Taiwanese travel agency Lion Travel is working with Taipei’s Regent Hotel to bring a five-star dining experience to railway travelers.
With soft, dim lighting and exquisite tableware, you could mistake this space for an upmarket restaurant. Well, diners better take their seats, because this restaurant is about to get moving.
The five-star restaurant-on-wheels is a part of a tourist train called 鳴日號 or Future in English. After one year in the making, its dining experience, called The Kitchen, was unveiled to the public on Wednesday. Diners can enjoy Michelin-grade delicacies, supervised by chef Tsai Ming-che from Taipei’s Regent Hotel, while admiring Taiwan’s picturesque countryside scenery.
The Kitchen, which consists of two cars with a total capacity of 54, is set to go on its maiden voyage on March 30. Besides a dedicated car for preparing food, passengers will have at their disposal a business-class car, a lounge, and a bar.
Creating a 5-star dining experience on a train is no mean feat. Access to water and electricity is limited, while the risk of spilling a drink on a guest is high. That’s why everything, from equipment, to service, and menu, has been carefully tested ahead of time. Chef Tsai from the Regent Hotel says that the entire process starts three or four days before plating, while only finishing touches are applied on board the train.
Taiwan Railways Administration head Du Wei says that the train began operations at the end of 2020, and even though it was mothballed for three months last year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it still completed 58 trips and generated NT$140 million (US$5 million) in revenue. He says Taiwan Railways will continue expanding its tourist services, including trains designed especially for cyclists.
The Kitchen will initially carry passengers on one- or two-day trips along Taiwan’s east coast, serving up specialities like the Dong Shan cherry duck and abalones from Gongliao. If any of this has whet your appetite, well, you might need to wait. The trips are booked solid until the end of June, but tickets for 22 trips planned for the July-September period will go on sale on March 15. The experience isn’t cheap, either, with a single-day journey costing almost NT$16,000 (US$570) and a two-day trip just shy of NT$38,000 (US$1350). But if you’re willing to foot the bill, then it’s all aboard and bon appétit!
Tomasz Koper, RTI News