Shangri-La Far Eastern Taipei: Excellent Breakfast, But Room Is Dated

Overall, we enjoyed our one-night stay at the Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei, but while the breakfast is fantastic, the location and rooms aren’t perfect.

Exterior of Shangri-La Far Eastern Taipei

Booking the Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei

Official link to hotel: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/

We only needed a one-night stay in Taiwan as we awaited our flight back to the United States the next day. I debated staying at the Grand Hyatt Taipei, a hotel Jenn and I have stayed in before many years ago, but that hotel doesn’t have standard rooms that fit four people. I also looked at the new Hyatt Regency Taoyuan International Airport, but staying near the airport didn’t seem fun on a layover over 24 hours long. Thus, I looked away from Hyatt.

Instead, I had a $200 Delta Stays credit, which can be used on one-night stays, on one of my Delta Reserve credit cards. From searching around on that site (which is powered by Expedia), I stumbled across the Shangri-La Far Eastern. I could book us into a Horizon Premier King Room. This room comes with access to the Horizon Club, giving us evening appetizers and free breakfast in the morning. The $200 Delta Stays credit means that instead of paying $430 for the one night, I only paid $230.

First impressions of the Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei

We cleared customs and immigration at around 3:15PM at TPE, then took the Taoyuan Airport MRT over to Taipei Main Station. From there, we just took an Uber the rest of the way to the hotel. The Shangri-La isn’t all that conveniently close to public transportation. Normally, you might expect the Uber drivers to speak English relatively well, but that didn’t seem to be the case in Taipei. It helps if you know some Mandarin Chinese.

By the way, do not take Uber from the airport–it’s a flat rate and horribly expensive. Do what we did and take the train over to Taipei Main Station first. You’ll save plenty of money this way.

Anyways, we arrived to a rather large lobby area, though there isn’t much seating here.

I checked in where a friendly agent assisted and listed off the benefits for being in a Horizon Premier King Room. Our room was ready when we arrived, which was nice. While knowing Mandarin would have been helpful for the Uber rides, it was most definitely not necessary when inside this hotel.

The friendly agent at the front desk told me I got upgraded to a Plaza Suite and motioned for the bell desk to take our luggage upstairs and we were on our way. Frankly, I’m a bit surprised that me–a person here on a Delta Stays booking with no elite status of any kind at Shangri-La got an upgrade. But there you go.

The rest of the lobby is nice, but I have to admit that we didn’t explore too much on the lobby level.

The room (Plaza Suite)

We took the elevator up to the 31st floor to find our room for this short stay. The lighting over here wasn’t great, so the picture of the cluster of rooms (3113 – 3116) looks better.

See? I don’t like to use flash, but just wanted to prove that it was a bit dark around the door. Despite that, it didn’t feel unsafe at all.

The living room

When you first enter the room, you’ll be in the living room. Instantly, we could see the room had a little more of an “old world” feel to it. Not as much as you might expect from an Intercontinental, but enough that you could think it’s due for a refresh.

On the left side of the living room is an array of couches and chairs. These were comfortable but you could tell they’re a bit on the older side.

Atop the table was a small presentation of fruit (apples and oranges). While we have no elite status with Shangri-La, it’s nice that we at least get some refreshing fruit to eat in the room.

In the center of the room is a TV. Compared to what you’re used to seeing these days, it’s small relative to how large the room itself is.

On the other side of the living room was a dining table that felt more like a conference table. Don’t expect it to work well with your optical mice. We just used it as an area to store our backpacks since we were only around for one night.

Also out here is some complimentary water and a water boiler because you’re in Asia.

Underneath the water boiler is the mini-fridge. I actually didn’t see any signage saying whether the drinks in here are free or not. Perhaps they’re free because you could just get similar drinks in the Horizon Club but I didn’t risk it.

The bedroom

Turn down the hallway from the living room and you’ll find the closet. Since it was a bit narrow in here, it was hard to effectively take a good picture of the closet. This is where the bell hop placed our luggage. There are a few drawers in this closet that aren’t deep but at least they give you something for your clothes! Better than the Reykjavik EDITION in that regard!

As an example of what the drawers look like, you’ll see that they’re more like moveable shelves in the picture below.

In the bedroom itself, you’ll find a fairly firm king-sized bed with a simple headboard. The kids took the opportunity to take a look out at the city while I took the pictures. The pillows have a good amount of give to them and are also plump, making them pretty good. As for the sheets, they’re on the thinner side but still maintained heat well.

The small table next to the bed is also made of glass, making it less-than-ideal for an optical mouse.

Next to the bed are a host of devices even before we added our own in the mix. You have the phone, alarm clock, room lighting controls, and a protective case for the TV remote. Hey, at least they didn’t do the completely Asian thing and wrap the remote in clear plastic.

As for the TV itself… it’s small. Think the TV out in the living room felt small? Well, this one felt even smaller though I believe they were about the same size. The barren wall behind it just makes the TV size stick out so much.

The view from the room was of Taipei 101. I’d rate it as an impressive view.

Bathroom

No room stood out more that the Shangri-La needs a refresh than the bathroom. Even with the lights on, the dark walls feel a bit drab and unappealing. There is no natural lighting in here and that just adds to the effect.

In one corner of the bathroom is the tub, which was fine. It’s big enough for one and has handles built in to the sides to assist with getting in and out of it. Nothing to complain about here.

Right above the bathtub is the towel rack. I normally like big, soft towels but these were on the smaller side.

Across from the bathtub is the vanity. You get a light above the mirror that felt a bit harsh on the eyes. But you get a small TV in case you want to watch something while in the tub or shaving. I’m not sure what exactly makes me feel this way, but TVs in a bathroom feel tacky and outdated these days. Maybe I don’t know how to properly relax in a tub, but watching TV in the bathroom isn’t really my thing.

Hidden around the corner is the toilet. I normally don’t say much about a toilet, but its position feels a bit awkward and you might find it a bit cramped. In fact, when sitting on it, you’ll have to angle your legs away and to the side because the wall slants immediately in front of it. Almost feels like the toilet is an afterthought or maybe they don’t expect people with longer legs to stay here. Sorry, TMI, I know.

For the life of me, I couldn’t find a light fixture in the shower. The lighting you get is from the vanity, so your eyes will adjust, but it sure looks pretty dark in here when using a camera. And this is another shower that doesn’t have a door, making it more difficult to keep warm.

Shower amenities are by John Masters Organics, a good brand.

Access to the Horizon Club

Before we talk about the rest of the Shangri-La Far Eastern Taipei’s restaurants, we’ll first touch on access to the Horizon Club. You can earn access to the Horizon Club by staying in the following room types:

Horizon Superior Room
Horizon Deluxe Room
Horizon Premier Room
Any suite (Plaza, Specialty, Presidential)

Additionally, Diamond members in the Shangri-La Circle program also get access to the Horizon Club for the member and up to 2 guests. When you check in, you’ll receive information from the front desk that outlines the benefits. To summarize:

Breakfast hours are 6:30AM to 10AM (weekdays) or 10:30AM (weekends). You can choose between breakfast in the restaurant (Café at Far Eastern) or in the Horizon Club.
Afternoon tea hours are 2PM to 4:30PM.
Evening appetizers and drinks are between 5:30PM and 7:30PM.
Coffee, tea, and soft drinks are available during other times of the day.

For those wondering, I had 4 people on my reservation (2 adults, 2 children) and staying in the Horizon Premier King Room was enough to give all of us access. There were no additional charges for entering the lounge or at breakfast.

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Layout of the Horizon Club

Up on the 36th floor is where the Horizon Club is located. You won’t need to venture far from the elevator foyer to find the entrance of the lounge.

Before entering the lounge, you’ll see a note listing a few extra rules. The ask is for you to try to control how loud your kids could be. But otherwise, there was no strict limit on kids being in the lounge (some other lounges restrict the hours kids can come to the lounge).

At the front of the lounge is where the attendants sit. If they’re not busy helping other guests, you’ll find them here. I have to admit the staff here is excellent at remembering faces. We only referenced our room number once and for the entire stay and even on exit, we were addressed by name.

The lounge felt rather small. Perhaps there aren’t many people who have access, but the room filled up quickly as we waited for the evening canapes to start. Service starts at 5:30PM and not a minute earlier. But in the meantime, staff stopped by to offer us coffee, tea, or soft drinks while we waited.

We took him up on some tea and hot chocolate.

Evening hors d’oeuvres

The only time we stopped into this lounge is for the evening canapes, so I can only speak to that service time. Once the clock struck 5:30PM, everyone in the lounge was invited to come help themselves to the food. The dining area is fairly small, which made us immediately think that it’s better to have breakfast in the restaurant downstairs. Overall, it’s a nice offering. If you’re a fan of the food in this lounge, it is enough to act as a meal replacement. If you’re like one of our kids, you might want to head somewhere afterwards and top off your stomachs.

We’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

*Salad, seaweed, yam, and more smoked salmon*

Of course, the lounge also has plenty of drinks. The small fridge holds soft drinks and beer.

Meanwhile, there’s also a Nespresso machine and a water dispenser.

Across the way on a small table is all the rest of the alcohol, including spirits and wines.

There is plenty here to serve yourself. Overall, it’s worth a visit if you happen to be around the hotel at this time. I wouldn’t specifically go out of my way to come here if out and about in the city.

The rooftop pool

The Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei has a pool on the roof (43rd floor). To get here, you’ll need to take the elevator up to the 40th floor, pass by the spa, and head up this separate elevator that takes you the rest of the way.

The pool is open from 6AM to 9PM daily. But that elevator ride up from the 40th floor to the 43rd floor is steamy. Not sure if it’s intentional but there was no A/C in this elevator, making the short elevator ride up a bit unpleasant if the ride is crowded with others.

Once you’re upstairs, you’ll find plenty of information on the water conditions–more than you ever thought you needed to know. The only thing it doesn’t list is the depth of the pool, which ranges from 1.3m to 1.95m.

Taking a night swim up here is pretty relaxing, but I didn’t get a great picture of the whole pool. Each and every time I came here, there were plenty of others in the pool. Maybe I should have showed up when it opened at 6AM, but that’s easier said than done. There is plenty of seating around the perimeter.

If you come up here during the day, you should be aware that there’s little shade to protect you. Wear sunscreen! Thankfully, the wind is mostly blocked out.

I liked the view up here a bit more than in the room since there’s no dirty glass pane to obscure the view.

Restaurants at Shangri-La Far Eastern

Café at Far Eastern (breakfast)

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/restaurants/cafe-at-far-eastern/
Hours: 6:30AM – 10:00AM (weekday breakfast) or 6:30AM – 10:30AM (weekend breakfast), 11:45AM – 2:00PM lunch, 3:00PM – 5:00PM afternoon tea (Wednesday – Sunday), 6:00PM – 9:30PM dinner
Dedicated kids menu: No, but there is a discounted price for children
Reservations needed: No
Other notes: Horizon Club and Diamond free breakfast option

The Café at Far Eastern is on the 6th floor. For each meal service, it offers a rather extensive buffet offering featuring cuisines from all over the world. Since we were staying in a room with Horizon Club access, we dined here for free instead of going up to the lounge. Even without knowing what we missed out on, I think we made the right choice. Not everything is based purely on sheer quantity, but the food seemed fresher than what we imagine we would get upstairs.

If we didn’t have free breakfast, it would have cost us NT$1,089 (~$33 USD) per adult.

After providing our room number, we were escorted to our table. This is a large dining area with plenty of seating. I couldn’t get a picture that showed off exactly how big this area is. Consider the shot below to cover somewhere between one-sixth and one-eighth of the food selections.

As we did for the Horizon Club above, we’re going to let the pictures mostly speak for themselves. Everything seemed freshly made and if anything ran out of supply, the chefs working here quickly made more. Cuisines from all over the world are covered. Outside of the mega buffets you used to see in Las Vegas, this is probably the largest buffet I recall seeing. Certainly, it’s been years since I’ve seen one this large.

*Rice vermicelli soup with toppings, chicken noodle soup, pork dumplings*

*Spring rolls, baked wheat cake, sesame balls*

Indian cumin rice, paratha, onion tomato uttpam — *Indian cumin rice, paratha, onion tomato uttpa*m

*Daily special congee (Tainan seafood congee, Tainan milk fish soup)*

*Toppings for your bread, waffles, and pancakes*

*Fish miso soup and Japanese vegetable curry*

Lest you think there are only food items here, you have plenty of drinks to choose from including…

And there’s even a tap if you want beer but sadly you can’t use it in the morning. I mean, most sober people wouldn’t consider it a morning drink.

Ibuki

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/restaurants/ibuki/
Hours: 11:30AM – 2:30PM lunch, 6:00PM – 9:30PM dinner
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: Likely not, but better to be safe than sorry

This is the Shangri-La Far Eastern’s sushi restaurant but the menu also includes some Taiwanese dishes and also hot pot / shabu shabu. Ibuki is one floor above the Café at Far Eastern, putting this one on floor 7. We didn’t get a chance to stop by and take a look for ourselves. Expect higher prices here at this one.

The Lobby Court

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/bars-lounges/lobby-court/
Hours: 8:30AM – 11:30PM
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: No

The Lobby Court is on the first floor and is the place to go if you want a drink or something casual. While it’s not branded this way, the menu seems more like limited offerings that you could find at a bar. Seems only natural when the menu is mostly what drinks they have here. If you really need a break from Asian food, there are Western foods here like pizza and pasta. We didn’t try it out (and refrained from telling the kids about it).

Shang Palace

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/restaurants/shang-palace/
Hours: 11:30AM – 2:30PM lunch, 6:00PM – 9:30PM dinner
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: Yes

On the 6th floor is Shang Palace, a Chinese restaurant that’s a bit on the expensive side. But if you’re in the mood for dishes like Peking duck, abalone, seafood, and other Chinese delicacies and don’t want to leave the hotel, this might be for you. If we had a need to be fancy, this is probably the restaurant we would have chosen.

Li Bai Lounge

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/bars-lounges/li-bai-lounge/
Hours: 11:30AM – 9:30PM
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: No

Just beyond the Shang Palace above is the Li Bai Lounge. There are some light snacks here but as the name implies, you’ll predominantly come here for the drinks. At this stage of our trip, Jenn and I didn’t feel much in the mood to drink (and if we did, the Horizon Club had us covered). Thus, I can’t say much about this lounge.

Shanghai Pavilion

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/restaurants/shanghai-pavilion/
Hours: 11:30AM – 2:30PM lunch, 6:00PM – 9:30PM dinner
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: Yes

Want a Chinese restaurant with a view? Head on up to the 39th floor to find the Shanghai Pavilion. I’m sure you might ask ‘why are there two Chinese restaurants here’? The best I can describe it is Shanghai Pavilion is more focused on Taiwanese food and Shang Palace is more mainland Chinese food. For me as an outsider, it sounds confusing–Shanghai is a city in mainland China, so I would normally think that would be where you go for mainland Chinese food. I’m sure there’s some connection I’m not getting.

We didn’t make it up to the 39th floor to check it out.

Marco Polo Restaurant

Website: https://www.shangri-la.com/taipei/fareasternplazashangrila/dining/restaurants/marco-polo/
Hours: 11:30AM – 2:30PM lunch, 6:00PM – 9:30PM dinner (not open Monday)
Dedicated kids menu: No
Reservations needed: Yes

Head down one floor from the Shanghai Pavilion to find Marco Polo Restaurant on the 38th floor. This one definitely does not have a confusing name. Marco Polo was an Italian and thus this restaurant serves Italian food. It’s nice when things work out like that.

The menu is purely Italian, so if you need a taste of Europe while here, this is the closest you’ll find within the Shangri-La. We didn’t make it up to the 38th floor to see it.

The Shangri-La Far Eastern is connected to a mall

Yes, the location of the Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei isn’t great. You can’t just stroll onto the train to go to the rest of the city without a 10+ minute walk to the nearest station. And you’re in what feels almost like a semi-residential area–or at least around businesses that locals would tend to frequent. But that doesn’t mean you need to feel trapped and only eat at the hotel.

Connected to the hotel on the first floor is the shopping mall. Does it have a real name? Sure, but the locals don’t bother calling it anything other than ‘shopping mall’ or ‘the mall’ or ‘Far Eastern mall’.

Head down to the bottom floor and you’ll find the food court. There are a few restaurants here and the food is much cheaper than what they have in the hotel restaurants. Want to know why we didn’t both eating on-site and have a rather empty list of pictures of the restaurants above? It’s because we came here instead.

Options include this Korean dessert place (Sweet Dot) where you can order on the screen.

Jenn was all about this peanut brittle grass jelly tofu pudding dessert.

Or, if you want some authentic Taiwanese food, consider going to Zhu Ji. If you’re concerned about the language barrier, you could also just order off the QR code on your table.

Since the kids were hungry, we ordered a few dishes like these spicy wontons in chili oil. The chili oil had plenty of flavor and it was more affordable than what we could find in the hotel.

Our son Alex is all about the beef noodle soup, and he liked this one. There are hand-pulled noodles in it and plenty of tender beef. Not bad for NT$210 (~$6 USD).

And of course what visit would be complete without some xiao long bao? These were a bit thicker but still plenty of flavor. It’s worth it, especially for just NT$160 (~$5 USD) per 8 dumplings.

Recommendation: Yes, if you don’t mind the location

We overall enjoyed our stay at the Shangri-La Far Eastern, Taipei. Having access to the Horizon Club is helpful but the real benefit is probably the free breakfast in the restaurant. If the upcharge to include breakfast or club access isn’t too much, it could be worth it to add it to your stay. And if you want to save some cash, dining at the adjoining shopping mall can also be a more affordable option for your other meals if you’re near the hotel.

But there are a couple of shortcomings to be aware of.

The hotel is in need of a refresh, especially in the restroom.
The location isn’t perfect and can be far from ‘touristy’ areas.

It’s simple enough to take an Uber where you want to go to help minimize the location issue, but it’s not exactly cheap to Uber everywhere here. We think the pros outweigh the cons and so it earns our recommendation, but know that it won’t be a slam dunk for everyone.

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experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children