Before I went to Taiwan, I asked for recommendations from my friends. One of the top recommended places to dine was Addiction Aquatic Development (上引水產 / shang yin shui chan) located near Songshan Airport (松山機場 / song shan ji chang).
Addiction Aquatic Development is a large complex that contains a huge market and four restaurants.
I didn’t know what to expect at first, but when I arrived I was thoroughly impressed. If you were to combine a seafood market with Disney, you’d have Addiction Aquatic Development. The site is upscale, yet not too pretentious.The employees were nicely dressed and great at providing service. I also love seafood, so it was nice to see the huge tanks with various creatures in them—including lots of crabs.
The market features a produce section, floral shop, bar, and stands with fresh foods. Here, you can easily grab fresh juices, bento boxes, or ingredients for that special meal.
Took a lot of photos of the fruit, because I like fruit.
There are also live flowers available for purchase.
Feels a little like whole foods here.
Everything is so nicely organized.
The reason why we came, though, was to eat. We wanted to check out the sushi bar called 立吞美食 (li tun mei shi) to be exact.
Because it was the holiday season and a long holiday weekend, we experienced some wait.
Sipping mulled wine while waiting for our reservation number to be called.
Next thing I know, our table is ready.
We got positioned at a long bar table. There are no seats so you’re taken to a table or bar where you stand at. The menu was a dizzying array of seafood I’ve never even heard of. Definitely if you’re looking to be adventurous give some of the less recognizable items a try. For our first time at Aquatic though, we went with three items: recommended nigiri sushi (特選握握壽司 / te xuan wo shou si); recommended sashimi (特選生魚片 / te xuan sheng yu pian); and the salted, grilled horse mackerel (竹莢魚塩燒き / zhu jia yu yan shao “ki”).
The first thing that arrived after hot towels to rinse our hands, was complementary miso soup (味噌汁 / wei ceng zhi). This photo does not do the soup justice. It’s huge. It also has crab and fish in it.
Next came the sashimi, complete with ama ebi (sweet shrimp) and uni.
This is the salted, grilled horse mackerel with a lime wedge
Oh so delectable pieces of nigiri sushi. I don’t know the names of everything, but it was all amazing.
After exiting the market and sushi bar, I found the charcoal grill restaurant. Will have to try another time!
Which type of cooking surface would you choose? Crystal salt or bincho?
All in all, I enjoyed my experience at Addiction Aquatic Development and would recommend it, wholeheartedly, for anyone who likes sushi visiting Taipei. I’ve been told it’s not quite as great as some of the sushi and sashimi one can get in Japan, but that will have to wait for another adventure.
EDIT: I went again with a new friend and took a few photos. This time, I went during the day. It was still busy but the seafood was still super fresh. I even was given some kind of whelk with my sashimi.