The owner named the restaurant after the popular comedy movie, 3 Idiots. The meaning behind the movie conveys the upside of having a ‘stupid energy’. This can be defined as having a ridiculously strong positive attitude towards the challenges of life which results in everything ending up going smoothly.
3 Idiots Toast & Curry is an ideal place for vegetarians, and it’s even said to accommodate vegans. It’s also worth mentioning that they don’t charge any service fees, even so, their staff enthusiastically took care of us.
They’re located in the Zhongshan and Da’an Districts. As for their Zhongshan branch, where we visited, it caught our eye as we spotted three funny butt seats in front of the entrance as we were passing by. The Zhongshan branch is located about 4 minutes walk from the Nanjing Fuxing MRT.
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1. About the Restaurant |
As we looked in, we could see the fresh and woody interior filled with natural sunlight from the large floor-to-ceiling windows which gives it an upbeat atmosphere.
However, we immediately noticed it’s a very popular restaurant as it gets almost full by noon on weekdays. Luckily though, there is a basement floor at this branch, so we were swiftly guided downstairs to an available table.
We later discovered that we’re able to call them to make reservations since the Indian staff can speak English fluently. Therefore, we strongly suggest calling ahead to book your table to avoid disappointment – we’ve added their telephone number for each branch at the end of this article.
The vibe of the restaurant was pretty strong, especially in the basement area where it’s surrounded by exotic Indian decorations. Even the red brick wall gives the place a gorgeous and mysterious atmosphere. Whatsmore, there’s a subtle scent of the incense in the air to make us feel relaxed as well as a warm impression of India.
Above all else, it’s the fact that the owner, chefs, and waiters are all Indians, making it one of the most authentic Indian restaurants we’ve ever been to in Taipei.
Since it’s self-service here because there’s no service fee added to your bill, but this does mean you’d have to get your water and cutlery.
What We Ordered
After checking out their menu full of delicious choices, the waiter enthusiastically offered his recommendations after getting an idea of what we liked. We didn’t want to miss anything really good here though, so went for their ‘Combo Set for Two’. It was at a special price of $999 (down from $1,400).
This ‘combo set for two’ comes with a large and shareable appetizer, main course, grilled toast, North Indian curry, Dosa, Ruti, two desserts, and two drinks.
Here’s what comes to our table:
Our Drinks
Our set comes with two pint-sized drinks of our choosing from the soft drink section.
● On the left – Apple and Mango Juice ($120)
The mixed juices were fresh and pure, although the apple juice was overpowered with a strong juicy mango taste. It was so refreshing with each sip that we were surprised the drink lasted the entire meal. We guess this was because a pint glass is pretty huge – much bigger than your usual soft drink glasses in Taipei.
● On the right – Masala Milk Tea – cold ($120)
This tea had a subtle milky taste which we were expecting to be sweet, but it wasn’t. However, we did notice that the masala flavor was fairly strong as the milk tea was boiled with various aromatic herbs and spices.
All in all, it was a tasty drink which we recommend if you’re into milk tea. We enjoyed it so much that it didn’t last the entire combo meal.
Our Appetizer
Pani Puri ($240)
When we walked through the restaurant to our table, we found most people had ordered this as it’s popular Indian street food.
Before trying out this mouth-watering dish, it’s important to know how to eat it:
1) Take a crispy ball and carefully poke a hole in it using the back of your spoon.
2) Fill the ball with each portion of the three surrounding sauces.
3) The last step is to put the entire ball into your mouth immediately before it gets soggy. You’ll taste a flavorful mix of sweetness, spicy, and crunchiness bursting in your mouth.
Our Main Course
Indian Thali ($360)
This dish is the ‘grilled toast’ part of our combo meal, but we found it on the menu as ‘Indian Thali’.
It’s one of the most popular meal choices at the 3 Idiots restaurant, and on top of that, their portions were much bigger than we expected!
There are three different flavors of curry, sided with whole-wheat toast, salad, and turmeric rice. The toast, which is soft and has a natural vegetable sweetness to them, is used for dipping into the curries.
The three different curry flavors in this dish are:
● On the left – Cauliflower Potato Curry – tasted a bit sweet since the vegetable used in this curry is white cauliflower.
● In the middle – Spiced Lentil Curry – also sweet with a super creamy texture and a touch of cinnamon and milk. We both agreed it was the best one that went with turmeric rice.
● At the top – Lotus Seed Bean Curry – is a savory curry as the tomato had a strong and heavy taste to it, but it wasn’t too salty in our opinion. After having tried a lot of vegetarian food, we often noticed lotus seed beans in the ingredients due to how rich they are in protein and have a high nutritional value.
This dish also came with a salad and potato chips, as well as a small but incredibly delicious treat. As for the treat, it was like a densely packed coconut-flavored cotton candy. It melted in our mouths immediately, leaving a little ginger flavor on our tongues.
Roti ($40)
Roti is a round flatbread, made of whole-wheat flour. It was soft and very chewy, making it ideal to rip pieces off and dip into a curry.
The taste of this chewy bread, once you’ve dipped a piece in the curry, is seriously delicious, leaving you tempted to order more.
Potato Dosa ($320)
This dish is the ‘Dosa’ part of our combo meal, but we found it in the menu as ‘Potato Dosa’ on the ‘South Indian Dosa’ section.
The ‘Dosa’ is the huge folded bread that gets served sitting on top of the entire dish. After being left to ferment overnight, the Dosa is then fried to form this long cylindrical crust.
The Potato Dosa also comes with a salad, spice curry, coconut sauce, hot and sour tomato sauce, and potatoes. Since the Dosa has a firm texture, you’re able to tear off pieces to make wraps with the different curries.
This salad comes with a mix of nuts which made it much more interesting. When we felt the curry flavors were becoming too spicy for us, we refreshed our mouths down by eating the cold and nutty lettuce salad.
Our Desserts
Rice Pudding ($80)
If you’re not too full from this combo set, then get ready for a sweet and delicious ending!
The first dessert to arrive was like a little bowl of tasty porridge with a mix of nuts on top. We wouldn’t complain about how small these desserts were, we barely had any room left in our stomachs!
Gulab Jamun ($80)
This is a milk-solid-based treat that is very sweet, but not greasy. It’s made by milk being kneaded to form a dough, molded into balls, then deep-fried and dropped into a simmering sugar syrup.
We were a little startled by its appearance, but when we gave it a try, we found it wasn’t bad at all! We were told that this dessert originated from India, and later been officially declared as a national dessert of Pakistan by their Government.
The Menu
Check out their menu below:
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Worth visiting?
Decent vegetarian curries with various sandwiches and toasts in a casual setting. It may not be a traditional Indian restaurant, but it doesn’t need to be. The dishes offer a wide range of flavors and spices that are healthy and satisfying.
The portions of the food are huge for what you pay for, making it a very good value for money – especially if you’re sharing a combo set as we did.
Will we go back?
For sure! Despite sharing a huge combo meal, we felt there was so much more from the menu that we didn’t get to try.
We’re not vegetarians, but we both didn’t feel anything was missing from the Indian curry dishes.
3 Idiots Toast & Curry (Zhongshan)Hours: Telephone: 02 8770 5848 Facebook: toastcurry1 English address: No. 318, Changchun Rd, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, 104 Chinese address: 104台北市中山區長春路318號 Closest MRTs: Nanjing Fuxing Station (4-minute walk) |
3 Idiots Toast & Curry (Da’an)Hours: Telephone: 02 2369 9966 Facebook: Currytoast English address: No. 28號, Lane 283, Section 3, Roosevelt Rd, Da’an District, Taipei City, 106 Chinese address: 106台北市大安區羅斯福路三段283巷28號 Closest MRTs: Taipower Building Station (4-minute walk) |
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🗓️ Updated: May 2021 – Taipei.Expats
