Red Lantern — Restaurant in Yilan City

It was a meal I was really looking forward to, but it turned out to be rather disappointing. First of all, the service attitude was strange. We didn’t cause any trouble, but from the moment we sat down, one of the staff members seemed very impatient. The drink was wrong, and when we pointed it out, they just took it away without saying a word (Is this the standard one would expect from a high level restaurant like this?). They didn’t need to apologize, but at least they could’ve told us they would bring the correct one soon. The first few appetizers were quite average: boiled asparagus, braised beef, sweet-soured cherry tomatoes (this was good), boiled squid (or cuttlefish, I can’t remember), pumpkin, and Shaoxing chicken (this was also good). Everything else was pretty average, except for the dishes I mentioned as good. The braised duck wings were very flavorful, mildly spicy, and delicious. The cherry duck sushi was okay to try once, but the skin was crispy yet greasy, and the overall flavor didn’t quite match, though I can’t quite pinpoint what the issue was. The scallion pancake with duck was served a bit cold, and the skin wasn’t as crispy as I expected, which made it a bit chewy. If it were served hot and crispy, I’m sure it would have been much better (just imagining). The green dumpling with duck and scallion was decent. The duck breast and duck leg were very tasty—the meat was tender and juicy. The duck meat fried rice was a bit lacking in wok-hei (the high-heat stir-frying taste), but the duck flavor was well-incorporated into the rice. My favorite dish was the "Summer Sakura"—the flavor was just right, not too strong or overwhelming, and it was refreshing. I could eat 10 plates of this! The napa cabbage and duck soup was too greasy… I think better took it home, diluted it, and it might actually taste better as a noodle broth. The mung bean cake was delicious—flavored with salted egg yolk, which I really liked. The duck oil(fat) dressed cabbage was also decent. Since I’m a big fan of roast duck, I think I won’t come back in...

I had lunch here. The food quality is pretty good and the dining room had very high ceilings. The duck is primarily served as a prix fixe menu. The first duck course is duck nigiri, which is essentially the fatty sections of duck skin served over a cylindrical portion of rice. They asked us if we wanted cheese or no cheese. We said no cheese. Since we ordered 2 ducks, this came in 2 plates. The first plate had no cheese, but the second one came with the cheese. The cheese was sandwiched between the layer of duck skin and rice. We immediately notified the server and the first issue is that they said we didn't clarify that the second duck was no cheese. However, the server never asked us about whether we could specify cheese or no cheese for each duck. That was the first problem. They tried to make it our fault, when it was clearly the restaurants mistake. The second problem was in order to fix the problem, they they took the plate in the corner of the restaurant, put on some gloves and then tried to handpick the melted cheese out of the duck sushi, which already sounds disgusting. They threw away the rice and brought back the duck skins and left them next to our table for about 20 minutes and served the other course. After the 20 minutes, the duck skins got cold and then they put them on new rice and served it like that. I ate one and it tasted very cheesy, and I'm allergic to dairy. This caused me anxiety and frustration that they would address the issue like this. I took another piece and inspected it and found residual melted cheese on the underside of the skin. I took a photo and posted it. Main problem I had is that they didn’t take responsibility for their mistake, but tried to place to the blame on the customer and then tried to hide the problem in an professional manner. Be aware when...

My family and I were so excited to try this new restaurant during our 3 week visit in Taiwan. When we arrived at the restaurant, we immediately did not feel very welcomed by its staff members that seated us. In summary, the peaking duck was delicious and the food presentation was pretty good. However, we felt that the expensive price charged for the upscale dining should always be presented with a warm and welcoming greeting. In addition to the poor greeting experience, our kids were hungry and wanted an extra side dish of peanuts which was offered as a free side dish by the restaurant when we were seated. We had asked our waitresses on multiple occasions and we were told that they can only be one per table. I mean what kind of luxury dining experience would only offer one small dish of peanuts for a large group of 6 people and will not accommodate its customers an extra dish of peanuts????? it was even more embarrassing bc our kids wanted it and we had to ask twice and not one waiter/ waitress could generously provide our kids with an extra small dish of peanuts. To show some compassion towards our waitress, we've decided to delete her photo on this review because we feel that if the restaurant's owners allowed her to accomodate its customers, she'd probably would... But, how ridiculous is that they refused accommodate our kids a mini dish of peanuts?!!! Firthermore, we had requested extra diping sauce for our duck 3 times and it was finally delivered to us some ~30-45minutes later after our meal were finished. Overall, our first dining experience at Red Lantern will also be our last! Needless to say, we will not be recommending anyone to go eat here or ever...