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Restaurant: Shintori (Cuisine Japonaise)

By Jules Quartly
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Jan 30, 2004, Page 19

A cut above the ordinary. PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES

One of the better restaurants in town, Shintori (Cuisine Japonaise) has an ornamental bamboo grove outside and oozes class inside, with its attention to design and stripped-down neo-industrial look. The ambience of the place, fortunately, is matched by the service and food.

Comprising a main seating area -- which is set off from the sashimi bar by a large etched plate-glass window -- there is an open kitchen, tunnel-like corridors and faux bridges or water-themed decorative elements. The restaurant also has many private booths that cater to groups of friends, families or a romantic tete-a-tete, that are set up like small sitting rooms, with simple wooden tables, a decorative highlight or freshly cut flowers.

Dinner began with tea and not just any old cha -- a light and fragrant oolong, or clean-tasting green tea -- before moving on to starters that were inventive and genuinely appetizing. "Cubic appetizers" was a nine-box assortment of sushi and sashimi in little black-and-white colored boxes. Rock 'n' roll salad sounded intriguing but I plumped for the rice and salmon flakes in tea soup, which was tasty and powerfully fishy with the addition of small, orange globes of roe.

Main course choices included a sashimi salad with an amazing confection of varied green leaves and hearts of lettuces, along with radishes, baby corns and raw fish, sprinkled with in an elegant dressing. I chose the grilled XXL chicken on a skewer, which arrived with dried chili and cracked pepper, over the promising beef hot pot, grilled black bass filet with buckwheat, and assorted tempura platter. The chicken was good, with extra points for the subtle lemon grass flavoring.

The owners have clearly gone for "zen-style cooking," which they claim has evolved from food served in temples and "the simple diet of Buddhist priests ... into a creative and interesting cuisine." It works, I think, because of good management. There are four Shintori company restaurants in Taipei (which include the People bar and fusion restaurant further down Anhe Road that has become popular with media and business types), with three more in Shanghai. Attention to detail makes the restaurant chain stand out.
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