Think Taipei is all about Taipei 101 and Shilin Night Market? Not really. Addiction Aquatic Development is the place to visit when in Taipei.

Addiction Aquatic Development is a massive space that houses fresh seafood and aquamarine products, a large Japanese-style supermarket, and many themed restaurants and food kiosks under one roof. It is developed by Mitsui food and beverage enterprise group, who also owns several established Japanese restaurants in Taipei, including Mitsui - our favourite Japanese restaurant in the city.

Sitting near the Songshan Airport, and what used to be the old Taipei Fish Market, it is now an upscale and classy market with Addiction Aquatic Development. It stands head and shoulders above other famous seafood markets in the world such as Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market, Seoul’s Noryangjin Fish Market, Sydney’s Fish Market, and Perth’s Fremantle Market.

LIVE AQUAMARINE PRODUCTS

At the main entrance, you will be received by the Live Aquamarine area.

The idea is to remove the middleman and to deal directly with consumers. With this, Addiction Aquatic Development is able to pass on the savings through providing reasonably priced live seafood from all over the world.

Expect a spread of fresh oysters, king crabs, lobsters, abalone, uni, scallops and more.

SEAFOOD BAR

The Seafood Bar at Addiction Aquatic Development offers an array of fresh seafood. You can eat to your heart’s content here.

MEAT, GROCERIES AND FLOWER MARKET

Apart from seafood, you can also get imported and local fresh fruits, vegetables and meat. The sheer variety is crazy, and if we were living in Taipei, we know we would be doing our grocery shopping here every week!

Pasta, noodles and grains. Beef, pork and chicken. Oranges, berries and melons.

Salt, sugar and pepper. Butter, cheese and cream. Juice, milk and tea. Anything that you might need in the kitchen; anything at all.

It is one trip to the grocer you’d be happy to take. The choice are aplenty, and any culinary fanatic will have a whale of a time with these groceries!

SUSHI BAR

Our first thought upon seeing the tanks of fish was sushi. So you think Tsukiji Market is the only legit place for fresh nigiri sushi? Addiction Aquatic Development is another!

Beautiful sliced fishes in all sorts of colours sit atop vinegared rice, all prepared fresh before your eyes and awaits at the sushi bar. There are sashimi options too.

SUSHI & SASHIMI TO GO

Well, you can have both the sashimi and sushi to go, too. We bought a box and took it outdoors where the morning air was dewy and fresh, and you bet our breakfast was more than wonderful.

COOKED FOOD DELI

You have your bento sets here, alongside several other mains of the day. This counter boasts a wide selection of cooked food for takeaway, and it is so convenient because you just pick whatever you like, then head out to the large outdoor dining area to enjoy your hot food.

Best suggestion: buy something from the cooked food deli, buy a box of sushi and/or sashimi, grab some drinks from the grocer, then have a communal party at the outdoor dining area with your companions. Everyone gets to eat a bit of everything!

HOTPOT DINING AREA

If raw fish ain’t your thing, there is a hotpot option as well. Think huge pots of seafood goodness, with everything coming fresh from the sea. Expect nothing short of a soup so sweet that bears the essence of the freshness from all the seafood.

A seafood pot starts from NT$980.

OUTDOOR CHARCOAL GRILLED SEAFOOD RESTAURANT

This is one fond experience we would always remember of Addiction Aquatic Development. We had such an amazing meal at the outdoor restaurant where we sat under fairy lights and dined with the best company.

It is simple – you just order whatever you want from grill stalls, and your seafood will be grilled to order and served hot. Those big pots you see are actually charcoal-lit, where your seafood will sit and be kept warm.

That sheer simplicity of fresh, flavourful seafood, complete with red wine and a touch of winter breeze. It is one quintessential meal when at Addiction Aquatic Development.

Addiction Aquatic Development
No. 18, Alley 2, Ln 410, Minzu E Rd
Tel: (02) 2508 1268
Daily: 6am – 12midnight
Nearest Station: Zhongshan Jr. High School Station/ XingTian Temple Station

For more recommendations, read our Taipei city guides on the best places to eat, see, and do.

Mitsui Cuisine is famous for being one of the best Japanese restaurants in Taipei, and when we were there last month, we knew our trip would not be complete without an omakase dinner there. Alas! It was such a splendid and memorable experience. Mitsui Cuisine truly lives up to its name.

The menu offers a hierarchy of omakase selections, and we had the most basic Yue Yin Set (NT$1,800 or S$75). All sets comprise 7 to 8 courses, and the main difference in them lies in the dishes and the quality of ingredients.

The introductory course to kick start our dinner was a beautiful plate of seasonal sashimi handpicked by the chef – slices of seabream, sweet ebi, maguro… just to name a few. The freshness of every piece brought out the essence of sashimi and we had never appreciated sashimi so much before. Very good start to our dinner, indeed.

This was succeeded by a small dish of creamy uni and seared hotate with tomato cubes and cucumber.

The salad was equally good. It was a concerto of prawn or abalone, fresh Japanese cucumber, ripe juicy tomato, sweet corn and crisp red apple. Talk about basic ingredients with notes of sweetness in symphony!

Up next was a dish of plain crab legs – a continued encounter with the fundamental sweetness of quality ingredients. We polished off every shred of flesh.

The Grilled Red Snapper was another winner. It was served in the most unassuming manner, but it blew us away when we took the very first bite. The flesh was flaking with freshness, sweet to say the least, and every mouthful brought us closer to heaven. I’d never have imagined snapper to be this good, and this dish redefined the otherwise common and predictable household fish.

For the beef, we were served two renditions – one with an egg white foam, and the other cooked in a delicious miso sauce. The former was a rather safe bet with the egg white foam adding a gentle texture to the grilled medium-rare beef slices. Innovative, but lackluster, if we could say. The latter was a much more exciting one with thinly-sliced beef soaked in a miso sauce, presented atop a slightly-charred daikon. Flavourful and definitely satisfying, and needless to say, this won our hearts.

Finishing our savoury dinner was a bowl of piping hot fish miso soup and a bowl of clam consomme. The fish miso soup was a lot lighter than our usual miso soup, and we thought it brought us to a comforting end, while the clam consomme was really nothing more than an ordinary clear broth.

And we could always use a sweet ending. Concluding our omakase dinner was a delectable serving of Japanese red bean soup, matcha chiffon cake and fresh fruits. Very common Japanese sweets that could hardly go wrong.

Mitsui Cuisine
B1, No.108, Sec. 1, Dun-hua South Road
Taipei City
Tel: 02 2741 3394

Words by Melody Yap, photographs by ladyironchef

For more recommendations, read our guide on Where to eat in Taipei