Had plans to have teppanyaki for Christmas Eve so the friend recommended 初魚 which is known for their teppanyaki. When I reached the restaurant, it turned out the friend had booked the wrong one for me (gasp. lol), and instead at the Japanese cuisine restaurant instead. *Cues sadness* I looked at the teppanyaki counter one last time and slowly made my way to the Japanese cuisine restaurant which was just 2 mins walk away

Thankfully just a short walk away

Well, on a happier note, at least the restaurant was full. Priced NTD 2068 for 20 dishes, I say it’s really reasonable. And so, lunch commenced shortly 

Not many were drinking since their alcohol is more expensive than the omakase itself. lol

Seaweed & Abalone Chawanmushi

I found the abalone too chewy for my liking. Else the fragrance of the seaweed and sweetness of the broth is quite nice and rather decent for a starter

Octopus

Also, too chewy for my liking. But the octopus did have a nice sweetness to it

Hobo

First piece of sushi. I thought the shari was not bad. Even the girl next to me was nodding her head. But my wasabi was so overpowering it choked me up for a few seconds

Chutoro

So so. The texture was soft but there wasn’t enough sweetness in the fish. It was.. okay for

Deep Fried Hamachi

I thought this was quite an interesting dish. It was deep fried on the outside yet the fish meat was cold. Yet you could still taste the crispiness of it. Think they tried to do it like fish & chip style with the tartar sauce

Katsuo w Onions

The katsuo had a nice fragrance to it with the charcoal smoked infused but.. that’s about it

Hokkigai

It’s chewy enough and I liked the charcoal grill of it. But sadly, the sweetness wasn’t there

Akami

They serve the akami with a touch of soy instead of marinating beforehand. But I thought the quality of the Akami was quite decent 

Shirako

Kohada

Could taste the flavour of the kohada which I thought was not bad

Kani Roll

Unfortunately I can’t really taste what I was eating, other than one mouthful of rice. If I was supposed to taste the sweetness of the crab, then there was nothing like that

Aji Sashimi

Not bad. But felt that they had put too much sesame seeds in it. A little goes a long way

Aburi Otoro

The shari broke apart when I took it. It wasn’t left on the plate for very long. And I found the sushi too oily overall. A little pity though. I really prefer my otoro as it is, rather than aburi-ed

Fancy rice bowl of toro, uni and ebi, which well was nothing to shout about

Unagi

Tamagoyaki

Pretty meh

Today’s Donabe

Donabe

I thought the red miso soup was quite nice and went well with the rice

Matcha Cheesecake & Hot Matcha

After this meal, I felt like I need to have another good meal to make up for this. Lol. To be fair, the price point for so many items is decent, and they did try to use more premium items in their cuisine. I guess at some point, you really cannot complain too much about it. Will I return? I think it’s 很难. Not that it’s a bad meal (like those that I would walk out halfway), but I think overall it’s just not to my liking. For people who have super high standards and are used to having good Japanese cuisine, I will say this is not for you. But if you don’t mind the quality and you just wanna have omakase in Taipei, you can still give this a try

初魚料亭 泰順

No. 2-2號, Taishun St, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106