Ice Monster 冰館

This place used to be on Yong Kang Street (永康街) but because of a nasty divorce, the owner moved it to its new location on Chungxiao East Road (忠孝東路). After 17 years of business, Ice Monster is still super, super popular--so much so that people are willing to wait a good half hour (or more if you go on the weekends or at night) just to get a seat.

All over the restaurant you'll see this illustration; it's supposed to be the owner's face. I've never seen a picture of him, but this motif is super cute.

Ice Monster has always been most famous for its mango sorbet. They have a ton of dishes with it, but we just got the one called Mango Sorbet (芒果雪酪). It's a scoop of mango sorbet on top of shaved ice and a mango compote. It's so juicy and refreshing, and actually has tiny chunks of mango in the sorbet. I really wish that they'd given us a bowl full of sorbet, because I can literally go to any nightmarket and get a bucket of shaved ice for free. It's just a little expensive (150NT, about $5) for what you're getting.

We also got the Rye Beer Sorbet (黑麥啤酒雪酪), which is supposed to be really popular right now. I'm a bit too much of a girly girl to like beer, but this is actually quite nice! It's not bitter and doesn't have a strong alcoholic taste, and it has pop rocks candy in it, which makes eating this really fun. It also has coffee-flavored jello cubes, which complement the rye flavor really well. If actual beer tasted like this... I think I could like beer.

For Taiwanese standards, this is not a cheap place, and they really enforce the 120NT per person minimum (about $4). Because I am greedy and impatient, I rarely say something is worth the wait, but I think this is. If you come here, be a nice person and get out of there quickly; there are other people waiting in the heat!

Ice Monster 冰館
No. 297, Section 4, Chungxiao E. Rd.
台北市忠孝東路四段297號
http://www.ice-monster.com/