Nihombashi Tamai is a Japanese restaurant primarily aimed at bringing delicious eel to the masses around Songshan District. It’s really busy over lunch time, due to their really reasonable business lunch sets. That’s what we were here for, too.
Whenever you see the 4 characters 商務特餐 shāng wù tè cān/商業午餐 shāng yè wǔ cān this indicates business lunch. Honestly, I seldom have time to get business lunches around Taipei, but I do really enjoy getting them every now and then. The last one I got, actually, was Steak Inn – that was way back in 2018!
We came here for some eel, so we exclusively ordered off the business lunch menu. Eel can get pretty expensive, really, so we thought the price was relatively reasonable, especially as the set included soup, some veg, and a dessert. (The business lunch sets have changed since my last visit, the eel rice set is $330 now, still quite reasonable.) If you were going to go to one of the more popular eel spots in the city, such as Fei Qian Wu 肥前屋 then you’re highly likely going to drop between $250-$480 on the eel rice all by itself. So it is starting to look pretty good now, right?
Arriving on a bed of rice, with egg, the eel came nicely juicy and flavourful. The soy sauce on top helped give the fish a bit more depth of flavour, and the egg and rice made it feel a bit more decadent. Did Nihombashi Tamai blow my mind? In all honesty, no. But, was it bad? No. It was good, to be fair, it just didn’t ‘wow’ me a great deal.
For business lunch, you’re mostly looking for value for money. Did this have it? Yes.
We tried the eel with all 4 of the accompaniments on the table: sesame, herbs, scallions, and yuzu salt. I am a big fan of yuzu anything as I really like the citrus kick with my savoury food, so that got a tick. However, the others didn’t add a discernable positive aspect to the eel, to which I would especially recommend.
This is some form of Japanese Wagashi dessert, that is largely tasteless, but I really like the consistency of it. It’s dusted with a soybean powder, giving it the feeling of a slightly healthier, less sugary dessert.
The bottom line
Would I come again?
Maybe. I think it’s business lunch priced at $330 is pretty good. But, I feel like there could well be better out there. Or, am I just expecting something that doesn’t exist?