As some of you will know, Den serves a form of modern kaiseki and Sho does mostly the same. Mostly I was impressed that there were quite a few elements of Taiwanese (or chuka ryori?) in the menu and they mostly worked very well.
Here we go:
1. The entrance really feels elegant and discrete. Kaohsiung, clean and safe as it is, is not the most polished city in the world (or even Taiwan) so this feels like a bit of an oasis, although that whole area was full of high-end residential buildings – sorry, I didn’t realize how bad this photo is until I posted it. 2. The menu 3. More of the menu. 4. The firefly squid was served in a fried spring roll. I must admit that I wasn’t blown away by this as it was greasy, and I wasn’t expecting much from the meal after this first course. 5. Here things got better with this nice oyster. Very umami from the mushrooms, maybe even a bit much for the oyster. 6. Open kitchen setting, lots of cooks working in parallel. 7. The shrimps with the rice; this was very good, and things got much better from here. 8. Sashimi. I cant recall what the fish was, to be honest, but I remember it was very good. Taiwanese have a high standard for these kinds of dishes so it was at a very high level. 9. Another view of the sashimi. 10. Duck dish. This was amazing, and very, very chuka ryiori, with tea and fennel. Full Chinese flavors here; I cant imagine this same dish would be served in Den. 11. More of the duck. 12. The famous salad with over 10 ingredients that are in season. If I recall correctly it was ~20 in this particular occasion. It was very good, although more than a salad felt like a sampler of in-season stuff in small portions. 13. Kaiseki-style, soup had to be there. Typical Japanese soup with fish, and very delicious. 14. Presentation of the first rice, made with scallops. Japanese style. 15. The pickles for the rice. 16. The second rice, wagyu beef. It was served with tea powder on top. Very much a chuka ryori dish, not much Japanese about it. 17. Both rices served – you could get additional servings. 18. One of the deserts, the monaka. It was done with pineapple, which isnt very common in Japanese cuisine, so this was yet another Taiwanese twist.
The rice had to be “upgraded” to the scallop and wagyu option. The non-upgraded scallop would have been squid and I cant remember what was the replacement for the wagyu one.
Ambience was mostly refined and not casual. This is in contrast to Den, which apparently is very casual. However, it also wasn’t stiff; just waiters stick to themselves and to explaining the dishes to you and answer whatever questions you may have.
Overall, a very successful meal at Sho. I definitely recommend it if you are ever in Kaohsiung. I think it’s definitely worthy of its star.
rsvandy
Thanks for putting up this review! I was actually thinking of visiting Sho when I’ll be in Taiwan next month.
2 Comments
I thought I would add a review for Sho, since I haven’t seen one here, although this is from back in Feb 2024.
[承 Sho](https://guide.michelin.com/ae-az/en/kaohsiung-region/kaohsiung/restaurant/sho) (Kaohsiung 1 star) is Taiwan’s sister restaurant to [Den](https://guide.michelin.com/ae-az/en/tokyo-region/tokyo/restaurant/den) (Tokyo 2 stars) and it’s oddly situated in Kaohsiung, and not in Taipei.
As some of you will know, Den serves a form of modern kaiseki and Sho does mostly the same. Mostly I was impressed that there were quite a few elements of Taiwanese (or chuka ryori?) in the menu and they mostly worked very well.
Here we go:
1. The entrance really feels elegant and discrete. Kaohsiung, clean and safe as it is, is not the most polished city in the world (or even Taiwan) so this feels like a bit of an oasis, although that whole area was full of high-end residential buildings – sorry, I didn’t realize how bad this photo is until I posted it.
2. The menu
3. More of the menu.
4. The firefly squid was served in a fried spring roll. I must admit that I wasn’t blown away by this as it was greasy, and I wasn’t expecting much from the meal after this first course.
5. Here things got better with this nice oyster. Very umami from the mushrooms, maybe even a bit much for the oyster.
6. Open kitchen setting, lots of cooks working in parallel.
7. The shrimps with the rice; this was very good, and things got much better from here.
8. Sashimi. I cant recall what the fish was, to be honest, but I remember it was very good. Taiwanese have a high standard for these kinds of dishes so it was at a very high level.
9. Another view of the sashimi.
10. Duck dish. This was amazing, and very, very chuka ryiori, with tea and fennel. Full Chinese flavors here; I cant imagine this same dish would be served in Den.
11. More of the duck.
12. The famous salad with over 10 ingredients that are in season. If I recall correctly it was ~20 in this particular occasion. It was very good, although more than a salad felt like a sampler of in-season stuff in small portions.
13. Kaiseki-style, soup had to be there. Typical Japanese soup with fish, and very delicious.
14. Presentation of the first rice, made with scallops. Japanese style.
15. The pickles for the rice.
16. The second rice, wagyu beef. It was served with tea powder on top. Very much a chuka ryori dish, not much Japanese about it.
17. Both rices served – you could get additional servings.
18. One of the deserts, the monaka. It was done with pineapple, which isnt very common in Japanese cuisine, so this was yet another Taiwanese twist.
The rice had to be “upgraded” to the scallop and wagyu option. The non-upgraded scallop would have been squid and I cant remember what was the replacement for the wagyu one.
Ambience was mostly refined and not casual. This is in contrast to Den, which apparently is very casual. However, it also wasn’t stiff; just waiters stick to themselves and to explaining the dishes to you and answer whatever questions you may have.
Overall, a very successful meal at Sho. I definitely recommend it if you are ever in Kaohsiung. I think it’s definitely worthy of its star.
Thanks for putting up this review! I was actually thinking of visiting Sho when I’ll be in Taiwan next month.