Yes Sushi Restaurant Review

Yes Sushi is one of a few restaurants that Chris and I really like to go to when we want to eat out. We always go there for all you can eat hot pot and sushi and while I don’t think it’s the best hotpot and sushi in Edinburgh but for the price we paid I think it’s fair. The food is about 7.5 out of 10. We simply like go there to dine because of the combination of price, the location and that we can eat both hotpot and sushi.

If you go to yes sushi do try the sushi but make sure you don’t order either the duck or pork sushi’s, they really aren’t good (at least for my taste). Other sushi is fine although the best sushi in Edinburgh is still Kanpai. Another thing about Yes Sushi is you can’t pay by card for the hotpot. This wasn’t clear the first time we went so we had the annoyance of having to run outside to find a cash point. All you can eat hot pot and sushi, minus drinks, is £17.99 per person. The ingredients they use for the hot pot are fresh and clean and it’s a relaxing price to have some food that really warms you up inside. This is exactly what you want to eat during the Scottish winter and that’s why we like to go there and have a couple hours of chatting, laughing, relaxing and eating hot pot and sushi until we’re ready to explode.

Another thing worth mentioning is the service at Yes Sushi. The first time we went there we took Amelia and the service was great. The staff were friendly, they made a fuss of Amelia, they refilled the broth in our hotpot without asking them to do so and it was a great experience. 10 out 10, 5 stars, great!

The most recent visit I would have given their customer service a minus 10 if I could. No matter whether I go to an English, Scottish, Chinese or whatever restaurant in the UK I always speak English. There are two reasons for this. One is as a courtesy to other guests. I’m in an English speaking country so I speak English. Another is a lot of Chinese restaurants are actually run by people from Hong Kong and I don’t speak Cantonese. This most recent visit which was actually today I caught one of the waiting staff red handed complaining about me in Chinese to her colleagues.

Maybe she thought I’m “British Born Chinese” and can’t speak Chinese but regardless it’s absolutely unacceptable for waiting staff to complain about their customers out loud.  I shouted back at that member of staff who looked completely shocked for a moment then said “oh I’m joking”.

So to summarise Yes Sushi. The hot pot by UK/Edinburgh standards is really good. The sushi is lower side of average but the customer service (at least recently) absolutely sucks.

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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.

Mitsui Scallop dish

Deep Fried Scallop with seaweed

Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi

Spot Prawn and tuna belly sashimi

Mitsui Lobster Salad

Lobster Salad and the dressing was amazing!

Kobe beef miso hot pot

Kobe Beef Hot Pot

Green Tea Ice cream and seasonal fresh fruit

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 Sashimi Plater

Mitsui Sushi plater

Mitsui Sushi plater

Mitsui Abalone Salad

Mitsui Abalone Salad

Grilled King Crab Legs

Grilled King Crab Legs

Tile Fish with drops of sea urchin

Tile Fish with drops of sea urchin

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Pumpkin puree

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab with Pumpkin puree

Mitsui Barbeque Beef

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.