Old New Taiwanese Cuisine (Jiuru 2nd Road) — Restaurant in Kaohsiung

I read the reviews on Google so I thought I give this restaurant a try. When I arrived I was told I had 3 options the $1000 NT, $1200 NT, and the $1500. I was perplexed. I saw the pictures on Google Reviews so I asked what was in the 3 options. The hostess said it would be determined by the chef. Yes, it is one of those restaurants that charges you money for dinner and then serves dishes they want to serve you. The hostess would not tell me what were the dishes in the option I chose. The options were surprises that I would not have ordered. The dishes were not outstanding, but they were different. What I did not like was the crab. It was a little Asian crab. In the US we have larger (normal size) crabs. In the US there is enough crab meat for you to get a taste and be satisfied. The cook did a good job cooking the tiny Asian crab. The crab was fried in a light sprinkling of flour and sautéed in a flavorful sauce. The crab had no meat. There was one large claw. Once you maneuvered the shell away you got a descent amount of crab meat from that one large fiddler-like crab claw. The rest of crab had flakes of meat. The sauce was great but you can't taste the crab meat. I love crab. I had eaten these tiny Asian crabs before. It was disappointing then and it was disappointing at this restaurant. The orange roe in the crab had an intense flavor, so I did enjoy the roe. Even though there was very little roe. Lastly the desert was made from something I did not like. I tried to eat it but I gave up. I had a similar experience in Norway. At least in Norway I got to choose the dishes. Here I spent $1500 NT and I was not allowed to choose my dishes. Sort of like communism. You are told by the Politburo what you should like. What you actually like...

I was really looking forward to this restaurant given that it is advertised as an Omakase experience of Taiwanese cuisine. With all the rave reviews on Google, there was no line up to my surprise. I didn’t need a reservation, and the place was pretty empty on a Friday night.

I chose the second tier meal set on arrival and every dish that was served was really disappointing. First dish was sashimi… not sure why they would have that given it’s a traditional Taiwanese meal. The fish wasn’t fresh and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Few pieces of salmon and squid. Following that there was soup, some fish, beef cubes, chicken wings and a few other which none was really that good. Beef wasn’t tender, chicken wings weren’t even marinated, fish was over cooked. I stopped taking pictures after the 3rd dish because of the disappointment.

Maybe I got here with expectations being too high since it had Michelin review and all. I felt like I fell into a tourist trap. Overall either the quality went down hill or the reviews are fake. It make sense the place was pretty empty. I would not recommend this place to anyone. For a fraction of the price you can get way better...

Taiwanese omakase, food overall very good, we had the ¥1500 Menu which had:

Sashimi platter - Very fresh and shiok. Prawn w Nian gao - Fresh, niangao soak the flavour of the zhup. Abalone bomb - Tastes like the ocean, can taste the terroir and super delicious. Crab Mee Sua - Wok hey taste very nice, crab also nice. Tiger grouper w lala - Super shiok, I loved it, was steamed in baking paper, cool method I will try next time. Local beef cubes w potato - Nice crispy outer layer, beef itself was so-so. Chicken and fish soup - Good!!!! The fish stomach was very jelly, I like the texture. Smoked bamboo shoot & scallops - Very smoky of course, not overly done and bamboo was still crisp on the outside but soft inside. Taro milk dessert - Damn shiok. Really very good even though I don't like taro.

We had an incident where the vege was not good and they replaced it with (8). Be sure to voice any dissatisfaction on the spot and the staff will be happy to assist.

Overall can go again if we are in Kaohsiung, not sure if it's a must visit, but it's...