Mii Japanese Food 御景和風 @ Taipei

From omakase menus by celebrity chefs to yakiniku and tempura made with the highest quality ingredients, the Da’an District in Taipei boasts a plethora of MICHELIN-recommended Japanese restaurants. But hidden behind Grand Sheraton is this little unknown gem that I discovered in a recent trip to Taipei.

I came for lunch a day earlier and was blown about by the CP value of the meal. I decided to up the ante and go for the second most expensive category of omakase and see what I am going to get. The most expensive category will need 48 hours prior booking.

At first I thought it was simply a chawanmushi with a dollop of sea urchin. Then I realised there was more underneath – bits of tofu with egg custard in a truffle glaze. A very delicious starter, but I got this for lunch as well.

Next starter was a locally sourced hamachi (amberjack) sashimi with a garlic soy dressing, served with julienned yamaimo (mountain yam) and a sparkling of ikura (salmon roe) and deep fried perilla leaf. The ingredients worked well together for this two-bite appetiser.

And the final appetiser was a braised abalone with octopus and a torched cream cheese. The sauce was made from the offals of the abalone and was really tasty. Couldn’t fathom why there’s a piece of cheese.

Next up to kick off the sashimi section, otoro (fatty tuna belly) in two ways – sashimi and sushi. The marbling was fantastic and the tuna simply melted in your mouth.

The sashimi platter that followed was very generous for one person. It had the usual salmon and botan prawn and snapper, but I really loved was the Hokkaido oyster in ponzu dressing with ikura topping. Wasabi used were the freshly grated ones that Taiwan has successfully cultivated on the island.

I wouldn’t consider this as a sashimi but autumn bamboo shoot was in season, and it was treat to have this seasonal delicacy. Topped with melted cheddar cheese, caramelised onions and garlic chips, the bamboo shoot was crunchy, sweet and this faint fragrance only found in bamboo.

At this juncture, Chef brought out a plate of deep fried burdock for us to munch as we waited for the main courses to be ready.

The grilled lobster was not as good as I expected, although the lobster was really fresh, but I did not like lobster thermidor. The style was like a thermidor, except the sauce was even heavier, which I did not expect in a Japanese restaurant.

If you opted out of the crustacean, the alternative was a grilled miso-glazed hamachi cheek. The fatty flesh of the amberjack was delicious, but the next course was also a grilled fish. I guessed it was too much fish in one meal.

Commonly known as nodoguro (blackthroat) because its throat is black, the rosy seabass is a very good eat every autumn. Due to its rarity and deliciousness, it is often used as a luxurious ingredient in high-end restaurants and restaurants. We were each given a whole fish each, but I didn’t like the spices used because Chef has added something the Taiwanese love – shichimi.

The final segment of the dinner was an assortment of nigiri sushi. Starting with aburi wagyu beef, to engawa (flounder fin), to akagai (ark shell) and uni on tuna maki (wrapped in the bamboo leaf).

The special of the sushis was the flounder fin or engawa. The flounder fin was aburi slightly to release the oil from the fish that occurs naturally to give it a dimension of fragrance.

So far, everything was quite good, high quality ingredients with good execution. This tuna maki topped with avocado and uni was not that good; the sea urchin was watery and avocado did not work for me too.

And to round up the sushi, a final piece of anago sushi served on its own. It was a generous serving of anago or conger eel that was likely grilled with a teriyaki sauce. You can almost not see the shari underneath.

Boiled for more than eight hours with big bones, dozens of vegetables and a variety of healthy ingredients, the stock used to make the soup was really unique. The first time I had this was lunch, when it was paired with clams. Tonight it came with fish.

Dessert was a monaka filled with matcha ice cream with half a sakura blossom mochi with red bean paste filling and slices of local melon. A sweet ending to a wonderful dinner.

The place is run by a husband and wife team, with the husband/chef busy behind the itamae, and the wife/boss managing the service and small-chatting with the clients. She seems to know everyone, obviously this was a place frequented by regulars. The place is decorated by calligraphic work by Taiwanese artist, a form of writing that took inspirations from the ancient scripts and the artist’s creativity.

A note to all who are going: It’s better you decide which category (especially the higher categories) so that they can prepare something special for the evening.

Mii Japanese Food | みいにほんりょうり｜御景日本料理
台北市中正區林森南路2號1樓之4 (喜來登飯店後方 善導寺站 2號出口)
Tel : +886 2 3393 7717

Visited Sep 2023

#miijapanesefood #御景和風