Art Reading Cafe — Restaurant in Taipei

1/5 Food Rating 4/5 Ambiance 4/5 Value 3/5 Experience 1/5 Service

Making Reservations For The Yuppy Bookstore Triple confirmation reservation

Make one reservation online Then confirm by calling or chatting with their line account Then 1-2 days before the reservation they will confirm again.

Reservations are absolutely required. We made a reservation 5 days in advance and were lucky enough to have the worst table in the place. It was actually a side table you'd have at home to place a lamp. Not an actual dining table.

Grabbing a table for 2 is ideal because all the seats by the window are all set for 2 people.

The Yuppy Bookstore holds rotating events of live music, book reviews and movie reviews. Even though bookstore is in the name, they don't sell actual books. It's more of a fancy speakeasy with very affordable prices.

3/5 Stewed beef came out in a baking dish but was only warm, not hot food. With lots of sauce, rice, omelet and beef with a piece of garlic toast on the side (very lightly toasted). The sauce made the rice very soggy and you definitely needed a spoon to eat it. The flavor of the sauce was very light and pleasant, but if this dish was hot it would have been good. Also of the sauce was separated to prevent a soggy meal.

We ordered 2 dishes, the first dish came out after 30 minutes, the second dish fried fish risotto came out after an hour.

2/5 Fried fish risotto: the fried fish part was okay. The quality was from the prebreaded frozen fish that you could get at Costco. The risotto was like rice and sauce. They didn't merge into a tasty risotto.

Making my dinner date feel like 2 individual dinners since one dinner was completed before the other one was ready.

2/5 Dessert: Rose lychee jelly and brown sugar cake. Both were, edible but not tasty.

5/5 Music: We went on jazz night and the music was fantastic. It's a fairly large restaurant and the sound came through perfectly.

1/5 Service: we couldn't get much attention from the servers but maybe it's cause they put us in the far corner.

4/5 Value: I'd expect a place like this to cost more than it did. Most meals were around NT$200 and you could add on 2 items to make a set meal for NT$80 (soup, salad, drink or dessert).

The Yuppy Bookstore is not a place in Taiwan to eat since the food is the same quality that you could get at a movie theater (burn!). But with that said, it's a great place to hang out for the ambiance, listen to music and have a drink.

Personally, I had a bad experience here because of the food, service and restroom. There are 2 restrooms: one restroom is designed for multiple women and another unisex bathroom meant for 1 person. I waited in line for 20 minutes and there was someone taking a massive poop in there. I don't know if they got injured, but it was frustrating to wait. I ended up leaving the building and going to a convenience store nearby. Many of the men also waiting in line were very frustrated.

Minimum charge NT$250. $320 fee if there's a performance happening. Confirm this during your reservation.

More reviews and places to eat at the...

Overall: one of the best restaurants I’ve been to in Taipei. Ambience is quite unique being a blend of restaurant/bar/performance venue. Definitely aiming at a 1930s feel with the decor. Comfortable seating to watch performances; also there’s a big screen showing the stage. Afternoon and evening performances. Venue appears to be oriented to a wide range of music styles, with a bias to jazz, with selection of local artists appearing several nights a week. Their website indicates lots of other activities on the calendar. Price: very reasonable considering the quality of the food and entertainment. Service: courteous and efficient. Food: stylish presentation for all dishes. French motif to the arrangements. My lunch consisted of a starter of tomato soup, which was creamy with some depth to it. I also had the Seared seabass - delicious - accompanied by selection of cooked vegetables. Even a coriander sauce accompanying the fish - quite daring for Taipei. Chicken curry was nicely spiced and paired with a vegetable accompaniment. I would highly recommend this place for a relaxing afternoon or evening of...

It is not easy to rate the place without live music, seminaries or book talks. I was there in a very quiet Saturday afternoon. I can only give it rating a low four stars. It is situated in a third floor of an old building with a shady front lobby entry. Once you reached the third floor, the restaurant/cafe entrance impresses you with this bright red and warm lighting. The deco tries to produce an old European feel. The service is pretty slow and the food is mediocre. My duck leg, duck confit, is below average. It supposed to be made by slow-roasting duck meat in its own fat. But the duck is prepared in a fast way which didn’t give it a result of rich without tasting fat. The meat’s seasoning is okay. We also had salmon which was...