Plant-Based Oasis 蔬食綠洲（文化中心本店） — Restaurant in Kaohsiung

Update: Band lineup reworks are usually kind of lame. Plant-Based Oasis is better than before! The restaurant's expanded menu isn't relegated to one particular culinary tradition. I enjoyed Japanese oden and Taiwanese basil fried dumplings—get these while they're hot! It's worth dining in to enjoy Lisa and Shuni's hospitality and conversation, as well as to save on takeaway packaging. Our fresh food arrived quickly, so win-win!

There's a late-season Simpsons line about cooking that feels apt: "You're making a tasty fake? That is so 90s. Why don't we move to Seattle and use slow modems?" Lisa—the owner, not the Simpsons character!—makes tastier vegan dumplings than the chain restaurant ones crammed with meat analogues. Bring back the best parts of the 90s! Crush corporate slop in favour of women-led business... and listen to Britpop!

I'm thrilled with Oasis Smoothies' expanded colourful offerings! I've tried the red and green smoothies; both were jam-packed with fresh and delicious local produce. The density of fruit and veg in these smoothies gives them flavour and texture—and photogenic colour!—and I liked the bits of agar, which you won't find in other places' dairy-based drinks. Oasis has better prices and quality than the neighbourhood's chain smoothie shops, and the shop's offbeat art room-turned-greenhouse atmosphere, replete with a friendly Shiba Inu and even friendlier owners, sets Oasis apart. Plus, I dig their name—Oasis is an apt choice by the owners of Bar Wonderwall for a Taiwanese place serving healthy stuff. (Rock up at Wonderwall for seasonal boozy versions of Oasis'...

From the name 山藥納豆煎餅, we imagined the dish to be some kind of pancake-flatbread made from Chinese yam and natto. The staff explained it was simply a flatbread topped with a mixture of natto and nagaimo. We decided to give it a try nonetheless, but were beyond disappointed. The flatbread was a commercial version that was deep fried. Not exactly what we had in mind for a healthy dish. The topping mixture consisted mainly of natto; the Chinese yam was practically nonexistent - a far cry from the copious amount shown on the menu photo of the dish. We could not manage more than a few bites of the flatbread because it was way too greasy. Unfortunately, it felt a bit like a rip-off — the quality did not match the price. Perhaps the other dishes are good, but it was not the case...

We arrived at 11:30 for lunch and found half the restaurant already full. The other half? Well, the staff informed us those tables were all booked. So, they kindly offered us a seat outside. Given it was an exceptionally hot day, we figured, “Why not?”

The food was decent, though the service was a bit on the slow side. We placed our order, ate, and left, only to notice those “booked” tables were still empty. Perhaps the reservations were for 5 PM...