信兵衛 — Restaurant in Taichung

Customer Service ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ambience ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Food to Cost Value ⭐⭐⭐ Overall Experience ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Costumer Service: 一號服務員 was attentive, provided constant updates, was always smiley and had a very pleasant attitude. I am most grateful towards her for picking up and keeping my wallet safe when I left it behind. I was catching a flight the next day and can't afford to lose all my IDs from different countries and connecting train tickets. Not one penny was lost and I really appreciated this especially having recently experienced having my cell phone stolen in Paris.

Ambience: a lot of effort was made to replicate the same vibe eating in Japan. The vibrant colors and use of laterns is likeable and photogenic. Taiwan beer boxes serving as table bottoms didn't match the Japanese theme but worked pretty well from an izakaya perspective. I was disappointed about the washroom however, as much as the wall paper and vibe was great, it did not meet sanitary standards I would expect at this price point

Food to Cost Value: at our table it was around $500-600NT per person for dinner, overall reasonable and acceptable for the food and experience. Presentation of food was above average, food itself was average, the portion was a lot smaller than seem on the pictures but was filling enough. Edamame and soup was unlimited and the edamame was above average. Wasabi on the other hand was unusually green and not aligned with its price point.

Overall: customer service is under rated while food is over rated, overall experience is pleasant and I enjoyed my dinner there. The marble game was an interesting touch and it can be fun, however I can see some customers would feel obligated to give a 5 star rating in exchange for an additional dish for free when...

I think the word that sums up my experience is “sick”.

I am a massive crab lover, so I was more than disappointed when the crab that came in my seared donburi ($350) was the fake, sickly, nasty aftertaste type you find at bootleg bento boxes trying to appear fancy. The rest of the bowl was not much better either: beef covered in a sickly, sour-cream-ranch-esque sauce; chicken yakitori in a different sickly butter sauce; salmon dunked in way too much of a third, sickly BBQ sauce so that I couldn’t tell what I was eating anymore; and the lime green wad of wasabi to top it all off. Sure, the decor and presentation was interesting, even grammable if you will, but don’t expect too much from the food. There’s better ways to fill yourself for lunch at...

hands down the BEST meal i’ve had in taichung, i dream about this seafood bowl everyday ngl 😭🙏 this place is famous for their seafood so pls order a seafood-related item! my friends ordered a pork bowl & it could not match up to the other dish my friend & i had.

majority of the menu was in chinese (i’m not entirely sure what i ordered either tbh) so it’ll be good to install a translator app.

HIGHLY recommend to anyone visiting taichung! hoping to come back here...