Lunch with a view up the Taiwanese mountains
During my recent trip to the Taiwanese mountains, my friend took us to a restaurant run by the aboriginal tribes. The restaurant is called Yupasu and is perched on the mountains at 1000m ASL. My friend said he first came here over 10 years ago and it was just a road side stall, and now they've developed into a very busy restaurant.
We hadn't made a booking so arrived shortly after they opened at lunchtime. There was already about 15 cars parked alongside the road. Luckily they still had a table available for us.
As I walked inside, I was gobsmacked by the views outside. I'm not kidding when I say the restaurant is perched on the side of the mountain. It is totally open on both sides, no windows at all. We were blessed with a beautiful clear day, blue skies smiling at and not down to us. The occasional ripple of white clouds touching the tip of the mountain, who themselves were like layers of fans swaying the cool mountain breezes towards the diners. If you dared, you could reach out to touch the lush green vegetation on the mountain side.
Me and my friend's girlfriend were so excited and we went around the restaurant taking photos. The guys ignored us (of course) and ordered the food.
The food arrived at super speed, a bit too fast in my opinion. Despite the spectacular view, the service seemed a little too mechanic, and the food was all set meal with most of them pre cooked, hence the speed. I didn't take photos of all the dishes, here are a few.
This is rice cooked in bamboo, a speciality with the local cuisine, and also popular in many rural areas around Asia. Traditionally people are very resourceful and use what utensil they can find from nature. Bamboo gives a hint of nice aroma, but I found the rice a little too sticky.
This is wild fish from the streams (so they said), fried and then marinated in a very nice dressing. I don't know what's in the dressing, probably local herbs. The fish was a bit like sardines and had quite a lot of little bones. Not everyone's cup of tea. It was so so.
The salad on the left was very refreshing. It consist of chayote, a type of guord, and tomato and the dressing included a local spice called litsea cubeba. It's a type of pepper with a very fragrant lemony flavour. I bought a little packet from the restaurant, now need to look for some recipes on how to use them.
The other dish is barbecue sausages and pork. They were definitely my favourite!
And I found out why as we were leaving. They were charcoal bbq'ed outside in front of the mountains gods!
Overall I think this is a nice restaurant where I'd be happy to come once and dine in front of the mountains. The food was so so, it wasn't overly expensive but I've had much better value meals in nice surroundings. Most of the price we paid for the view, which to be honest I could have sat outside at one of the many viewpoints. At least I've been once now, and it was an enjoyable meal with my friends which I won't be seeing again for a long time.
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Wow....the restaurant looks great with the mountains that surround it. What a beautiful nature to behold while having lunch.
The meal...hmm
First time seeing bamboo rice 😂
So they cooked the rice with bamboo and then pour it on the plate afterwards? Maybe it has any health benefits?
The meal look great though I am not familiar with it.
You and your friend had a great time over there with beautiful shots to keep nice memories
The bamboo is used as a little container for the rice, so you can either roast, steam or even boil the rice. I believer that if you get fresh good quality bamboo, it releases a nice aroma into the rice as it cooks.
Spending time there with my friends was definitely more valuable than the meal itself 😃
Wow..I see
Thanks for clarifying me on this 😍
Oh, I like the view. I can really eat a lot with this stunning scenery. I wondered if the Taiwanese also eat with their bare hands like we do here in the Philippines.
Taiwanese are Chinese ethnic so everyone uses chopsticks here, but I'm not sure about the aboriginal tribes. Think they use chopsticks nowadays as well as they're very much integrated into mainstream society though they do try to keep a lot of their culture.
Wow.... le restaurant est superbe avec les montagnes qui l'entourent. Quelle belle nature à contempler en déjeunant.
It was in deed, the good views compensated for the ok food
It looks like a great restaurant and the view looks amazing! A real gem by the looks of it.
It's definitely some place worth going to, at least once, or taking visitors to. I think for a sit down meal, it gets to marks
Great viewpoint indeed.
Rice in bamboo is a novelty to me too. How do you get it out?
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If you look closely at the bamboo (next to the plate of bbq) they slit it open for diners so you can open it up and remove the rice which looks a bit like a white sausage 😄!! I wish I took a photo of it now.
Thanks for the explanation.
Take a photo next time !LOLZ
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Such a beautiful view in the first photo..I hope I could make a place like that here too.. I would love to dine in
Looking out to such beautiful scenery is really the highlight of the meal. Personally, I'd love to have afternoon tea instead of lunch, that would be so awesome
Just twist the knife at the end why don't you but I completely understand that when a place is hyped you are generally a little disappointed. I'd also hate the fish bones but at the end of the day, you can't go too far wrong with fresh mountain air and stunning views!
PS thank you. Without disrespect to me and others , I'm.complety bored of Thailand and Cebu lol
I wish there were more people from Taiwan on Hive who write in English, there's so much on offer here. Anyway, guess you'll have to make do with me for the next few months, still got tons of content that I haven't got round to post yet!!
Such a beautiful location and view. People must like it if it was that busy right after opening.
I think the views definitely help as it's really spectacular and you get to be so near to nature.
Yupasu has created to the best restaurants on the mountains where the view is incredibly amazing. That is the same to people here in Cambodia, they don't really like the fish that contains a lot of born at all, it is a very small bone but everywhere in the fish which make it difficult to eat.
Love your blog.
Thanks for dropping by.
Does Camobdians eat a lot of fish? I've never been before, hopefully I can go one day
That's a gorgeous view to have while eating! The food looks like it was pretty good as well. The entire place reminds me a bit of Kiyomizu Dera. Well, except that is a temple and your place is a restaurant.
Anyway, very nice photos. Thanks for sharing!
Kiyomizu Dera is so famous!! I been there before! In fact I think everyone who goes to Kyoto goes there, such a beautiful temple!
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sometimes we only pay for the experience and not exactly for the product, I wonder if food was pre cooked when it was small establishment, usually when restaurants expand this tend to happen, the view looks great but at 1000 above see may be a bit hard to breathe
Many of the food were cold plates, and I think some were batch cooked, that makes them serving meals a lot easier
1000m is pretty common in Taiwan, we were actually staying at 1400m that morning, and went to 2000m the day before 😃
The view from the restaurant is amazing.
We also have an old tradition of cooking rice in bamboo here. The rice gets to smell sweeter after.
Amazing ! I love that detail :)
I bet food tastes different on that altitude and with such a view! Really lovely 😍
wowwwww look at that view, and a bummer that the food wasnt as spectacular as you had hoped for. But still..already for the view it seems worth visiting. Did it take you long to get up there? As in...was the journey as hassle?
Wow - those views are stunning, and the food looks great too. What a place !!!
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That is one heck of a view - thanks for sharing. @livinguktaiwan!
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I am wondering if taiwan is cheap compared to Europe but this is beyond beautiful, those mountains .
Thanks for sharing , it is very important to see different views .