Restaurant: Ootoya
Food: Japanese Cuisine
Price: Individual orders of mains are around TWD 190, set meals around TWD 250.  Sides, appetizers, drinks and desserts separate.
Location: Various (see below)

Taiwanese seem to love everything Japanese, and food is no exception.

A surprisingly delicious yet relatively inexpensive Japanese chain in Taiwan (with over 10 stores) is Ootoya, which I understand actually originated from Japan and has franchises all over Asia (from memory I once had it in Thailand).

The Ootoya at Taipei Main Station

Check out their website here (in Chinese and Japanese only).

They have a wide range of Japanese food, including traditional Japanese stuff like katsu, cold noodles, curries, and various types of fish.  You can get the dishes individually or in a set meal (teishoku) with miso soup, unlimited rice and cabbage (plus a few pickle-type little dishes).

However, if you are only trying one thing, let me save you the trouble – get the Chicken and Vegetables with Black Vinegar Sauce.  Go on, get it.  It’s absolutely sensational.  The chicken and the vegetables (potatoes, carrots, eggplant and lotus root) all have this crispy batter around it, glazed in a tangy black vinegar sauce.  I’m not usually a fan of vinegar, but this sauce doesn’t have that vinegar smell to it at all.

The Japanese rice is fat, soft and steamy, and the shredded cabbage is topped off with a refreshing wafu dressing.  A perfect combo!

Chicken and Vegetables with Black Vinegar Sauce

Most of Ootoya’s other dishes are pretty decent too, but aren’t quite at the level of the above dish (which also comes in pork).  Accordingly, 8.5 out of 10!

Where to find it

I know of two Ootoya restaurants in Taipei.  One is on the ground level of Breeze Center, which is a 5-10 minute walk from Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT station (on the blue line).  The other is on top of Taipei Main Station (also owned by Breeze).  I understand there is one more in the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store outside exit 3 of Zhongshan MRT station (red line).