Tempura Lunch at Yamazato Okura Taipei

We had an enjoyable tempura lunch Yamazato Okura Taipei during a recent trip to Taipei. Yamazato is a Japanese restaurant in five star hotel The Okura Prestige Taipei, which is part of the Okura Hotels group that is based in Japan.

Japanese Restaurant at The Okura Prestige Taipei

Like its sister hotel, Okura Tokyo, The Okura Prestige Taipei has a posh atmosphere but with a restrained style of elegance. Both hotels also have a large Japanese restaurant each, both named Yamazato as well. These restaurants serve a wide range of Japanese cuisine. There is a general dining area as well as specialist counter seating zones for sushi, teppanyaki and tempura. We had tried the sushi counter at Okura Tokyo and so on this Taipei trip we decided to have lunch at the tempura counter of the Yamazato Okura Taipei restaurant.

The L-shaped tempura counter seats about ten diners. With a very authentic Japanese tempura counter layout and decor we felt like dining in a good tempura restaurant in Tokyo.

The restaurant was not very busy that day. Besides us there were only a few other diners that arrived after we were seated. We were served by a pleasant young Taiwanese chef and his assistant. Both were very courteous and seemed to have been well trained in the craft. Another benefit of dining at a Japanese tempura restaurant in Taipei rather than Tokyo was that we could converse easily with the chef in Mandarin.

Cold Beer and Sake at Yamazato Okura Taipei

Tempura Restaurant Menu Yamazato Okura Taipei

Beer and sake are our beverages of choice at a tempura restaurant, This is a picture of a page from the Yamazato Okura Taipei drinks menu. The selection of sake was quite limited as compared to their Tokyo counterpart, but adequate enough for us.

Cold beer served in a cold metal glass tasted even colder than usual. It made the common Asahi super dry taste much better than usual, Cold sake served in 180 ml sizes were smothered with crushed ice to stay adequately chilled throughout the meal.

Yamazato Okura Taipei Ume Set Lunch

Two lunch menus were available as well as an a la carte menu (picture below). We picked the more affordable “Ume” special lunch menu (picture above) priced at NT$2,800.

Ume Lunch Set in Okura Taipei

Lunch started with some small appetisers. I believe they were tofu and seafood items.

Next to arrive were the seafood items. They were all very good and made us think that Taipei could be our destination for alternative Japanese dining. The only time when we thought the Tokyo tempura had an edge were the shrimp items. The shrimp served that day felt smaller.

Next came the vegetable items. These were so good that we ordered extra sweet potato and lotus root items from the a la carte menu. They make perfect snacks to eat with beer or sake.