Restaurant of the week: Suntory Restaurant

One of the most exclusive Japanese restaurants in town, Suntory aims to provide highly personalized service. "With so many good Japanese restaurants in Taipei, we have focused on providing the best service [to distinguish ourselves,]" said Lilian Yeung (楊緹瀅), the restaurant's service manager. This is a place to be cosseted, a place where you can believe that each dish is a miniature work of art, both in terms of taste and presentation.

Suntory specializes in kaiseiki cuisine, a style that emerged from Zen practice but developed into a form of super-delicate food art. Portions are small, and you are expected to savor each mouthful. At Suntory, the effort is definitely worthwhile.

While there is an a la carte menu, most diners opt for the range of set menus, which start around NT$900 for a lunch set and going up to around NT$3000. "It is in the set menus that our quality shows," said chef Sakamoto Mitsuhiro. "It gives us the opportunity to present some unusual dishes that you can rarely taste in Taiwan."

Suntory usually offers around 10 set menus and a number of specials, such as the current promotion of kaiseiki cuisine from the Niigata region, which is particularly famous for the quality of its rice and seafood. An amazingly simple dish, the steamed koshihikari rice (越光米) steamed with salmon and salmon roe on a bamboo leaf is probably the most profound statement of what Suntory is all about. The subtle fragrance of the bamboo hints at a purer, better world of the spirit, while the rice fills the body with delicious flavors. It is at this kind of rather symbolic level that kaiseiki food is designed to be appreciated.

Soups are often the test of a restaurant, and nothing is simpler than miso -- but Suntory adds queen crab craw, and simple flavorings of spring onion, seaweed and tofu. True to the old-fashioned authenticity that Suntory espouses, the soup is kept warm with a heated stone placed in the stoneware bowl in which it is served. It is these little touches that you pay for at Suntory. "It is in such ways that we are different," Yeung said. "It is the sort of thing you can only expect in a five-star hotel."

Suntory is not a hearty dinner option by any means, and you'll drop quite a lot of cash, but it is probably one of the most authentic Japanese experiences available, which many celebrities from finance, entertainment and politics have endorsed by their patronage.