Beautiful dining at Yogilini Yogilini Light Cafe 411, DaDun 11th St. (04) 2258-5589 Hours:9 am-9:30 pm (closes 5 pm Sundays)

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Anyone who wants proof that dining can indeed be a beautiful, aesthetic and healthy experience should head for Yogilini Light Cafe, located on the ground floor of Taiwan's largest yoga retreat. Men in particular should appreciate the fact that this is the only place they are allowed to patronize in Yogilini's female-only facilities.

The restaurant is no different from the rest of Yogilini's soothing, exquisite surroundings. Diners are cocooned in an attractive setting decorated liberally with cream and tan colors, and may take their meals on cushioned sofas, facing large plate-glass windows that look out onto an outdoor water channel and rocks, as classical music plays in the background.

However, this is not just another beautiful restaurant. In keeping with Yogilini's health-focused concepts, Head Chef Alex Chen has taken a very innovative approach to his Italian-style cuisine. Using many organic ingredients, high-quality olive oil, fresh spices and no salt, he presents food that is not only delicious but good for you, being rich in vitamins and fiber, and low in fat, sugar and calories. To ensure quality ingredients, Alex personally makes daily market trips for his selections. These are showcased through two set meals--the NT$300 Yogilini Entree--which provides a choice from foru main courses plus soup, salad or appetizer and beverage--or the similar Yogilini Deluxe Entree (NT$380-450).

The youthful head chef's creativity is on full display with a new main dish and personal invention, a Spicy Fish Pasta, that I enjoyed savoring. Tiny white fish caught by his own father in Pingtung are liberally incorporated into an attractively-presented tower of pasta for an amazing, spicy dish that successfully fuses a very Taiwanese ingredient into Italian cuisine. Another favorite visual and culinary work of art that I tried was the Parsley Mustard Roast Chicken (NT$380), cooked in its own juices mixed with fresh cream and presented with wine-cooked bits of apple, okra, peppers and Japanese-like vinegar rice.

A new offer, available daily from 8:30 a.m. (9 a.m. Sat./Sun.) to 11 a.m., is an NT$150 Energizing Beauty Breakfast, that includes the choice of a main dish--from Smoked Chicken Sandwich to Spring Sprout Rolls--plus salad, fresh juice and beverage choice of tea, coffee or cocoa. Yogilini also has an afternoon tea special, and plenty of herbal teas (NT$150-160), imported German organic flower teas, organic-bean coffees, and juices.