Mitsui Japanese Restaurant Taipei Review
Mitsui Japanese Restaurant Taipei Review. Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.
Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.
THE RESTAURANT
Very smart and very modern. The service is impeccable. All of the staff are extremely knowledgeable and extremely attentive. They regularly top up your drinks and if you wait literally more than two or three minutes between dishes they apologise. If you also order a set menu the restaurant manager will personally take your order.
Whenever I visit Taipei one of the restaurants I have to visit is Mitsui. I really love Japanese food, it’s beautiful and can be incredibly tasty, and Mitsui is one of the finest examples, if not the finest, in Taipei.Mitsui is also, by UK standards, incredible for value for money but there’s more on this below.
THE FOOD
The first time that Chris and I travelled to Taipei together was in January 2009. We both ordered a set meal which consisted of the following:
- Large scallop on a seafood sesame base covered in crispy seaweed
- Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi
- Foie Gras dish
- King Crab dish (they brought a whole live King Crab to our table for our approval)
- A Lobster salad
- Kobe Beef Hot Pot (for information Kobe Beef is the Japanese beef that comes from Wagyu Cattle that are fed corn, massaged and given beer to drink). This might sound crazy but Kobe Beef is absolutely divine.
- Endless supply of Chinese tea
- Green tea ice cream and fresh seasonal fruit
How much? £50 each!!! In the UK this would have been £200-300 or more.
Deep Fried Scallop with seaweed
Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi
Lobster Salad and the dressing was amazing!
Kobe Beef Hot Pot
Green Tea Ice cream and seasonal fresh fruit
The second time around we ate differently. We ordered a set meal and three sushi platters.
- Sashimi platter. Highlights of this were a huge prawn and super fatty tuna (the fattest most expensive part of tuna)
- 2 sushi platters. This contained one piece of half cooked fish, roe sushi (roe is super tasty), salmon sushi and my favourite was the sea urchin sushi. Sea urchin looks and sounds disgusting but it’s absolutely divine. Another highlight was the squid sushi. Just two days before going to Mitsui we went to the food hall in the 101 building and had sushi there. The sushi is granted cheaper (cheaper than Yo Sushi and much better) but the squid sushi I had was a bit tough. The squid sushi in Mitsui just melted in your mouth. There were of course other kinds of sushi but naming these is fairly irrelevant.
- Abalone Salad (abalone is a large sea snail)
- Grilled King crab legs
- Tilefish with drops of sea urchin (this is the first time I tried Tilefish and it’s gorgeous)
- This wasn’t Kobe beef but it was absolutely delicious and I love the presentation
- Miso Soup
- Deep Fried softshell crab. Chris is petrified of anything with more than 4 legs (strange I know!) but these small softshell crabs are delicious (Even he thinks so too! ). You eat absolutely everything and both the shell and the meat inside are some of the tastiest crab I’ve had.
- Green tea ice cream
- Endless supply of Chinese tea (I believe this was Oolong which I really enjoy).
Mitsui Sashimi Plater
Mitsui Sushi plater
Mitsui Abalone Salad
Grilled King Crab Legs
Tile Fish with drops of sea urchin
Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Pumpkin puree
Mitsui Barbeque Beef
Total cost: About £30 each. Phenomenal! We originally planned to eat just sushi but after looking at the menu and based on past experience we had to order a set meal as well. Let’s also face it, we don’t go to Taipei very often.
A note about pricing. The sushi alone would have been £40-50 in the UK but the quality of the sushi in Mitsui was on a whole different level. I will admit I have had better sushi in Japan itself but then you expect the best sushi to be in Japan.
Each time we’ve been to Mitsui we’ve been utterly filled up and every dish was incredible. One thing I must point out was paying for the meal. If we eat in a regular night market or shop then we pay with cash but for a larger more expensive meal we always pay by card. Mitsui wouldn’t accept either mine or Chris’ credit cards as they hadn’t opened a line for international banking. I had to run down the street to a cash point, half scared that neither of us had any money in our accounts, then had to run back and pay. This wasn’t great.
