Taipei Throwback: The Curiosities in Modern Toilet Restaurant and Ximen Red House

The first full day in Taipei somehow became a walking trail whereby we experienced the serendipity of discovering sights that weren't in our mental itinerary. There are far too many photos for Day 1 and so this post would focus on the curious places we visited -- Modern Toilet Restaurant (便所主题餐厅) and Ximen Red House (西門紅樓).

My travel blog posts are more of photo stories chronicling my trips and I do not aim for my travel posts to be a travel guide that is full of useful travel information. There are many informative travel blogs out there and I would often be linking these useful contents to my posts.





~*Breakfast Next Door*~

While the first night in Taipei was cold and rainy, the following morning dawned bright and sunny. We popped by the bakery next door with breakfast coupons issued by the hotel. The bread looked absolutely delectable but our coupons could only be used for certain categories of bread. The picture at the bottom right of the collage was what we got in the end with the coupons. Nothing filling at all but no fear, for Taipei is full of cheap and good food!




After breakfast, we decided to explore Ximending which was just a few streets away from our hotel. Along the way, I saw this nondescript building called Zhongshan Hall. I snapped a picture of it, making a mental note to check out if this is a place of interest. If you are interested, this blog post on Zhongshan Hall is very informative. I never knew it has such rich historical significance.




Ximending was about a 10-minute's walk from our hotel. When I saw the bustling little place, I felt like I was truly in Taipei.





~*Modern Toilet Restaurant*~


Taiwan is well-known for its delectable street food and hence it was really queer that our first lunch in Taipei was in Modern Toilet Restaurant (便所主题餐厅).




Modern Toilet Restaurant is one of Taiwan's successful themed restaurants that was clearly not on my must-visit places. Since we chanced upon it at Ximending, we decided to check it out. The hubz was hungry though I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to stomach the food served in bowls shaped like toilet bowls, drinks served in urinal bottles and the likes...




We dined at tables that are actual bathtubs with with a glass over it and sat on actual toilet bowls. You could even lift the seats up and frankly, I didn't want to look into it that much.




I had a hard time deciding what to eat when I looked at the Chinese menu. Some of the dishes had got very creative names.




Take for example, "Modern Toilet Fresh Fruit Juice". Reading that drink in Mandarin, it translated loosely to "Poo and Pee Anyhow Fly Fruit Juice". Of course it sounds a lot more lyrical in Mandarin. When the waitress saw me furrowing my brows trying to decipher the menu, she immediately gave me the English menu. I found out that in plain English, it was just a boring "Modern Toilet Fresh Fruit Juice" without even revealing what fruit it was. -_-|||




Top Left: My main dish was soupy beef soup hot pot
Top Right: The chicken nuggets had very cute name like "toilet bowl little chicken bits" when read in Mandarin. I love the nuggets the most.
Bottom Left: Kh's main dish which I think was pork cutlet
Bottom Right: Our tea came in actual urinal bottles




I regretted ordering a soupy main. I was halfway through my meal before feeling really grossed out eating from a toilet bowl bowl.




Kh felt that his pork cutlet meal was not bad and remained unfazed eating from the toilet bowl. I guess it would be a lot easier to bear with it since his dish was mainly dry. That shit he was posing with was just a photo prop. When we asked what that was, the staff told us it was for taking photos with and so he did.




The milk tea served in urinal bottles was delicious.




The ice cream dessert was served in a toilet bowl bowl too. I never knew toilet bowls came in such form until I saw how the public squat toilet bowls look like in Taipei. Exactly like this bowl! In Singapore, our squat toilets do not have that cap-like feature.




The empty tables in this collage were occupied by a large group of Singaporeans before I took these photos. Oh my and don't get me started on the sink shaped like a toilet bowl.




Besides the delicious little chicken nuggets, this heart-shaped egg tofu saved the day.




Similar to many themed places, the food isn't exactly cheap for the mediocre standard. I laughed when I saw this note in the bathtub/ table.





~*Ximen Red House*~


Walking out from the other side (as seen in this picture) of Ximending, we stumbled upon Ximen Red House (西門紅樓). For a great write up on Ximen Red House, you could refer to this post.

The Ximen Red House "[b]uilt in 1908 during Japanese rule and designed by Japanese architect Kondo Juro, it was originally a market building but was used as a theater from 1945 onwards. The building recently underwent an extensive renovation. The ground floor currently houses a small cafe and a display on the history of the structure, as well as several shops in which independent artists sell their art. The second floor theater regularly hosts live performances." -- Wikipedia.




I love exploring the shops in this section of the building.




If you know the creative side of me, you would definitely understand why I love these curious little shops.




I'm always fascinated by retro stuff and vintage items.







I'm easily inspired by colour pencil art...




... quirky drawings...




... adorable illustrations...




... classic looking Peter Rabbit style art and basically anything artsy.




Emma A party looked like something I like and I love the placement of these 2 characters when seen from this angle.




I do not know if these animal sculptures were faceless and then vandalized or were they meant to be like that.




I would love to take home one of these polka dot elephant.




I love cute cats.




I love imitating cute cats and being silly.




Kh loves posing and acting whenever, wherever.








Thank you all for your comments on my previous posts. It has been a really busy work week, staying back in office till 10+pm on a few occasions to tie up the loose ends for the events that we are organizing this coming week. Sunday morning (in a few hour's time) would be spent at the event venue doing some run-through. Replies would be slow and I hope to be able to reconnect with all of you soon. In the meantime, please keep the love coming in and have a splendid Sunday ahead while I catch up on some sleep.