Shunya Gyohei: Banqiao’s Wallet-Friendly Japanese Spot for Sashimi, Grills & Fried Bites
Meow meow everyone, it’s me, Mydondon! Today we’re skipping the ramen. Instead, we’re going for some sashimi. This place is called “Shunya Gyohei,” and it specializes in affordable Japanese food. The value here is off the charts. The only thing to worry about is eating too much!
Shunya Gyohei: the essentials
Shunya Gyohei on Google Maps：https://goo.gl/maps/7DRSC4Wem3CiQ4jS6
Shunya Gyohei’s menu：https://www.0222259798.com/menu.html
Shunya Gyohei’s fish donburi
First out of the kitchen was the fish donburi, NT$380 a bowl, topped with an assortment of sashimi over white rice. For a budget eater like me, I genuinely love this kind of donburi, because each slice of sashimi usually comes bigger than what you’d get on regular sushi, and the rice portion underneath is plenty generous too. Order a bowl, pick out a few pieces to eat as sashimi first, then use your chopsticks to grab a little clump of rice and pair it with a slice to make your own DIY gunkan. Finally, drizzle the last of the white rice with the sweet soy sauce and dig in. Pure bliss!
On top of that, this price paired with this quality of fish is honestly incredibly generous. For starters, the fish is prepped beautifully, with lovely marbling, and it doesn’t have any heavy fishy smell. Instead it’s soft, fresh, and melts in your mouth like silken tofu. The sashimi also came with a little piece of tamagoyaki. If I’m being super nitpicky, the tamago was the tiniest bit on the sweet side, but not so much that you’d really notice. The tamagoyaki itself was made perfectly too, with even texture and color throughout, unlike mine which always ends up with one extra-browned layer.
The meal also comes with miso soup, which is absolutely standard for a Japanese set meal. And the miso soup wasn’t shortchanged one bit just because the price is low! The ratio was spot on, not too salty and not too watery, with a bit of bonito flakes, tofu, and seaweed inside. Pretty classic ingredients. What’s more, the miso soup is free refills, so whenever you need more, just let the staff at the counter know.
I also ordered a plate of assorted sashimi, and the presentation was gorgeous too.
Shunya Gyohei’s seared angel red shrimp nigiri
That day I also ordered a plate of seared angel red shrimp nigiri, but I forgot to take a photo. When you order this nigiri, the staff asks whether you’d like the shrimp heads turned into a salad or into miso soup. We went with the miso soup, because I had no idea how a shrimp-head salad would even work. Do they just plop the heads on top, or chop them up and mix them in? I couldn’t picture either version, so we decided to have them made into soup. The miso soup with shrimp heads added carries a faint hint of shrimp flavor, but other than that it’s no different from regular miso soup, except it’s a giant bowl. You can see the actual size in the second photo below.
Shunya Gyohei’s teriyaki chicken thigh set meal
One last thing I absolutely have to mention: this place doesn’t just have delicious sashimi and nigiri. Shunya Gyohei’s grilled dishes and skewers are top-notch too, and the prices are super reasonable. After finishing everything, I still felt a little empty in the stomach. That’s just how sashimi is. I’ve never managed to fill up on sashimi alone. So I ordered a teriyaki chicken thigh set meal (yep, I forgot to photograph this one too). The chicken thigh set is NT$200, and the chicken itself was grilled just right, with that soft kind of skin. The whole thigh wasn’t dry at all, and you could taste the teriyaki flavor in every part of it. Overall it was a touch ordinary, but the price is fair, making it perfect for the friends who tag along but won’t eat raw fish.
Final wrap-up
Alright, let’s wrap things up. Shunya Gyohei is a Japanese restaurant on the lower-to-mid end of the price scale, and basically anything you’d want to eat, you can find here. It’s a great fit if you love sashimi but need to bring along friends who don’t, because it has plenty of non-raw options and they’re all solid. Definitely worth coming together. It also guarantees you’ll leave full, thanks to the free soup and rice refills! Even better, the place is super clean and the staff are really friendly. The one thing that counts as a downside is that the food comes out a bit slowly, so it’s not ideal for friends in a hurry.
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