A Joy — Restaurant in Xinyi District

We came to A Joy around a month ago for my hubby’s birthday. I have been thinking of how to write this review so other people can have an insight into how exactly the food and the service they can expect at this high end buffet restaurant .

Getting tickets :- please allow extra 30 minutes prior reservation as you need to line up to get your tickets . Another long line to get into the lift to travel up to A Joy as well. **Tourists - can only book via Klook unless you have a local Taiwanese number when you make reservation. Booked via Klook means you pay a premium. A total rip off.

Food - Superb quality and a wide range of selections. Some patrons from previous reviews mentioned food poisoning from oysters. Therefore we decided NOT to take the risk. Oysters were the super big ones and no wonder it was easy to have food poisoning consuming big oysters that size. Sushi bar was great. Made to order . Hand rolls also was made to order . All the station chefs were nice and professional.

Queue:- A mess at the seafood section . All we noticed was you got to queue from the far left side (BIG oysters ) and slowly moving onto cooked seafood , made to order sushi, sashimi /sushi , made to order hand rolls. Be careful NOT to just jump or squeeze into any of the above mentioned counters otherwise you look like an idiot trying to push in. It took a long time to get food from that seafood/sushi area.

A mess at the Desserts section as well, I was told to line up from where the ice cream fridge was , regardless which desserts I would want to get . I needed to pass through ice cream , cakes/ biscuits then onto the plated desserts. Might as well just separate each section .

Service :- I personally had a very bad experience with one of the staff who came to clear the dishes away. I could only speak very limited mandarin . He came and I lifted the dishes up for him to take away. Not only he didn’t take them off my hands, he repeatedly said something sounded in a rude tone that I could barely understand that he said “會壞掉！” I put the dishes down and he got frustrated . Then walked away.

Towards the end of dining , one staff came to let us know about a survey and provided postcards( and pens )as they can post them free of charge.

At that moment I was so pissed by the staff’s rudeness re the dishes so I put that into the survey. When we left we were stopped by the PR Marketing Manager who can’t speak much English to ask about the incident (kinda felt like an ambush) (as the staff who handed out the postcards already knew something was up. When we left, I heard him saying something to his microphone that we were leaving . At that point his attitude had also done a 360 and not friendly as a few moments ago )

Funny that the survey was done in English and yet the PR Manager still thinking we could speak Mandarin. After a while of miscommunication, another staff who could speak some cantonese , was able to figure out the story and apologised. We appreciated their concern and hope that they can provide better customer service training or even English training when they come across patrons who cannot...

What we wish we knew before, hope this helps tourists:

Book on Klook (if you're not from Taiwan) at least 3 months before the date you want. It's about $120 per person. Arrive at least 30-40 minutes earlier than your scheduled time. Our slot was 2:45 PM and we arrived at 2:04 PM in the "Registration Line" on Floor 1 of Taipei 101. Show your booking QR code to the registration check-in person, who will give you a ticket. Go up the escalator to Floor 2 and get in line for an elevator to floor 60. Wait in line for elevator from floor 60 to the buffet on floor 88. Wait in line until your entry time.

DO NOT get in line right away for grilled lobster, scallops, king crab legs. The line fluctuated between 10 to 20 people. But after an hour, there will be only a few people, or no line. Imagine a chef cooking a lobster for 2 or 3 people compared to a chef cooking for 20 people who want a lobster on their plate ASAP. Logically, he would overcook large batches: prevent food poisoning and meet demand.

They don't cook some unpopular foods, so they are sitting there for hours. I wish we sampled those right at the start. Many foods were lukewarm. Check for steam before grabbing a sample.

The oysters are fresh, giant, and delicious, but 4 oysters is enough for 1 serving.

The sushi area, desserts, and drinks (cocktail, coffee, tea) are the best quality for taste, presentation, and creativity overall. The most hits, the least misses.

My favorite part was taste testing every chocolate. Shallot chocolate was a fun and crispy combo. Pistachio was our favorite.

I loved the citrusy dessert with the honeycomb topper. I forgot what it was called - so refreshing and bright!

Delicious cocktails. I am extremely impressed by the flavor of the peanut cocktail.

Excellent teas that pair beautifully with the desserts, and fantastic single origin coffee.

The drinks and desserts were the best because the desserts are mostly pre-made so they can ensure quality, and the bartender/barista is making each drink to order, as opposed to grilling 30 king crab leg pieces at once. Each crab leg piece is a different size - of course some pieces are perfectly cooked and others are overcooked.

Respectful, helpful, and efficient service! Plates are cleared quickly.

Overall, if everything was cooked well, I think it's worth the price, and waiting in line (bring someone you enjoy talking to for 40 minutes). I dont think it was worth the price when we came because it was a Sunday during a holiday season, and the size of the crowd may have lowered the cooking quality. However, half of the "hot food" was lukewarm, which was...

3.5 Stars

饗 A Joy: A love letter from Taiwan to the World. Just from that alone, the expectations for this year-old buffet restaurant on the 86th Floor are astronomical and from the standpoint of decor, ambiance and variety, A Joy places itself among the most impressive buffets in Asia if not the world.

Exiting the elevator and walking among the high ceiling, gorgeously designed stations, I couldn’t help but be impressed and reminded of Las Vegas.

This buffet takes the concept of land and sea and goes all out. A5 Wagyu seared steak cubes, unlimited ribeye steak, Jamon Iberico, lamb chops, made to order uni and toro handrolls, fresh sashimi and nigiri, freshly shucked oysters, grilled king crab, seared lobster halves…what’s not to love!

Well, it’s still a buffet and, while I was hoping it wasn’t the case in Asia, much of the cooked items are overcooked including medium (not medium rare) steak, overcooked grilled lobster and dry king crab pieces. Even for the raw items, if you’ve ever over gorged on Hog Island oysters, you know the selection of only the largest Miyagi oysters are rarely the sweetest or tastiest.

While those hoping for bang for the buck on their buffet experience queue for the steak, oyster, and lobster, I found my favorite items more hidden by reading the name card displays and having to request an order versus it being displayed and ready to take. This included the A5 sirloin cubes (still a bit overcooked), stellar xiao long bao, King crab chawan mushi and the abalone double boiled chicken soup.

Service is excellent and station servers never question how many orders you’d like and are quick to make any item requiring made to order. The venue is spacious and beautiful custom music plays to live moving ceiling art displays.

The Taiwanese dessert section and salad station are also impressive. The Xiao long bao (thin skinned, one black truffle and one white) are also excellent and would make Corey Lee of Benu proud. Those items aren’t why people come to a high end buffet though.

That brings us to the price point. At $150 on Klook per person including children over 11, this place is easily twice as expensive of any Taiwan buffet and many times as expensive as every other meal we had in Taipei.

Those meals didn’t have A5 Wagyu, lobster, abalone and king crab but to be a 5, I would have had to enjoy them not overcooked.

饗 A Joy. Glad to have tried once and truly an experience with stellar views...