Sushi An

A Counter in Zhubei, Shaped by Distance Travelled

Walk into Sushi An on Jiafeng South Road and the room registers quickly: birch panels line the counter, their pale grain pushing back against the deeper, darker tones that frame the rest of the space. It is a considered interior decision, the kind that signals a chef who has thought carefully about the environment before the first fish is cut. Zhubei City is not Tokyo, and that is precisely the point. The Hsinchu County restaurant scene has been building a quiet, confident identity over recent years, and omakase formats have been part of that expansion, drawing on Taiwan's proximity to Japan and the growing number of Taiwanese chefs who trained there before returning home.

The Toyosu Connection — and What It Changes

Sushi An's sourcing sits at the core of what makes the format work here. Most of the fish arrives directly from Tokyo's Toyosu Market, which replaced Tsukiji as Japan's central wholesale fish market in 2018 and has since become the primary supply reference for serious omakase operations across East Asia. The cold-chain logistics between Tokyo and northern Taiwan are now reliable enough that counter restaurants outside Japan can realistically match the ingredient standards their menus require. That supply relationship is not unusual among Japan-trained chefs working in Taiwan's larger cities, but in Zhubei it remains a mark of seriousness.

What distinguishes the sourcing further is the parallel commitment to Taiwan's own waters. The chef orders from the northeastern coast of Taiwan, where species like ishidai (striped beakfish) and nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) are caught locally. Nodoguro in particular has become a prestige item across the Japanese omakase world, prized for its fat content and the way it responds to light curing or gentle heat. Finding it sourced locally rather than imported represents a meaningful shift in how Taiwanese omakase counters have begun to assert regional identity rather than simply mirror Japanese ones. For context on how this dual-sourcing logic plays out at restaurants with even greater institutional recognition, the approach shares structural similarities with what JL Studio in Taichung and logy in Taipei have done in their respective formats: using international technique as scaffolding for something locally grounded.

How the Menu Is Structured

The single omakase menu runs to more than ten pieces of sushi, which places it in a middle register of omakase formats by count: more substantial than abbreviated lunch-focused counters, but not the extended 20-plus piece sequences found at the longer, higher-priced seatings in Taipei or Tokyo. Tamagoyaki closes the savoury portion of the meal, following a tradition that dates the style of the counter as much as the sourcing does. Freshly brewed Oriental Beauty tea accompanies the meal, a choice that locates Sushi An firmly in Taiwan rather than defaulting to sake pairings. Oriental Beauty (dongfang meiren) is a Taiwanese oolong produced primarily in Hsinchu County itself, which means the tea pairing is not a local flourish added for effect but a genuinely regional product served in its home territory.

This convergence of Tokyo fish, Taiwanese coastal catch, and a Hsinchu-grown tea illustrates how counter omakase in Taiwan has evolved from direct Japanese replication toward something more hybrid. Earlier generations of Japan-trained Taiwanese sushi chefs often returned with the intent of reproducing the Tokyo experience as faithfully as possible. The more recent pattern, of which Sushi An is a part, acknowledges that faithfulness and distinctiveness can coexist at the same counter.

Where Sushi An Sits in Hsinchu County's Dining Scene

Hsinchu County's restaurant scene is smaller in profile than Taipei's but has been accumulating a serious tier of chef-driven venues. Ang Gu, Bebu, Chuan Fu, Firoo, and Geng Ye Yue Mei represent the range of that scene, which spans Chinese regional cooking, modern Taiwanese formats, and now omakase. Outside the county, the broader arc of chef-driven dining in Taiwan can be tracked through venues like GEN in Kaohsiung, Zhu Xin Ju in Tainan, and Akame in Wutai Township, each of which has built a reputation on specific ingredients or techniques rather than cuisine category alone. Internationally, the counter format's commitment to sourcing precision has parallels at fish-focused restaurants as different in scale as Le Bernardin in New York City and Emeril's in New Orleans, where the provenance of primary ingredients is treated as editorial rather than incidental.

In the context of Hsinchu County specifically, an omakase counter drawing directly from Toyosu is an indicator of how the county's dining ambition has shifted. The science and technology industry that drives Zhubei's economy has produced a dining clientele with both the income and the travel experience to support formats that would have been harder to sustain a decade ago. That shift in local demand has been one of the quieter drivers behind the county's restaurant evolution.

Planning Your Visit

Sushi An is located at 62, Section 1, Jiafeng South Road in Zhubei City, within reach of the city's central districts. Given that the venue operates a single omakase format with counter seating, capacity is inherently limited. Omakase counters at this level of sourcing commitment almost always operate on a reservation basis, and advance booking is advisable. The format suits adults and older diners with an interest in the pacing and focus that a counter meal demands. Those looking for broader context on where to stay, drink, or spend time around a visit can find useful reference points in our full Hsinchu County restaurants guide, our full Hsinchu County hotels guide, our full Hsinchu County bars guide, our full Hsinchu County wineries guide, and our full Hsinchu County experiences guide. For resort-based dining with a similarly deliberate approach to environment and sourcing, Volando Urai Spring Spa & Resort in Wulai District offers a point of comparison in how Taiwan's hospitality venues are building identity through place and ingredient together.