If you ever visit Taichung, the central city of Taiwan, and considered yourself a gourmet or even a tea lover, Yuen Ji might be a good fit for you.
Yuen Ji got its first Michelin star right after soft opening year in 2024. The restaurant's east meets west ambience, interpretation of Taiwanese cuisine, detailed service, and personally speaking most importantly its tea service were the mere few things that wowed their guests.
Truly, with booming dining scenes in Taiwan, it's not super hard to find various Taiwanese fine dining restaurants to try, especially in major cities. So what impressed me the most was Yuen Ji's wide selection of Chinese tea. And for that, I would highly recommend anyone who loves Chinese tea come and give Yuen Ji a Try.
The restaurants was located on the first floor of POUYUENJI's headquarters. So if you actually drive here, you can simply park at their business parking lot, venture outside then turn to the left. There you'll find the actual front door of Yuen Ji.
So what is it about POUYUENJI? Well, Let it be POUYUENJI or Yuen Ji, they are both under the same family business running by the Tsai family, more so a team of father and son. But before the dining scene, the family's origin was Pou Chen Corporation, which made its way as a footwear manufacturer and is still going on strong.
With Pou Chen Corporation as a solid backbone, the father and son had a vision to share their love of food and tea, I would also add their great taste to the world. To sum up in a very simple way, the father Mr. Tsai, Chi-Chien now overseeing POUYUENJI, I would call him the tea expert of the group. And the son is like a great partner pushing their visions to reality.
To fully embrace Yuen Ji's tea collection, the best way is to go for their set menu, because the courses have been carefully paired with selected tea variety. Such as sea bass with "Lan Cang Gu Yun white tea" with specified brewing temperature and length. Or steamed white gourd with "Tian Chi Tie Guan Yin" from Lishan Taiwan. Oh man, my mouth is watering just by thinking of the pairings.
They even dedicated an area as tea bar/tea counter inside the restaurant -
However, during my visit to Yuen Ji, me and Mister were with a group of friends and they happened to prefer a more "free style" tasting menu, which doesn't come with a well-rounded tea pairing.
One of the pre-decided set menu choices -
However, tasting menu does have its benefits despite the absence of full-on tea pairing. Not only it offers at a more bargained price, diners also get to choose from the planned six category of dishes. The only constraint is just that the same table of diners have to share the same chosen dishes, instead of tailored to each individual preference.
Diners can also pre-order some of Yuen Ji's secret dishes, such as buddha jumps over the wall (what a name), or the collagen-rich soft-shell turtle -
Well, as per my preference, good thing is that even with a less extravagant set, we were still offered "POUYUENJI" hospitality," which is a shortened three tea selection for $180 NTD, that's about $5.5 USD per person.
Under the awakening section, we can choose from cold brewed tea or hot tea. Followed by the sharing section, my friend picked Tien Guan Yin oolong tea even though I was kind of trying to alter the choice to fermented Puer tea.
Plan failed, they were a bit reluctant to add $150NTD per person, about $3 USD to the upgraded Puer tea. Man, only if they know how much it'll usually cost to get that same Puer tea, but think of it now, even if they understand the price beforehand, truth is they probably won't notice the taste difference due to lack of experience.
As for the last selection "gathering," I still get to try one of POUYUENJI's post-fermented Puer tea. So all happy in the end.
The show plates are more for the eyes, which will be taken away when the meal officially starts. The paintings on the plates are from a female Chinese artist Lin Hairong.
Yuen Ji offers wine pairing too. In fact, I'm kind of fond their sommelier there, very friendly and very informative. Some of our friends want to share the wine pairing, so the restaurant-side was kind enough to split the wine portion in half with separate glasses. The picture shown was half portion for the first wine pairing on the left, and our first hot tea on the right -
I didn't bother much to take picture of each wine bottles, but there's a "get together" image of all the wines served that night towards the end of this blog post.
We get to pick five appetizers from the selection, so there were smoked tofu skin roll with cordyceps filling, boiled black feather chicken with red vinasse sauce, and grilled Lukang wild sliced mullet roe -
Cordyceps is kind of famous nowadays thanks to the popular TV series "The Last of Us." Might be surprising to some, but these supposedly scary cordyceps were actually quite delicious. Think of it as chewier mushroom with even more condensed umami flavor, and that's why the filling can withhold the equally heavier scented smoked tofu skin, thus became a balanced dish.
As for the mullet roe in the back, us Taiwanese were very familiar with it. But if you're a westerner visiting from aboard, this one is definitely worth a try. Especially grilled mullet roes are usually served during Chinese new year period, so here at Yuen Ji, you get to try such festive dish without any time constraint.
The mullet roe is considered a preserved delicacy. They removed the thin coating first then brushed with Kaoliang liquor before grilling. Eat together with Chinese leek and daikon radish for a boost of aroma plus a juicy refreshing touch all at once.
Braised pork neck and ear terrine -
Steamed Tainan crab ball, also shrimp and minced fish -
At first we were like crab ball? But it's shaped like a terrine. In fact, it reminds me of Vietnamese steamed egg meatloaf, which also has that yolk yellowish layer on top.
The texture is super fine, similar to Japanese seafood shinjo しんじょう if you ever had it at fine Japanese restaurant serving traditional food. Imagine regular seafood balls but leaning towards the texture of marshmallow, yet also packed with umami, definitely one interesting dish to try at Yuen Ji.
Since most of the people at our table got the wine pairing, half serving or not, I should get something too but without alcohol. Don't drink and drive they say. But trust me, Yuen Ji's mocktail for sure seems interesting -
Basil oolong, that's right, and it's not the usual slightly sweet scented basil, but the stronger Chinese basil. They mixed it up with non-alcoholic osmanthus gin, magao mountain pepper, and Dongding oolong tea. Quite refreshing actually especially if you prefer herbal, slightly peppery or minty style cocktails in general.
Stewed beef soup -
Not just a fancy beef soup using wagyu. In fact, the most important ingredient here per my opinion is the aged tangerine peel used to infuse the stock. Aged for 12 whopping years too. So you get this dense yet just a slight touch of citrusy note with a pleasant aroma that'll linger for a while.
I got stewed chicken and white radish soup flavored with aged radish and scallop -
One would image the level of umami here since I got the chicken and scallop as the base. To further giving this soup a unique flavor, a bit savory yet with a prolonged sweetness to it, aged radish was used. Unlike the 12 year tangerine peel from the beef soup, here Yuen Ji paired 3 year and 10 year aged radish to create layers of flavors rooted to the land of Taiwan.
Mister also got one mocktail with even more intriguing ingredients, the name of the mocktail is called sesame oil ginger soda -
That's the tall on on the left. Despite the possible scary and overly strong scented ingredients suggested by the mocktail's name, the taste was surprisingly both refreshing and satisfying. It has Beigang sesame oil, koji, apple vinegar, and ginger to it. But all the supposedly strong ingredients were just like a brush of breeze in the drink.
The apple vinegar also did a good job subduing any possible bitter note from the sesame oil and the spicy note from the ginger. Only left with distinct aroma but a rather soothing drink in the end.
The second part of the tea hospitality, our friend chose Tie Guan Yin oolong tea -
Commonly you would like such variety of oolong tea being roasted in higher temperature, but the one we had used lower temperature to process the tea leaves harvested from higher altitude. By doing so, it'll help in preserving the tea's unique gentle peachy aroma.
Deep-fried stuffed nugget, shredded duck, Dajia taro paste, pop rice -
Traditionally the so called taro paste duck is usually presented in a thick pancake form, so making the shape similar to a potato was like a 3D or even 4D interpretation of this classic dish.
With crispy thin coating, inside you'll find velvety paste intertwined with flavored shredded duck. The overall taste even reminded me of charsiu barbecue pork buns/char siu bao. It was a fun dish to all, taste pretty good too.
Grilled beef rib with chef's special barbecue sauce -
Since every one just shouted out what they would like to try when ordering the food, we didn't think much in the beginning and ended up with way too much red meat dishes. However, the beef rib was a hit at the table, so despite that some people started to get full by all the protein, they still managed to devour the whole chunky beef rib.
Well, since it's a "secret" for the barbecue sauce, I can only describe that the coating was slightly grainy with an almost coffee-like bitter tone to it. Of course there were also a bit of sweet touch and savory flavors fused till the very center of the meat, yet the beef remained tender all around. No wonder it's possibly our table's favorite dish of the night.
And if you somehow get tired of the barbecue sauce, they prepared osmanthus infused picked radish on the side, a little floral touch to sooth the palate. Not me though, I'm happy hitting on the flavor-packed beef rib from the beginning till the end.
For the hometown specialties, we get to pick two dishes. However, the waitress came over and informed us that chef wasn't too happy with one of the item we picked, the finished result wasn't up to chef's standard. We were pretty flexible and changed to another dish right away. As a kind gesture, the restaurant came over with two complimentary dishes for us to munch on -
Both were crunchy and aromatic but in their own way. From these two, the candied walnut was definitely a crowd pleaser, also good with drinks too.
Deep-fried pork belly with garlic and pepper -
If you love chewing on the meat around the bones, this is the one to order. The orange thing on the side is candied kumquat.
Stir-fried squid in oyster sauce -
Wine pairing bottles that night -
We also got some side orders of pan-fried scallion pancake -
If you still have room, I would highly recommend getting Yuen Ji's pan-fried scallion pancake. It's not the common flat-shaped scallion pancake you'll easily find on the street stand in Taiwan, but a more refined version.
What they do is that they'll have chopped scallion laying out on the flatten dough, roll up like a tube then roll that log into a round chunky pancake. By doing so, you get to lock in the moisture of the scallion. Not mentioning the thin and slightly crispy dough once pan-fried.
If you haven't touched any of the sauces on the table, now it's the time to pair the pancake with some Yuen Ji's chili sauce or even XO sauce for a spicy boost.
Yuen Ji fried rice -
As for seafood lovers, Yuen Ji fried rice comes with lots of shredded dried scallops, fresh spear shrimp, dried spear shrimp, and shrimp oil. With fluffy and bouncy rice grains, it's like a fancy version of Taiwanese's comfort meal.
They pot they used to serve the fried rice was so cute so I also took another picture with the lid on -
Finally the post-fermented Puer tea I've been craving for -
Let's compare Yuen Ji's Puer tea to the usual Puer tea you get when dining at a Chinese restaurant. Earthy and woody are Puer tea's general traits. However, the iconic Puer tea from Yuen Ji also got a pronounced mesona aroma. If you ever tried grass jelly, it's that distinct sweet minty scent.
Moving on to desserts, we have chilled soy milk tofu on the left, handmade lemon aiyu sorbet on top, and simmered red bean soup with dried tangerine peel on the right -
I supposed thousand year old egg or century egg should be known by more people thanks to the US TV show "Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern." Well, we are not going down that scary Asian food route, but the soy milk tofu dessert was created with the image of thousand year old egg in mind.
That dark semi-sphere thing on top of soy milk tofu mimics the look of thousand year old egg. However, it was made with peanut sugar and caramel sugar. The cracking inside was colored with coconut milk. Look closer, there's even chopped scallion looking thing, which is made with matcha.
Taken the versatility of Yuen Ji's tasting menu, I can imagine me and Mister coming back again next time we visit Taichung. That's a rare thing though, because we tend to try new restaurant instead of revisiting the same place. But with Yuen Ji's tasting menu, I get to savor the entire new set of dishes from starter to dessert, and I can finally get to enjoy the whole traditional tea pairing at last.
On a side note, if you enjoy Chinese tea and would like to know more about it, POUYUENJI has a location in another city Miaoli. The place is called POUYUENJI Hills. You can book the time of visit along with some handcraft courses online. And of course they have a wide selection of tea there waiting for you to explore.
POUYUENJI Hills look so pretty from all the images on the internet. With my experience with Yuen Ji, I'm quite sure the actual POUYENJI Hills might even been more amazing in reality. I haven't been there yet, but it's already on my to do list. In fact, they even have a tea salon in Tokyo Japan, which is also on my to visit list. Imagine savoring Taiwanese tea in such beautiful cultural setting surrounded by Japanese garden, it'll definitely mark one of the highlights when traveling there.
Yuen Ji currently holds one Michelin star status.
Yuen Ji 元紀
No. 5, Anhe E. Rd., Xitun Dist.,
Taichung City 407022, Taiwan
+886 4 2358 6368
Official website: https://yuen-ji.com/
Online booking system: Yuen Ji restaurant booking
Opening hours:
Tuesday through Sunday lunch 11:30 a.m. ~ 2:30 p.m.
Tuesday through Sunday dinner 5:30 p.m. ~ 9:30 p.m.
Monday off
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