Circum: First Time Trying Michelin 1-Star in Taipei
Come with me to try my first Michelin-starred restaurant in Taipei at Circum for their Spring 2026 Tasting Menu! Despite being famous for street foods and hole-in-the-wall restaurants, Taiwan’s fine dining scene is a side I rarely get to explore. Today, we’re enjoying some classic Chinese dishes with a unique French cuisine twist, using some of Taiwan’s in-season spring ingredients. If you’re curious about Taiwan’s fine dining, definitely check out all the dishes I ate at Circum!
1st Time Trying Michelin Restaurants in Taiwan
When you think of Taiwan, what comes to mind? For me, it’s the people, the stunning landscape, the culture, and most importantly, the food. Taiwan is famous for its street food, bite-way night markets, and tiny hole-in-all restaurants that I absolutely adore. But today, we’re exploring Taipei’s fine dining scene at two Michelin Star restaurants to show you what else Taiwan has to offer. I’ve never been to any Michelin restaurants in Taipei before, so it’s my first time too!
The first restaurant that we’re checking out is a one-star Michelin restaurant named Circum. Here at Circum, Chef Leo utilizes French cooking techniques to create Chinese inspired dishes. A lot of the dishes are inspired by memories during travel, childhood memories, and family traditions. But, the foundations are all built from years of experiences in French cuisine.
Spring 2026 Tasting Menu with Drink Pairings
Today, we’re here for Circum’s first seasonal menu of 2026, the Spring dinner tasting set for NTD $2,880 Per person. I’ll also be trying their non-alcoholic set ($800 NTD), while my mom’s trying their 5 drink wine pairing ($1880 NTD). The menu comes with an appetizer set, 5 courses, and a 2-course dessert.
Before the meal starts, they give you this beautifully designed menu as a preview for the meal to come. You can see the concept of land and sea in the design of these menus. It comes with 3 pages: an about page, an introduction to Asian flavor profiles, and the Menu for tonight. It’s an exciting start to this experience!
Pairing 1: Champagne and Sparkling Oolong
We start off with our first drink pairings: champagne and sparkling oolong. Both drinks are light, refreshing, and bubbly, designed to complement the umami rich and savory dishes to come. The sparkling drinks help cut down the fatty flavors, so they pair really well with the heavier dishes later.
- Champagne Hure-Freres “Invitation” NV: a refined champagne with fine bubbles with a rounded texture, notes of red fruit, and subtle caramel.
- Saicho Osmanthus Oolong (Fujian, China): A sparkling cold-brew Tieguanyin infused with osmanthus blossoms, sourced from high-altitude tea gardens in Fujian. You can really taste the tea flavor!
Tangram
Next, is our starters, Circum’s signature Tangram. Inspired by the cold dishes traditionally served at Chinese banquets, this starter set features seven small bites made with in-season ingredients. In Taiwan, we call it 開胃菜, or palette-opening dish, The more you eat it, the more “open” your appetite gets.
Each highlights a different point of the flavor spectrum of Chinese cuisines: sour, sweet, umami, spicy, numbing, bitter, and aromatic. They all look delicious, with tons of seafood options. It comes in a set of 7 small dishes and you eat from right to left as the flavor kind of gets a little bit heavier. We finished EVERYTHING, and I was sad to see this course end!
Chayote with Plum Sauce
The first one we got a chayote with plum sauce, a tangy, bring opening inspired by the street snack of plum-dusted guava. It is lightly blanched and pickled with white preserved plum sauce so it has a super clean, gentle sweetness and tanginess, but crisp texture. Not too heavy at all.
Charred Eggplant with Roasted Peppers
Next, we got charred eggplant with roasted peppers, a reinterpretation of Jiangnan braised eggplants. I don’t like eggplants at all, so this is going to be an honest review. The eggplant was first fried, then marinated overnight in a house roasted red pepper paste. It was so, so smoky, rich, and probably one of my favorite dish of the night. It tastes almost like an izakaya skewer. I will be gladly eating eggplants every day if eggplant always tastes like that.
We then tried the Toyama Bay firefly squid in chili oil. It was flavored with fermented bean paste and Sichuan peppercorn oil. The flavor was savory, numb, and slightly sweet, and not fishy at all. So good! The fermented black bean adds tons of umami flavor to this dish.
Next is a Teochew and Cantonese-inspired abalone with sand ginger. The abalone is marinated with sand ginger and shallot, then finish off with hot chicken fat and scallion oil. Yum. Abalone can be really hard to chew sometimes when not cooked right, like a gum texture. But, this one’s soft but still has a nice chew.
Another thing that I normally don’t eat, we have fermented bitter melon with preserved mustard greens, which balances the bitterness of the melon with gentle acidity from Japanese pickled plum and preserved greens. This dish was a play on Taiwanese home cooking. Not going to lie, this wasn’t my favorite, but it definitely opened my eyes to what bitter melon can do.
Next we got my favorite, quail egg with truffle soy. This dish is a Circum classic. Soy marinated eggs paired with truffle puree, finished with balsamic pearls. Literally a match made in heaven. I hate how a lot of times they just add truffle into everything, but it doesn’t actually enhance any flavor and it overpowers everything. But in this dish, you actually still taste the soy sauce, the egg, and the truffle. It blends in together really perfectly. I can eat probably 100 of this quail egg.
Lastly, Chaoshan-style braised duck tongue. These cherry duck tongues from Changhua are braised and with spices. Tender, savory, perfect way to end these starters.
Buddha Jumps Over The Wall
Our first official main dish of the night is a Fujian-inspired banquet course called Buddha Jumps Over the Wall. This is actually one of my favorite dishes to enjoy during Lunar New Year. Chef Leo gave it a modern twist to a century old banquet classic. It comes piping hot, and looks delicious. The dish features sea cucumber, shiitake mushroom, scallop, and chestnut, finished with a rich 8-hour broth. Then, it’s all poured over a perfectly steamed egg custard.
This was my favorite dish of the night and one that truly blew my mind away. The steamed egg is perfectly cooked. It is so delicate, so soft. What’s really impressive about this dish is how these ingredients with very intense flavors end up blending perfectly together instead of overpower each other. You’d think with all these savory ingredients that it’s going to be really heavy. But somehow, every bite works, and feels like a brand new experience.
Pairing 2: Rose Sake and Lotus Root Mocktail
Our second drink pairing of the night is a rose red yeast sake and lotus root mocktail. Our next few courses will spicy and creamy. These sweet but subtle drinks soften the spiciness. These drinks were so tasty, I wanted to finish them even though they’re supposed to be a pairing for my food.
- Oze Yukidoke Junmai Daiginjo “ROZE”: a seasonal sake made with red yeast which gave it a beautiful rose color, with aromas of cranberry and strawberry.
- Lotus Root Mocktail: Inspired by the flavors of Hunan, lotus root is blended with mixed nuts topped with a light foam of soy, red dates, poria, and milk. Nutty, creamy, and tastes like soy milk in the best way possible.
Tempura Aged Flounder
The next dish we were served was a 2-day aged tempura shiso-wrapped olive flounder with Hunan-inspired fermented chili and creamy Laba garlic butter sauce. The chef built layers of flavor by combining one week fermented chopped chili with fermented laba garlic for extra depth. Then, he folded in fresh chili right before service.
I put together a perfect bite with a bit of everything. This may look spicy, but it was actually more savory, creamy, and smoky. The laba garlic butter sauce at the bottom balanced everything out perfectly. The fish is really flaky, really fresh and so crispy. I was a little bit skeptical because it looked like a lot of chili, but it’s really not as spicy as I thought!
Pairing 3: White Wine
My mom’s third wine pairing is a crisp white wine. It is meant to highlight the natural sweetness of the seafood and bright fruity flavors in the next dish.
- Schloss Gobelsburg Langenlois Gruner Vetliner 2023: Citrus, green apple, white pepper, and a fine mineral edge
Miao-Style Sour fish Soup
The third dish of the night a seasonal seafood tomato soup. It’s not a surprise at all because we love soup in Asian culture. This dish was inspired by the Miao-style Sour Fish Soup from southwest China in the mountains of Guizhou where acidity was once used in place of salt for preservation. Adding in a light, warm soup with lots of vegetables acts like a palette cleanser before the next two heavier dishes.
To create the soup base, the chef ferments 4 different varieties of tomatoes for 10 days, building a broth that is bright, aromatic, and deeply flavorful. It’s sour, but not like vinegar , or even tomatoes, and not overpowering. It was almost like a tom-yum soup and a hot and sour soup combined. It is then finished with a lightly blanched geoduck, straw mushrooms, and sweet peas, which are really, really crunchy. A perfect third course that warms you from the inside out.
Squab Two Ways
Our final main of the night is a Cantonese inspired Squab prepared two ways. Right when the dish is dropped off, you can instantly smell the smoky flavors. The breast was served chilled, gently marinated with Chinese angelica and rose liquor. then wrapped in a delicate tofu skin. It’s finished with a fragrant sauce infused with ginger and herbs. It’s actually a really nice chewy soft texture. The Chinese herbal medicine flavors really soaked in, just like drunken chicken.
The squab leg, on the other hand, was fried until crispy and seasoned with Sichuan pepper and white pepper. This is a smoky umami bomb that ended up becoming my favorite bite of the night. I don’t actually love squab that much because normally the meat is very, very tough. But this is probably the most tender bird I’ve ever had.
Pairing 4: Red and roasted Tea
For the fourth pairing, we had a red wine and a roasted tea. Both were smooth, comforting pairings designed to complement our second main course, A5 Wagyu beef noodle soup. chosen to balance the smoky richness of the meat dishes.
- Roberto Voerzio “Disangrancesco” Langhe Nebbiolo 2022: notes of red berries, dried flowers, and delicate spices. Fine tannins and lively acidity balance smoky grilled meats while softening chili heat.
- Traditional Roasted Tieguanyin (Anxi, Fujian): classic charcoal roasted Tieguanyin tea, slowly baked for over 40 hours, then rested to fully develop its rich, smooth, and deeply toasty aroma.
A5 Wagyu Beef Noodle Soup
Our next course is an A5 Wagyu Beef Noodle Soup, inspired by Lanzhou Beef Noodle, this super clear broth is built over eight hours in layers of beef bones, beef, Chinese spices, and vegetables. It is served with somen and topped with crispy beef tendon that has been dried for 36 hours before puffing up. As someone who cooks a lot and loves beef noodle soup, this is so delicious and it’s very light. I thought it would be so heavy from the Wagyu, but it’s not heavy at all.
On the side, you get thinly sliced A5 Wagyu beef wrapped with thinly sliced daikon. A fun and elevated twist on a humble street food classic. You can see all the thin slices of the beef. Not too fatty at all. The radish perfectly compliments it. It’s not overly salty.
Final Wine Pairing
To end the night, we were served the final wine pairing to go alongside our final two course dessert.
- Erzsebet Prince Szamorodni 2017: with notes of honey, dry fruit, and floral aromas with vibrant acidity.
Two Course Dessert
The final part of the night is the two course dessert. We started with an Almond Tong Sui with a sweet fermented rice and sea grapes. Almonds were soaked overnight, then ground into a smooth almond cream. It was refreshing, elegant, and not overly sweet.
Then, it’s time for the final dessert, Dreams Come Fruit. Inspired by Chinese fruit traditions and Japanese wagashi, this was a playful sequence of tea sweets reflecting tea culture. We first got to draw our own fortune, which were poems written inspired by each of the selection of different sweets.
The plate included a variety of flavors, from the chef’s take on pineapple tart to Japanese waterdrop cake. Each bite offers a surprise. This was so fun and memorable. A perfect way to end the night!p
Final Thoughts
Everything was absolutely delicious, but we had to pick our favorites. My mom’s favorite dishes were the Chili Tempura Flounder and the Squab. My personal favorite was definitely the first dish, the Buddha Jumped Over the Wall. The steamed egg was a lasting memory for me. Even after all these courses, I still remember the first bite. That just proves that was absolutely delicious. I was so impressed. I think just that one dish alone is worth coming to visit.
Overall, I loved how Chef Leo was able to combine his local upbringings with his international experience, creating flavors that felt both familiar and newly discovered. I’ll definitely be back to try their future seasonal menus. For my first ever Michelin restaurant experience in Taiwan, I would say this one is definitely one that I’ll remember forever.
