An authentic farmhouse restaurant

Last week I went to a farmhouse restaurant in a magnificent settting which I think deserves to be my best restaurant of the year. It is in the outskirts of town and quite remote. It was dark when we arrived and this is what it looked like outside the restaurant.

We walked towards the front entrance and that was much more welcoming. There were four red laterns by the front door with the restaurant name written on it.

I was very surprising to find a big forecourt inside. It was like a museum, and there were many traditional farming tools and relics on display. I've only seen some of these tools on TV or magazines before and was very interested to see them in real life. I wandered around here for a while looking at them before I went through to the restaurant area which caught me by further surpise.

I walked through a doorway, there were some old sofas and some people were drinking chinese tea here when I walked past. I didn't take a photo then, and this was taken later as I left.

As I walked through, I saw a big pond in front of me, that was what caught me by surprise. It was a lily pond with a some trees planted inside and little bridge running over it The restaurant area were in the buildings on either side and the light from the restaurant shone onto the pond. My wife absolutely loved it. In fact, she spent so much time here that I had to call here into the restaurant to place her order.

The restaurant area is pretty basic as all the decor is focused on the exterior. The makes sense really as it seems they want to replicate a farmhouse or traditional village house which is quite basic.

The food here wasn't as impressive as the surroundings. Here's the food menu and the drinks menu on the back. You tick your order here and take it to the counter place your order. The food were mainly set meals and they say they have authentic farmhouse recipes.

And here's the food we ordered. The set meal consist of a main dish, we ordered a pork and fish one each. There is a plate of green vegetable, some appitizers, and a bowl or rice.

One of my friend is a vegan so she ordered some other small dishes off the menu.

As you can see the food isn't as impressive as the setting. It was good, but because the pond and buildings and everything looked so enchanting at night time, it sort of raised our expectation of the food. Anway, it was a great evening out with friends, and by the time we left, ours were the only two cars left in the car park.

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Restaurant Information

Tianliao Farmhouse

408, Taiwan, Taichung City, Nantun District, 樂田巷2號

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An authentic farmhouse restaurant
This post participated in the Tasteem contest The best restaurant of the year

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