Sushi - Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產)

Address: 18, Alley 2, Ln 410, Minzu E Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族東路410巷2弄18號)

Telephone: (02) 2508-1268

HRs: 10am to 5pm (sushi), 11am to 5pm (grill) (during soft opening)

Waking up relatively early on a sunday? Either some basketball game had to be watched or delicious food was to be eaten.. it was the latter. The space is a sprawling behemoth of a building located in the heart of the popular fish market located on Taipei's Minzu E. Road. It's a brand spanking new restaurant/ market/ aquarium... etc brought to you by the Mitsui Food and Beverage Enterprise Group (三井餐飲事業集團), who clearly not by accident, own some of the top high end Japanese restaurants inhabiting Taipei.

Soon to inhabit a dining table near you.

Apparently word has spread fast, because when we arrived at 10:30am on this past sunday, the place was already infested with hungry patrons. The very first thing you notice as you get ready to eat is that its standing room only... like... literally.. there are no chairs... you stand while you eat. Perhaps this is to conserve space or to encourage faster turnover, but whatever the case, I didn't get the impression that anyone minded or that anyone was in a rush to leave.

The huddled masses

part of the menu... duh.

Seeing as how they are located smack dab in the middle of a famous fish market, I would say that it would've been quite an embarrassment if they didn't have an extensive selection of fish to choose from. They managed to avoid that embarrassment, and improved upon it by adding a wide array of grilled selections. In the end however, we are in a FISH MARKET and not a farm, so I stuck to my guns and partook mostly in the sushi with my family. I found the quality of the fish to be good, but not quite great. The atmosphere is some combination of chic japanese marketplace with one of those high end pubs where people are just standing and munching on finger foods. I found that they were heavy handed in their use of wasabi with the nigiri and that the nigiri itself wasn't particularly delicate, but that's understandable given the high volume of customers and the speed in which the kitchen was pumping out the food.

Nigiri Platter

Assortment: Seared Salmon, Engawa, Tuna

From the Grill: Steak.. Good, but nothing to write home about.

One particular gripe is that.. you'd best be served to order everything you want immediately. Because if you fail to do that.. you might get swamped by an avalanche of receipts and incorrect orders (especially if its busy). They have adopted the system of charging you on separate bills every time you place an addition order. And if you are anything like me, it is really difficult to judge how much sushi will be enough (usually its never enough... as you might have guessed), so it gets somewhat tedious to constantly be in communication with the wait staff. Having sufficient elbow room can be problematic depending on the dimensions of your order and the dimensions of your waist size.

Really enjoyed the hotate, but be careful, there is an explosion of wasabi lurking underneath.

Another combination platter... Heavy on tuna of all sorts as you can see. I'd give the toro a solid B.

The best part of the Addiction Aquatic Development is really two fold. First, I believe it has a novelty factor attached to it the first few times you go. There will be a desire to try everything (they also have a bento box section to the restaurant with pre-made food for you to choose from) and to take in all that is attacking your senses. Secondly, and more importantly, is the fact that they offer their fish at very affordable prices and with generous portions to boot.

Showcasing it's versatility with sushi (Uni and sea eel), salad, cooked food and packaged meat from it's market.

In a town crowded with awesome sushi, it is difficult to carve out a name for yourself if you're new. But Addiction Aquatic Development already has an established pedigree based on its Mitsui name, and with a very very compelling price to taste ratio, this is definitely a place that will thrive for a while. Still, my natural inclination is to classify it as a place to have lunch and to go and grab a quick bite.

Overall Addiction Aquatic Development receives: