Was away to China for a couple of weeks and GF was busy when I got back so it's been a while since we'd seen each other. Decided that getting together for a quick dinner after work was better than nothing so we met up at 中山 near her workplace. Didn't have any particular destination dining in mind, but Idee has been flogging their remodeled food court in ads at the Taipei Main Station so we decided to give it a shot. They were definitely going with the Fashionable Japan theme in their offerings, and Ootoya was one of the anchors. Remembered seeing an Ootoya outside Shinjuku Station East which was enough of a reason for me.
The restaurant was still spiffy new but much smaller than I was expecting, but Idee isn't a big building and tonly half the basement was dedicated to the food area. We were early enough to beat the post-work dinner rush and get a table immediately. I had the signature char-grilled fish 烤竹筴魚 and she chose the curry nabe. My fish was split in half lengthwise and grilled until both sides were golden brown. The thin fish was deceptively fatty which kept the flesh moist, and well-salted to make good company for rice, which was quite good but not quite up to the Japanese standards (just a tad stickier than perfect). The skin was more tough than crispy but I'm not sure whether that's the inherent quality of the fish or insufficient heat on the grill. A bowl of grated daikon and small dishes of tangy pickled items helped to break up the saltiness of the entree.
GF's chicken curry nabe came in a roiling earthenware bowl sized for one. The thin curry soup had plenty of hearty veggies and shrooms but only came with one piece of chicken, quite at odds with the menu photo. Call the server over to express our disappointment and were advised that it was suppose to come with two pieces of chicken and they would take it back and add our rightful protein right away. Oh well, GF could share some of my fish in the meantime. The chicken chunks were good, grilled to crisp the skin and seal in the juices before being dumped into the hot-pot. The curry soup is a bit weird to drink as a soup but not thick/flavorful enough to be a sauce on top of the rice. It's good Japanese home-style cooking, just not our favorite thing.
It's perfect as a convenient meal with the consistency of fast-food but delivering comforting savory dishes instead of greasy gut-bombs. 300NTD per person or so is fair, although perhaps more so when compared to Japanese standards than Taiwan levels.
大戶屋
台北市中山區南京西路14號B1樓
(Idee 衣蝶本館)
02-25110882
