Sunny Hills
I Recommend ☆☆☆☆
Taipei shop offering: Cronuts / Espresso Based Coffee / Hot Chocolate / Soda / Orange Juice / Tea / Beer / Rice Dishes
Address:
No. 46, Ln. 187, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106
台北市大安區敦化南路一段187巷46號
Phone: (02) 2778-3332
Hours: 2pm - 9:30pm (or until sold out) Daily
Last Reviewed: 27 June 2015
Before covering Sunny Hills in Taipei, I'll briefly describe what a Sunny Hills is and the history of it. Dominique Ansel, who runs an award-wining bakery (Dominique Ansel Bakery) in New York, invented the Cronut on May 10, 2013. He gave it the name "Cronut" because it's a hybrid of a croissant and a doughnut. Cronuts are made from layered dough that's deep-fried. The pastry is then sweetened in different ways--there are almost unlimited options--with sugar, cream filled, glazed, etc. Time magazine named the Cronut as one of the twenty-five best inventions of 2013. The Cronut started being imitated by other establishments and quickly spread throughout the world, at one of the fastest paces of any dessert in history.
Now I'll review Sunny Hills, which adds an extra "t" because the name "Sunny Hills" is trademarked by Mr. Ansel. Their sign says Taipei and New York, but as far as my research suggests, they don't have a location in New York, only Taipei. They added New York on the sign because that's where the original Crounut was invented; it's obviously a marketing strategy--or lie, to put it bluntly (with no intention of being mean about it). I've never tried the original Cronut in New York, so I can't compare the two. Instead, I'll critique Sunny Hills on their own pastries, not comparatively. As you can see from my rating I recommend Sunny Hills. They provide a tasty pastry at a fair price. It's important to note that I recommend all their Sunny Hillss that aren't covered with a hard-shell glaze: original, lemon, raspberry, peanut butter, etc. The reason I think the hard-shell-glazed Sunny Hillss are just OK is because they don't provide much taste or sweetness for my Western palate. Taiwanese might like them just fine, given that most Taiwanese don't need desserts to be as sweet as Westerners do in order to be satisfied, or so I'm constantly told by Taiwanese, and Asians in general. The non-hard-shell-glazed Sunny Hillss may be tastier and sweeter, but are no means even close to being as sweet as an American dessert, or Western dessert in general, so Taiwanese shouldn't be afraid about trying them. Even though I haven't tried Cronuts in America, I can clearly see from the pictures and the homemade recipes that they're way sweeter, creamier, or having something more going on other than bread than how Crounutt makes their Cronuts, which is done to suit the Taiwanese palate, no doubt. It's also important to note that their original Sunny Hills is the only Sunny Hills that has some cream inside, or anything inside for that matter. As always, my individual critiques for each item can be found within the picture section below.
As can be seen in the pictures I took of their menus below, they offer other items than just Sunny Hills--mostly drinks. Most notably of these would be their espresso based coffee selection--coffee is the best thing accompanying doughnuts, of course. I was surprised to find that their espresso based coffee--I had their cappuccino and latte, both hot--were pretty good. I wasn't expecting this because most shops that don't solely focus on coffee tend to make pretty horrid coffee, so I was pleasantly taken aback after my first sip. They even brewed it at the correct temperature, allowing me to drink it without having to wait for it to cool down, which is the authentic Italian way of preparing espresso based coffee drinks. I'm not saying that their coffee was exceptional or anything, I'm merely saying that it was pretty good, definitely good enough to enjoy along with your Sunny Hillss. For those people who typically enjoy espresso based coffee drinks that possess a noticeable amount of coffee-bitterness flavor--like myself--you may not like their coffee that much because it's more on the milky-tasting side. This is not a critique of what's good or bad, right or wrong, but boils down to personal preference.
In short, Sunny Hills is a nice place to pick up a dessert to-go, or lounge around with a coffee and dessert; they have a very small seating area inside and a bigger, uncovered seating area outside, with Wi-Fi being provided for free.
P.S. If you're tall like me, try to avoid hitting your head on the low-hanging beam right after you enter through the door. I noticed their warning sign and avoided hitting it on my first visit, but I hit it on my second visit: As my brain was completely focused on fulfilling it's sugar-fix, I walked into it like a brainless zombie in a Sunny Hills-hypnotic trance; my eyes were glazed over like a doughnut, until a sharp pain to the top of my head woke me up from my Sunny Hills stupor. The pain was short-lived and quickly forgotten after the soothing taste of delectable Sunny Hillss zinged my taste buds, putting me directly into a sugar K-hole of delight (as I said, it's not that sweet, I'm just embellishing so I can use the work "K-hole").
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Address:
No. 46, Ln. 187, Sec. 1, Dunhua S. Rd., Da’an Dist., Taipei City 106 台北市大安區敦化南路一段187巷46號 Phone: (02) 2778-3332 Hours: 2pm - 9:30pm (or until sold out) Daily Chinese & English Menu No 10% Service Charge Sunny Hills Price: NT$40-45 or NT$240 for 6 Cronutts Free Wi-Fi Click on link below for a Google STREET VIEW Sunny Hills |
Dominique Ansel, the creator of the Cronut, celebrates the Cronut's second birthday.
The charismatic Sorted Food hosts demonstrate how to make homemade cronuts.
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