Formosa Taipei — Restaurant in Lexington

I have loved this place for many years and thought its about time I wrote a review. This Chinese restaurant has some of the most authentic, highest quality Chinese food in the area. Our family lived in China for a year back in 1996 and the cooking techniques remind me more than any other other Chinese restaurant in the area of the food in we were able to get in China. For example, Chinese Pea Shoots (Dou Miao), delicately stir-fried with garlic are often available for the asking and the Sautéed Shanghai Greens and Sautéed String Beans are also excellent. One thing we often miss in completely Americanized Chinese restaurants are the vegetables...we can get what we crave, skillfully cooked, at Formosa Taipei. Another dish that I can never get enough of is the Ko-Cha Dish, a magical combination of pork, squid, dried tofu with vegetables and a spicy black bean sauce...I feel I'm right back there in China with this one. I enjoy many of the appetizers as well such as the delicate various Steamed Dumplings, pork being a favorite of course but I also much enjoy the shrimp and vegetarian, the key being here that the dumpling skins are not overly thick as is often the case in some restaurants here. Also the Salt and Pepper Chicken is not to be missed; spicy and salty but not saucy. I've saved the best for last, the Spicy Noodles in Soup with Beef Sirloin. This dish is incredible. They must slow-cook the meat for many, many hours to tenderize it so and to make such a good soup stock; its just incredible. I have never had its equal anywhere else. Most restaurants seem to just shave some beef into the soup and cook it a little. If you have ever made stock and/or stew you'll know that this will not give you a satisfying broth. These are just examples. I continue to find new things I much enjoy on the menu. I strongly recommend picking at least something from the Authentic Traditional...

I am a newly young parent with minimal income and decided to get Chinese takeout on a Friday night after a long day of work I spent $39.30 on four items! crab Rangoon beef teriyaki orange chicken and some dumplings, the food was all pretty good nothing out of this world or special but the main reason why I’m giving one star isn’t over the food it was over the incredibly rude delivery driver lady I ran outside to meet her but because she was so impatient and ran to my back door by the time I was at my front door I ended up having to walk up my driveway and yell just for her to see me then after I gave her $43 she continued to count it numerous times and looked at me funny but continued to not give me my food then she kept saying no tip no tip noted even though I had already given her a three dollar tip I asked her how much was the bill and she told me “No tip yet again so at this point I’m pretty cold since I’m in just my bathrobe and it’s dead winter so I take the food from her and say thank you and start to head into my house when she then starts to yell rude comments saying how she will never do live here again because I’m too cheap to give her a tip. I used to deliver food when I was younger and sometimes I would only get a $.10 tip and I still would never be rude to a customer and embarrass them or act in the manner that she did. She doesn’t know how much I make or have in my pocket, so it was pretty rude to assume I was just...

It really depends on what you order. Some dishes were horrible and some of them were very tasty. The cold noodle with peanut sauce was basically noodles covered in peanut butter (the kind you put on a sandwich). The pad tai also seemed to have peanut butter in it. I get pretty sick after eating sugar in the jar peanut butter, and sure enough, I got sick after an hour of trying a bite. Not to mention it wasn’t tasty. I had to put the noodles in chicken ginger soup and add some meat to make it edible for my husband. Also why charge $7 on noodles with just peanut butter? It’s worth less than $3 on in my opinion.

If they are not using regular peanut sauce as you expect in normal Vietnamese/ Tai food, it should clearly say so in the menu. It’s is misleading.

On the other hand, every Chinese dish, including the dumplings, were all yummy.

I’ll come back for more Chinese/taiwanese food but I recommend not wasting your money on the rest...