Eddy's Cantina, Tianmu Open (Danshui Closed)

[Ryan the third]

Yep. Was very nice. Thanks for the nice evening at such a nice location even a little waiting doesnt matter. will definetly be back

[Northcoast Surfer]

The wife and I made it down to Eddy's Cantina - Tianmu branch for a late supper this past Wednesday evening. The food was wonderful and the service great, as usual, and the new location and decor was absolutely exquisite. Nicely done Ed and Jo!

While we were there, we overheard a table of Spanish speakers ranting and raving over Ed's cuisine. That's a great sign! If you haven't made it to Ed and Jo's new Tianmu branch of Eddy's Cantina, go and give it a try. You have been directed!

Here are some pictures I took with my better than average digital camera. Tantalizing, aren't they?

From the outside looking in the front doors. A warm glow and an inviting atmosphere on a rainy Wednesday evening.


Main counter and side seating area


Beer cooler with kitchen in the background. Did I mention the beer cooler?




Main inside seating area. Comfortable chairs and booth seats, nice lighting, Eddy's classic color scheme.






Eddy - Hard at work in the kitchen. He's smiling, but I'm sure he's really thinking, "Cody, how 'bout shoving that camera up your ass!?


The lovely and ever pleasant Jo - Working harder than Eddy, but isn't that true about all our wives?


Eddy & Jo - hard working entrepreneurs working hard for your dining pleasure!


Panoramic pic of Eddy and the whole restaurant.

[sandman]

Looks GOOD! I'll need to make the cross-muddy basin trek one of these days.

[Nuit]

Looks AWESOME! May as well be on the moon, from where we are. But maybe, perhaps, one day....

[Eddy_Burrito]

Thanx Everybody for all of the support over the last little while. I am very happy to try to provide everybody, both foreign and domestic, with the style of food that I was raised on, I hope you enjoy it. Sorry about having to wait sometimes at Tianmu branch but we are still working out a system for the smaller kitchen and double seating. Also its really been quite busy from the get go so its tough to get the system in place when your cooking non stop for 12-14 hours a day. thanx for all your support and we hope to see you soon

Eddy

[tommy525]

Looks AWESOME! May as well be on the moon, from where we are. But maybe, perhaps, one day....

What come on, its not as far as from SAN FRANCISCO !

[Newbie2011]

Overhyped , overpriced, overrated.
Steak=leathery, salsa=tasteless(all onions!), Nachos loaded again with onions, sprinkle of beef over a mound of chips dry, dry, dry!Where's the cheese!? Oh that premade cheese goo from a can... real authentic. $300?! What's that dressing on the salad? Smells like it came from a shoe. Tacos: what? more onions and dry ground beef.

Atmosphere: great but A/C inside could have been stonger. I know it's outdoorsy but close the damn doors, some like to eat in a cool confine.

Service: Attentive, fast. but i counted 6 staff! for such a tiny place? This might work in Danshui where your rent is cheaper but Tianmu?

Great location and facility but that was pretty well Sababa's doing. Too bad they had to go, far better food and inxepensive.

Owner: you'd better take heed, Tianmu is a different animal. No touristy types here like in Danshui.
Your Salsa sauce is terrible, tasteless, all onions no tomatoes. Too much onions in general. Meat: dry , tasteless.
Price: expensive, Dinner for two $800 no alcohol.

[ls918]

First of all I haven't had food from Eddy's Cantina for a while, but from past experience (including the the mail ordered frozen burritos) it was all pretty good.
I'm excited to see them branch out in Tianmu though, I'll definitely check them out soon.

Also I did not know why Sababa closed?? That place is pretty packed most of the time I visited, I thought it was doing pretty well Maybe the food is way too cheap that they shaved off their profit margin. The thing with foreign/exotic cuisine is that a lot of the ingredients are hard to find and had to be imported driving up the cost.

6 staff members mentioned on the previous post might be too many, honestly the most non-cook staff I've seen during Sababa days were 2~3?? I suggest that once it's summer already, might not come out and eat during the day for the risk of heatstroke. Maybe get 1 or 2 staff to do delivery service within whatever km radius from the store, which shouldn't be hard with a scooter and Tianmu suffers less traffic jams relatively to rest of Taipei. Like McDonalds you can charge 70NT for orders under 500NT and free delivery over 500NT.

Summer might be difficult times since the rich TAS kids are probably vacationing overseas, instead of looking for after school munch.

Also join Groupon and http://tianmucard.blogspot.com/ for free promotion.

Best of luck!

[ls918]

well i visited today around 8:30
was told that I would have to wait around 1:30 hours to get a table
and would have to wait just as long even for TAKEOUTS
their excuse is that some staff member(s) is/are absent

dude who the hell lets their staff take a leave of absence on a SATURDAY night?

I was planning to bring bunch of friends over after work throughout this week, not anymore.

[finley]

Overhyped , overpriced, overrated.
Steak=leathery, salsa=tasteless(all onions!), Nachos loaded again with onions, sprinkle of beef over a mound of chips dry, dry, dry!Where's the cheese!? Oh that premade cheese goo from a can... real authentic. $300?! What's that dressing on the salad? Smells like it came from a shoe. Tacos: what? more onions and dry ground beef.

Atmosphere: great but A/C inside could have been stonger. I know it's outdoorsy but close the damn doors, some like to eat in a cool confine.

Service: Attentive, fast. but i counted 6 staff! for such a tiny place? This might work in Danshui where your rent is cheaper but Tianmu?

Great location and facility but that was pretty well Sababa's doing. Too bad they had to go, far better food and inxepensive.

Owner: you'd better take heed, Tianmu is a different animal. No touristy types here like in Danshui.
Your Salsa sauce is terrible, tasteless, all onions no tomatoes. Too much onions in general. Meat: dry , tasteless.
Price: expensive, Dinner for two $800 no alcohol.

Have to agree. I just went (Danshui) for the third time and was disappointed yet again, although all my Taiwanese friends seem to like it. I sat there thinking "hmm ... I can do it better than that" - which wouldn't normally bother me, except that it ain't cheap; you expect something just a cut above the average. And yet again, no guacamole because avocadoes are "out of season". Come on, guys, it's a bloody Mexican restaurant. That's like a McDonalds without secret sauce, or a KFC without rat heads. Get a DHL account and have them flown in from whereever you have to.

The salsa is ... well, it's not bad (I think it's supposed to be salsa roja?) but it would be nice to see a bit more variety, at least some salsa cruda on the table. The chili one tastes like bottled taco sauce. The portions are a little stingy, except for one or two dishes which are plumped up with far too much rice to make them look bigger. The fajitas I had this time were distinctly uninspiring - a few sad little bits of chicken stir-fried with some onions.

On the bright side, the margaritas were awesome (although no Triple Sec, as far as I could tell), and the presentation, service and ambience are just fine.

Basically, if I were paying NT$129 a head for a Taco Bell-style meal, I'd have no complaints at all. Three stars out of five. Maybe I've been spoiled living in Taiwan with so many great restaurants, but if I get a tex-mex craving in future, I'll be using my own kitchen.

Can't help wondering if Eddy has left the Danshui store to its own devices, and the staff are just making it up as they go along.

And yeah ... Sababa was just amazing. What on earth happened to them?