door:

Seriously though, where did they get that? Exquisite.

This was advertised to me as a Spanish restaurant, but as you can see here they have LOTS of foreign food--Italian, American, Mexican, everything. There is definitely something for everyone, especially because their menu is gigantic. The whole last half of it is a very enticing (and cheap!) selection of cocktails and wines and things. ONE FUN EVENING IN THE MAKING.

I've forgotten the names of everything we ordered by now, so I'll just sort of describe it. This, as you can probably tell, is a squid and rice thing with black "squid ink" sauce. I feel like the majority of the options in this restaurant are Western variations on rice (and/or meat), though I do think I saw some pasta options. Anyway. I'm not a huge fan of rice, but I liked this. The squid was chewy, and sooo adorable, and the sauce was subtly seafoody and good.

And here we have brown rice with chorizo. Oh man, it was GOOD. A little plain, but the Spanish sausage flavor was excellent.

THIS, I think, is pork (??? but actually I've completely forgotten the type of meat) wrapped in bacon, topped with onions and green peppers and paired with a thin tomatoey sauce. It was perfectly fine! I'm not really into bacon though (I kno rite why am I even here), and I thought the meat in the middle could have been a lot more tender, or at least... interesting.

This is supposedly potatoes au gratin, but I was unconvinced. It was more like plain slices of potato covered in cheese and baked. The sauce was not nearly saucy enough, and the potatoes should have been sliced a lot more thinly (in my inexpert opinion). No one at the table really liked it. 

I will say, though, that the cheese did not suck. It seems hard for restaurants to find good cheese in Kaohsiung, so this is a great accomplishment.

The cheese REALLY featured in this guy, the cheese-filled empanadas off of the extensive vegetarian options page. I guess I sort of forgot what empanadas are, because I wasn't expecting this, but it was a happy surprise. EVERYONE at the table liked these.

They aren't completely filled with cheese (a good thing, I think we can agree), but there was definitely enough. The perfect amount, even. The crust was light and flaky, and the cheese was gooey and delicious. Wonderful.

So to sum up, this is a good place. It's not too expensive, though each plate is a little on the small side (we had five for three people and it was just about right), and it's lovely to have all those cheap drink options! (I'm not sure if they are good but whatever it's alcohol.) The food was definitely edible, even if it didn't exactly suit my tastes; I think it quite likely that it will suit yours!

OVERALL RATING: 4/5

Black Dog Cafeteria

黑狗食堂

No. 115, Hexi Rd, Yancheng Dist
高雄市鹽埕區河西路115號
(09)20605876

Monday-Sunday
5:00pm-12:00am

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/%E9%BB%91-%E7%8B%97%E9%A3%9F%E5%A0%82/193725557384619

English friendly: no
vegetarian friendly: yes
average cost: 100-200NTD

This is the only exclusively open-air restaurant I've been to so far in Kaohsiung.

Coincidentally, the two evenings I've eaten here have also been among the coldest I've experienced so far in Kaohsiung. Pro tip: if it's raining outside, go somewhere else.

From what I've seen, this place is always really crowded. We surrendered in the face of the crowds last Saturday, and this Tuesday still had to wait ten or so minutes for a table. On a Tuesday! A cold Tuesday!

The Black Dog Cafeteria sells Singaporean food, which it turns out is mostly soups with noodles, hot pot, crabs and shrimps, and assorted fried things. Their traditional Singapore fried 蘿蔔糕 (radish cake) looks DELICIOUS, and their fried 粿條 (flat noodles) is confirmedly delicious.

As you can see by all the red crayon above, though, they are often out of... lots of things... so cross your fingers!

We started with this traditional Singaporean treat, wheat bread sandwiching a thick slab of butter and some strangely green jelly. It was really yummy, as you might expect. I don't know what flavor the jelly was, but it tasted sugary and sort of fruity and I'm not complaining.

My friend ordered the 肉骨茶麵 or meatbone tea-noodles, and they came with little hunks of 油條, the sugar-free Asian churro.

After a period of great indecision, and several furtive glances at other people's tables, I decided on the Malaysian curry. Not exactly a traditional Singaporean dish, but I regret nothing! This thing was not merely delicious, it was extremely delicious. The sort of delicious that you have to continually remark upon even as you're eating it, and that stays with you all night afterwards. 

The noodles looked sort of like the crispy French onions you put on top of green bean casserole, and I do in fact think they may have been fried to a crisp at some point, but when they got to me they were soft and puffy and soggy with curry. Quite the unique--and delicious--noodle experience. The curry itself was wonderful, thin and flavorful with the perfect hint of warming spice. Just what one needs on a cold evening eating Singaporean food out in the open.

Each time I've been here (and actually gotten a seat), I've enjoyed it immensely. This is the perfect restaurant for taking a few friends on a fun evening out: delicious, exotic, not too expensive, and complete with selection of two or three actually good beers.

Also, the interior design is all vintage and cool, and there are two big furry black dogs that wander around and let you pet them!

OVERALL RATING: 4/5