Restaurant #36: Kitchen 12, Sheraton Taipei

Enjoying a hotel buffet has been popular in Taipei, but the expensive price was always the problem. I checked several hotels for a lunch/dinner buffet, but for me, I felt it was quite expensive. Since I needed to add some starwood points on my spg card, I checked Sheraton Taipei if they have a great buffet or not. The review was good, especially for afternoon buffet. So, I went there for enjoying my lovely afternoon. (^-^)

Sheraton Taipei’s Kitchen 12 offers international buffet for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. I believe the afternoon tea buffet is the most reasonable one. They call it “Afternoon Tea”, but they offer enough hot dishes. The price is TW$ 490 (on weekdays) plus 10% service fee, which is about US$16. This cost is counted for starwood points as well.


Afternoon tea buffet started at 2:30pm. My friend and I arrived at the hotel at around 2:15pm. We went to the entrance and confirmed a reservation. If you are planning to go there, I recommend you to go there 10 min early. As long as you make a reservation, they keep a seat for you, but the food counter immediately gets busy. The atmosphere of the restaurant was lovely. It was huge, and the sunshine came in from the ceiling of glasses. The friendly waitress guided us to the reserved seats.

First plate

The food choice was, I thought, quite good. I chose Sheraton because I heard that their sashimi was delicious. So, once we knew our seats, I went to pick sashimi plate. I saw a chef cutting more sashimi, and put on the plate. If you like sashimi, you’d better pick sashimi dish first, otherwise the sashimi would be not fresh enough later… I ate sashimi plate three times, but the first one was the best freshness. At sashimi section, there are some salads and maki sushi, but it was not pure Japanese style, so I didn’t eat those this time.

Second plate

After I ate sashimi plate, I went to seek delicious hot dishes. Chinese, Asian and Western dishes were there as well as noodle section. Noodle dishes were cooked in front of you by a chef. I tried some Chinese food. Clockwise from top left, Asian style crispy chicken, komatsuna, pepper stake (but I didn’t see any peppers…) and Chao Mian. It was a bit disappointed that their Chinese dishes were OK, expect Komatsuna. I mean, here is Taiwan, so I expected delicious dishes…

Third plate

Clockwise from top right, creamy fish stew, smoked pork and rosemary BBQ chicken drumstick, from Western food section. Creamy fish stew was my disappointment, because the fish smelled badly. Pork and chicken was pretty good; I especially liked smoked pork.

Forth plate

I tried one pasta noodles. They offered three kinds of sauce, and I choose this pesto. A chef cooked in front of me, so the dish was hot and smelled good. As you can see, it was OILY!!! Next time, I need to tell the chef not to put too much oil…

Fifth plate

I thought sandwiches became a break from heavy dishes, yet it turned to made me full easily. In addition, their sandwich was another disappointment. I believe they use cheaper tuna. (>o<;)

Sixth plate

I am getting full, so this became my last dish. I picked some fried rice noodle, German potatoes, Komatsuna again, and some Chinese snacks. All the items were delicious! I finally found good ones!!! Sheraton prepared some sweets, but I could not eat it. I am sure these Chinese snacks were better than strawberry cakes. It was still warm, and not too sweet…

Bread Pudding

My friend ate many sweets, but I only ate this bread pudding. This was also great, not too sweet and had strong pudding taste. Next time, I would like to try some cakes.


I ate… a lot! I ate those six dishes plus extra two sashimi plates, bread pudding, pineapples and a cup of coffee and tea. The time passed so quickly and it became 5pm. OK time’s up.

Overall, my friend and I really enjoyed their food and atmosphere. Workers were friendly, and I got starwood points! Yey! If you want to try out some buffet in Taiwan, I strongly recommend one at Sheraton!

Total: TW$ 1078 (for 2 people including 10% service fee)

Kitchen 12, Sheraton Taipei
http://www.sheraton-taipei.com/english/index.htm
# Please make a reservation for buffet.

Restaurant #10: Terrace Brasserie @ Grand Park Otaru, Otaru

Ocean View

The hotel, Grand Park Otaru, had been operated by Hilton group until a few years ago. Now, Park Hotel Group bought out this hotel as a first group owned in Japan. The group headquarter is in Singapore, therefore I was expecting that the restaurants in this hotel might have good Singapore/Chinese food. (I saw some people's good reviews about it.)

This hotel is located in front of the Ishikari Bay, and they operate several restaurants. Terrace Brasserie is one of them. It was a find day, and the view was beautiful from widely opened window. My friend and I went there for lunch buffet, at 11:30am, the time they just opened. We only saw a few people at first, but five minutes later, a group of around 50 people came in and it became chaos fighting for food.

First plate

A wide selection of foods. Limited space, but they sometimes change the items alternately during the lunch time, so it is better to go back to the food section and check it frequently! I wanted to eat most of the food, so I didn’t eat any bread this time. I saw, however, their bread section looked gorgeous, as well as the salad bar.

Unfortunately, there were no Singapore dishes this time; not that I aware of. They have some on their a la carte menu. In stead of that, Australian Fair held this time; they cook the Australian beef. Hmmm… The taste was fine, but I, to be honest, always prefer Japanese beef. Their Italian section had not have many choices, though seafood gratin was creamy and delicious, and new items were coming in and out.

Second Plate

Two things I really liked about this buffet. First, their Chinese dishes were tasty, especially shumai (シュウマイ). They prepared seafood fried rice, egg soup, fish and a few other dishes. Egg soup was also tasty, but the taste was light enough so that we can eat more. Second, their keema curry was delicious, especially the rice! Their rice was so tender. Restaurants’ rice is usually way overcooked, yet this rice was in perfect condition. How did they cook like this?

Third Plate

On the whole, all the foods were prepared well, and were tasty enough. I found that the quality of their food is high enough compared to other hotel buffets. Besides, beautiful ocean view easily made us satisfied.

After the amusing lunch, my friend and I went to Otaru city and enjoyed the relaxing holiday walking at Otaru promenade. It was a beautiful day.

p.s. Please check a 10% discount coupon on the Internet. Also, you may accumulate gourmet points on your ANA mileage club card.

Total: 3564 yen (1886 yen x 2, 10% discount, consumption tax 169 yen)

Terrace Brasserie @ Grand Park Otaru
11-3, Chikkou
Otaru, 047-0008
0134-21-3111
http://www.parkhotelgroup.com/Default.aspx?alias=www.parkhotelgroup.com/jp-gpot

Restaurant #05: Kiyohira @ ANA Hotels Sapporo, Sapporo

Friendly Sushi Chef

It has been a long time since I went there at first time. This sushi bar is one of the places that you can eat Nigiri set under 2000 yen. This price is for lunch only, but it is still reasonable. Their lunch menu is various, yet of course I ordered 10 pieces Nigiri set, which comes with some small dishes (1260 yen). There is one more nigiri set, which comes with 15 pieces of nigiri.

I went there at around 12pm, but the seats were almost gone. Friendly atmosphere, two sushi chefs were busy to prepare their popular menu. Three waitresses were running stressfully. I guess one would be just started working there… One of sushi chef was friendly; he allowed me to take some pictures of this restaurant.

Salad and Hiyayakko

A cup of green tea was served smoothly, followed by a small salad and Hiyayakko (fresh tofu). Salad was nothing special, but the dressing was my taste. Hiyayakko was pretty good! It is a simple dish; just a fresh tofu on the small plate, then we pour soy sauce on it. You can enjoy the pure taste of tofu.

Nigiri Zushi

Nigiri zushi was then served in front of us. You can see 10 pieces of nigiri, and some Maki zushi. I enjoyed California Roll or Dragon Roll in the U.S., but we don’t have those at sushi bar in Japan. Hmmm I kinda miss Philadelphia Roll… :(

Hot Noodle Soup

Surprisingly, shari (sushi rice) was colder and harder than I expected. The balance between shari and neta (raw fish) was not my preference, yet my family said it was reasonable. Ebi (shrimp) and Kani (crab) were fresh enough, and salmon was delicious, although Maguro (tuna) was sadly not that tasty. I guess they chose to keep the reasonable price and slightly change the class of neta, which is okay with me. It is still fresh and reasonable enough with this price. After I ate half of sushi, finally the waitress served us a noodle soup.

I enjoyed the lunch here, but I preferred smoother service. Next time I’d rather go there earlier.

Total: 1260 yen

Kiyohira, Sushi Restaurant
B1F, ANA Hotels Sapporo
Kita 3-jo Nishi 1-chome, Chuou-ku
Sapporo, JAPAN
011-221-5680
http://www.anahotel-sapporo.co.jp/english/restaurant/index.html