Wined and... sort of dined.

Every month, the company funds the department with 500NT per employee for a get-together. Normally the department organises a monthly dinner, but they've been so busy of late that the funds have just been accumulating.

Finally, a week ago, after the semi-annual performance review dust had settled, our department went to a high-end restaurant and enjoyed a shark fin set meal at 1980NT per person. Keep in mind that here, you can get dinner for 50 - 150NT, and a good set meal for 400NT or less.

Dinner had 5 courses. We started with a light salad - nothing special.

Then was the crowning glory - a bowl of real shark fin soup - tasty, but again, nothing special, especially coming from Vancouver. The taste and texture of the shark fin remind me of vermicelli (<- nothing special).

We had a choice of sea urchin or prawn as an ante-pasto. I'm glad that, when we made our selections in advance, I didn't choose what I hadn't known was urchin, because I didn't think much of it when I'd tried it a couple weeks before.

My choice for a main course was lamb. What I got was 4 little lamb ribs. It was good, but again, nothing I haven't had.

Overall, it was a rather disappointing dinner. The food was okay, but take into the consideration the price, and there's no way I'm going back there again. I have friends who cook up a better meal. And they invite me over for free. ;) Consensus among coworkers was that dinner just wasn't worth the 1980NT ticket price.

Happily we weren't the ones footing the bill.

The only redeeming part was the wine. Of which I didn't get the name. But it was a very nice red wine - smooth texture, not tanic in the least. Since the dinner "theme" was of a celebratory nature (someone's engagement), there was plenty of toasting. Very nice wine. A-, I'd say.

C+ for everything else.

Except for the price. That gets an F.