Zaaptaipei — Restaurant in Xinyi District

Been looking for decently authentic Thai food for years here in Taipei. Stumbled across this place on Google maps with reviews consistently mentioning authentic taste so, being a few minutes away, figured I'd try.

Walked in with the restaurant completely empty. Wanted to order takeout for myself and was informed there's a minimum 1000nt order for takeout. Didn't exactly want to order that much food - a little ridiculous they'd be willing to turn a customer away for their arbitrary minimum. Not a great start.

Decided since I already walked over I'd just grab a few things. Ordered the green curry, basil stir fried pork, shrimp pancakes, and some rice. Honestly everything was exceptional - by far the most flavorful and authentic Thai I've ever had in Taipei. Green curry was packed full of chili and lemongrass and used Thai eggplant + obviously cooked it correctly from the fact that the coconut oil had been broken from the sauce. Basil pork also exceptional. Shrimp pancakes were better than expected - not the large flat style, rather little cylindrical donuts comprised mostly of ground pork and shrimp. Super tasty.

Look, I want to give this place 3 or 4 stars for the ridiculous rules (1000 for takeout, 500 to stay minimums). If those things are going to bother you then just go somewhere else. Ultimately the food was good enough to warrant five stars. It just pains me watching these businesses that produce a solid product sabotage themselves with insane rules that drive potential...

I’ve had dinner here twice in the past 6 months. My first time trying this place happened in Jan 2021, and it was a WOW. Everything was amazing back then! We had a large table of 12 people and ordered pretty much every dish on the menu; surprisingly, not one single dish has disappointed us.

However, on my second visit in May 2021, I found the chicken from this green curry dish had a hint of sulfur-like smell. I wasn’t sure if it had gone bad or was on the way there? My two friends who visited with me also agreed those diced chicken pieces weren’t the best, and the green curry sauce was nothing special. Moreover, the deep fried shrimp cake was very greasy to a point that you can barely eat them. I honestly don’t remember they were this oily from my first visit.

After my second visit, I definitely think the quality of their foods do NOT match the price. It’s not worth your time trying so hard to book a table here, and certainly you shouldn’t spend your money here for “not-so-fresh” food..

I will probably not give it a third chance! Overall there are plenty of nice restaurants in Taipei to...

I had given up on finding halfway decent Thai food in Taiwan until finally stumbling upon this place. I’ll get the one bad news out of the way - the noodles here are very much “Pad Tai”, so set your expectations low. Otherwise, every dish was great, with the highlights being the winged bean salad (our highlight, just a blast of fresh flavors) and the yellow crab curry (pre-order & finger licking good). I also liked the BBQ prawns (which, even though they are fairly standard, are super fresh and come with a nice green chili sauce) and the banana pancake was an addictive but very sweet and tasty finish. I wouldn’t order the spicy seafood stir fry, it is very much “Thai spicy” and, although tasty, basically burned a hole in my esophagus. Staff is also very nice and accommodating, apparently a Taiwanese couple that just has a love of experimenting and, in this case, Thai food. Great find, definitely going out of my way...