Villa32, Beitou, Taipei

So ... as you know, I'm a wee-bit behind ... ok ... a whole lot behind on my blog (reason to be revealed in future posts). This post should've been done sometime around Christmas last year (only 2 months ago ... heh heh heh ...).

25 Dec 2011 happened to be a cold and wet winter's day - perfect weather for a visit to Villa32 in Beitou to enjoy the hot springs, as well as to dine at their award winning restaurant.

I've always loved the design of the walkway towards the entrance of the hot spring resort ...

The beautiful wooden walkway leads to the entrance of the resort, while the area below with the lovely white canopies is where the restaurant is located.

We got a hot spring room for about one and a half hours ...

A closer look at our private hot spring bath tub - it has taps for the hot spring water that is piped into the room, and for cold water so we could regulate the temperature.

After a nice relaxing soap, we adjourned to the restaurant for our dinner. We ordered their set meal, and were first presented with freshly baked bread accompanied with various dips - an olive tapenade, an eggplant spread and a pesto mousse spread.

Delicious freshly baked bread ... so yummy, we asked for more (something we normally don't do as we try to leave room to enjoy the rest of the meal).

Warm ginger infused jelly with honey, with a generous sprinkling of cocoa on top ...

Pan-seared scallops with truffles ...

Mushroom soup ...

Truffle risotto ...

A lovely green apple sorbet to cleanse the palate in preparation for our main course ...

Grilled steak with mushroom sauce ... delish!!!

Black cod with prawns ... also delish!!!

For dessert, we had a mixed berries yogurt ... a nice light way to end a perfect meal!

I had some chamomile tea as like a nightcap ...

I was most suitably impressed by the quality of the food and top-notch service at the Villa32 restaurant. Did I forget to mention the exquisite china and cutlery are all from Hermes? Ahem ... Given all the above, how could I possibly not want to come back here again? :)