Elephant Garden, Taipei 象園親子餐廳

small playground inside

Location: google map, inside CITYLINK Nangang. MRT blue line Nangang Station
Pros: N/A
Cons: N/A

We walked past this restaurant once and I just wanted to share of its existence. My boys are too old to play at a playground like this, but if you have little ones under age 5 this might be fun. It was lunch time on a Saturday and it didn't seem terribly busy.

Hsinchu, Guanxi Township 關西鎮

Ang Gu Noodles

grass jelly alley

egg cake

playground right by the parking lot

Location: here is the google map of the parking lot, and the eateries are few streets down

Parking: the above parking lot is free but extremely small.

Pros: few mins away from Leofoo village. A cheaper option to get food.

Cons: Nothing special...do not go unless you happen to be in the area.

The list of the places we went:

An Gu Noodle: the noodles were pretty sweet. I didn't like it too much. 

Grass Jelly Alley: if you like grass jelly, you'd love this place. Many different combos.

Cantonese egg cake: I'm sure you can get better in hong kong. We got some for kids and they loved it. the playground is right across from the stand

Bali (Nusa Dua), Pirates Bay

Location: google map (in Nusa Dua), kind of hard to find - right next to Surf & Turf

Pros: right by the beach, good food, fun for kids

Cons: service a tad slow (but who cares? your kids will be having fun while waiting anyway!)

The beautiful beach is a given, food's great, fun stuff for the kids to do...what else could you ask for? They have several swings and climbing area with ropes for kids, and open spaces for the kids to run around. The whole place is very casual with lots of families with kids. Food is good and average priced. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are in the area! (We actually went all the way from Kuta to Nusa Dua to come here and check out the beaches on this side.)

Zhubei, Family Pizza 手工柴燒窯烤比薩

Location: google map

Pros: nice atmosphere, children's books, blocks

Cons: drinks are kind of expensive. $50NT for a can of treetop apple juice?!

It's kind of an interesting place, you order at this little hut and then go next door into this building for seating. They have a lot of special flavors like stinky tofu pizza...(which we've never tried) but also the more normal ones like margherita and pesto & cheese. The pizzas are not to die for, but decent enough. Each pizza (about 8 slices?) is around $200~$250. For our family of 5 we ordered three and it was just right.

Okinawa, A&W Fast Food Restaurant

Breakfast menu

about the only decent thing here

nice playground with sand

Location: A&W Makiminato 牧港店
Parking: its own parking lot
Pros: nice playground, flea market in the morning
Cons: food is subpar

Is it an American thing to crave REALLY good breakfasts? We certainly were at a lost finding decent breakfast spots in Okinawa. We were excited to try this since I don't even know if there is an A&W store in the U.S., but this just didn't do it for us. The only kind of exciting thing was that they have curly fries (which you can't find in Taiwan), but even that wasn't that good. But the kids enjoyed it, since they got to have root beer for breakfast!!!! and playground!!

Taichung, Elama X子餐廳

a sand pit outside and lots of snail sculptures

all in chinese

Only in Taichung....this place is HUGE

get your own plates/bowls/utencils

Location: google map location Fuhueiyuan Rd. #6. 府會園道6號

Pros: clean, nice layout, kid friendly, big selection of food

Cons: serving size is SO small, and not very good, no English menu

This restaurant is HUGE! But I think a lot of restaurants in Taichung are probably this size. We got there at around 11am on a Saturday and got a table for 7 without a reservation. (I had called in advance but reservations were all taken, but it seems like you can get seated pretty easily if you go in person) The food was okay, but it's pretty expensive for what it is (plus you have to get your own water/plates/bowls). They have sandwiches, pasta, pizza, risotto, and some other random things. They also have themed private rooms upstairs with minimum purchase ($2000+ per room). 

Taichung, Lu Di Ice Monster 路地 氷の怪物

chocolate flavor - a very dark chocolate that was really good!

milk flavored 

Location: google map Wenxin Rd. Sec 2 #21 (upstairs by the seafood restaurant)
Pros: unique & cute
Cons: pretty expensive for what it is

We were eating lunch at a restaurant nearby so we decided to walk over here for a treat. It was very "snowflake ice" like, and you can pick the flavor of the ice cream with a selection of two "toppings" for NT$200. Great to try it once, I doubt we would ever go back again.

Taipei, LanYu #1 Park 蘭與一號公園

Location: google map location, intersection of Zhongshan N. Rd & Shidong Rd.
Closest MRT station: Red line Zhishan Station (5-10min walk)
Pros: it looks cool - space themed.
Cons: no bathrooms on site

We have not yet actually played on this structure, but we walked by after brunch one day and the boys wants to come back when it's not raining. Being in the TAS neighborhood, there are a lot of American restaurants here that you can go before or after coming to this park.

*a short side review for the american brunch restaurant we tried called Jake's: great pancakes. they have some mexican food! I would say....if IHOP was a 10, this would be a...7. Will not hit the spot but you will feel like they've given decent effort into making their food American. is that good? bad? no comment.