I know there is that one in the Bellavita, but the prices are ludicrous.
Basically a good place like to get a few dozen to throw back with some cocktails.
OK so I mentioned my feening for oysters to a friend and we basically escalated it until we just say f-it and got oysters where we knew they were. So we went to the Bellavita oyster bar.
They were pretty good. They have quite a few imported varieties. The prices weren’t exactly sea-town beer-and-oysters type of place, but they also weren’t too far out of line of say Midtown. Supply and demand, it seems.
They included these things as a pre-course. Smoked salmon cube, Duck egg with Foie Gras, Salmon wrapped-vegetable and a seafood-based broth.
We kept it tame at a half dozen each.
I don’t understand the market positioning in putting a place like this in a food court, but there were people there.
We also learned from a bartender at Barcode that there may or may not be a place in Neo 19 that serves similarly good oysters. May try this tomorrow. If I do I will report.
Back in Seattle, we’d sometimes go up near the San Juans and just find these things on the beach at the low tide, grab em, pile em up in a bucket on the boat, clean em, shuck em and have at it on the boat. Those were good days. Can’t really do that here.
Try looking up my friends’ small cafe bar The White House on Facebook - they have a lot of oyster nights (without the ritzy ditzy factor).
call ahead to ensure they’re open:
02- 27355778
大安區安和路二段217巷16號 - An-He Road, Section 2, Lane 217, No.16
Or “like” 
them on FB for oyster night updates
There is a little place in the lane behind Anhe just off Ren Ai called Chabliz, just up the lane from Kama. Little as in 6 seats. It’s not terribly fancy, but the oysters and wine are quite good for the price. Tel is 0966550220. Recommend you call first and make a reservation.
Oxymoron. IMO raw oyster can never be good.(insert vomit emoticon here) The only way I’ll touch an oyster is deep fried.
Seriously though, Tainan’s AnPing Districy has all the oysters you could ever want, in every configuration, and fresh daily since AnPing is an oyster farming community. Maybe a bit of a drive for you though.
Jogoya in Neo19 used to have them although last time I was there (a year ago) didn’t. They are all you can eat however.
Man…you are one brave dude to eat raw oysters on Taiwan… 
I get the squirts just thinking about doing that here.
There is a high end (as in prices and quality, not necessarily clientèle 
) buffet between Zhu Wei and Hong Shu Lin MRT stations called ćµ·ä¸ĺ¤© (Hai zhong tian). They have all you can eat sushi, sashimi, oysters, all kind of cooked fish, and lots of other really quality dishes. No one there speaks English, so best to go with someone who does if you don’t as many of the dishes have to be ordered (still all you can eat, though).
I don’t eat oysters, but the people I go with rave about them. I usually eat pounds of raw salmon every time I go. They have free parking too. If you go during the week, it’s cheaper…I think it’s around NT700 per person. It’s my favorite place to go if I’m just feeling gluttonous.
Oh, and they play Christmas music year round…gotta love Taiwan 
[quote=“suiyuan31”]There is a high end (as in prices and quality, not necessarily clientèle ) buffet between Zhu Wei and Hong Shulin MRT stations called ćµ·ä¸ĺ¤© (Hai zhong tian). They have all you can eat sushi, sashimi, oysters, all kind of cooked fish, and lots of other really quality dishes. No one there speaks English, so best to go with someone who does if you don’t as many of the dishes have to be ordered (still all you can eat, though).
I[/quote]
There is? Is that the place next to or above the motel? I live next to that building but have never been in.
[quote=“cfimages”][quote=“suiyuan31”]There is a high end (as in prices and quality, not necessarily clientèle ) buffet between Zhu Wei and Hong Shulin MRT stations called ćµ·ä¸ĺ¤© (Hai zhong tian). They have all you can eat sushi, sashimi, oysters, all kind of cooked fish, and lots of other really quality dishes. No one there speaks English, so best to go with someone who does if you don’t as many of the dishes have to be ordered (still all you can eat, though).
[/quote]
There is? Is that the place next to or above the motel? I live next to that building but have never been in.[/quote]
Yeap, that’s the one. They have a hotel in back, restaurant and spa on the second floor, tons of banquet rooms, and there is bowling and a baseball batting range on the upper floors. All much nicer inside than it appears from the outside. And the food in the restaurant is really good, worth the price in my opinion. One of the better places I have eaten at in Taipei.
Cool.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]Man…you are one brave dude to eat raw oysters on Taiwan…
I get the squirts just thinking about doing that here.[/quote]
It’s pretty crazy alright…you’d better hope they are Taiwan oysters AND from South of the island too.
[quote=“cfimages”][quote=“mabagal”]
We also learned from a bartender at Barcode that there may or may not be a place in Neo 19 that serves similarly good oysters. May try this tomorrow. If I do I will report.
[/quote]
Jogoya in Neo19 used to have them although last time I was there (a year ago) didn’t. They are all you can eat however.[/quote]
So I went to Jogoya today per your and the bartender’s tips. When I found out it was a buffet, my expectations were pretty low. But figured I wanted to load up before the gym anyway, so went ahead.
The round with oyster. This would be the only round with oysters.
They are over cleaned or something. No salt-water flavor, no brine. The texture was OK, but great. After the first one, had to throw a lot of hot sauce and lemon on there to make it edible. I think they would have been better had there been any flavor left in them. Thank goodness the place had other (quite good) foods. They also have several all-you-want to drink mixed drinks and Kirin beer.
Thanks all for the other suggestions, will check them out. Is there a Chinese name for the White House Cafe because this isn’t resolving on Facebook, nor does any location like that show up in Taipei proper on any of the indexes (Google Maps, Foursquare, etc.)
Man, those oysters are WAAAY too big. No wonder they’re not tasty.
A well behaved oyster is never larger than the slice of lemon. Hell, a well behaved oyster never needs a slice of lemon.
Now THIS is a plate of well-behaved oysters (the lemons are for decoration and size comparison purposes only):
And yes, any one eating oysters in Taiwan is bound for a nasty surprise eventually, of either the hepatitis or the gastroenteritis variety. Or for the habitual consumer, arsenic, dioxin, bisphthalate, and cadmium or mercury poisoning.
Yes iv gathered that eating oysters is not really healthy. Heavy metals from the ocean because oyster bed are near shore and of course bacterial because you eat them raw.
Was probably just me , but i had a meal in a five star Seoul hotel a number of years back and was given a complimentary “australian” oyster (all 3 of us were). But i came down almost immediately with food poisoning and extreme itching and hives all over.
wont touch another oyster
[quote=“tommy525”]Was probably just me , but I had a meal in a five star Seoul hotel a number of years back and was given a complimentary “australian” oyster (all 3 of us were). But i came down almost immediately with food poisoning and extreme itching and hives all over.
wont touch another oyster[/quote]
you could just be allergic.
oysters are fabulous if you can get good flavoursome local oysters that have been raised in clean water and harvested less than 24 hours before. If they are opened immediately before eating, so much the better. Oysters in France, near Normandy, for example, or in Sydney or southern coast of NSW, Australia, are among the best in the world and rightly so.
Buying oysters anywhere else is a recipe for disaster, because they’re such delicate shellfish. They don’t last long out of water, so they go off quickly. They accumulate poisons in the water as they grow, and also harbour bacteria and viruses present in the water they were grown in. The bacteria multiply dramatically once they die, so you get sick real fast from badly handled oysters. Buying oysters far from where they were grown is risky, no matter the price you pay for them, and buying Pacific oysters anywhere is always a let down.
a good oyster bar?
try this place, though their price have skyrocketed since the area was remodeled about 10 years ago. A dozen oysters and a pint of Guinness used to cost about 12 bucks, but is now closer to 40… Now they don’t even have Guinness on tap anymore (sacrilege) and their wines are dominated by expensive champagnes.
[quote=“mabagal”][quote=“tommy525”]Was probably just me , but I had a meal in a five star Seoul hotel a number of years back and was given a complimentary “australian” oyster (all 3 of us were). But i came down almost immediately with food poisoning and extreme itching and hives all over.
wont touch another oyster[/quote]
you could just be allergic.[/quote]
yes i think so, i dont do well with shellfish in general.
[quote=“urodacus”]Man, those oysters are WAAAY too big. No wonder they’re not tasty.
A well behaved oyster is never larger than the slice of lemon. Hell, a well behaved oyster never needs a slice of lemon.[/quote]
Yeah, when I saw these particular ones, I was already fairly apprehensive. So the ones at the BellaVita oyster bar = good. The ones at the buffet = bad. So far, as expected.
Sorry, but all this talk of food poisoning, bad metals, etc. seems so overblown when you consider that most people don’t control their consumption of other man-created things that are guaranteed to be poison.
IMO, eat what you want, stay healthy by staying active with vigorous exercise. If you only eat things that are found in nature without any processing, even better. The body is remarkably good at processing and expelling things that are found in nature. Easy game.
[quote=“urodacus”]oysters are fabulous if you can get good flavoursome local oysters that have been raised in clean water and harvested less than 24 hours before. If they are opened immediately before eating, so much the better. Oysters in France, near Normandy, for example, or in Sydney or southern coast of NSW, Australia, are among the best in the world and rightly so.
Buying oysters anywhere else is a recipe for disaster, because they’re such delicate shellfish. They don’t last long out of water, so they go off quickly. They accumulate poisons in the water as they grow, and also harbour bacteria and viruses present in the water they were grown in. The bacteria multiply dramatically once they die, so you get sick real fast from badly handled oysters. Buying oysters far from where they were grown is risky, no matter the price you pay for them, and buying Pacific oysters anywhere is always a let down.
a good oyster bar?
try this place, though their price have skyrocketed since the area was remodeled about 10 years ago. A dozen oysters and a pint of Guinness used to cost about 12 bucks, but is now closer to 40… Now they don’t even have Guinness on tap anymore (sacrilege) and their wines are dominated by expensive champagnes.[/quote]
Thanks for the tip on the Sydney Place. Was meaning to take a trip there at some point.
I will be going back to the States next week and my gal, learning of my adventures here, has booked us at proper oyster places in DC, Manhattan and Cape Cod. It’s oyster season back in the western world which is why I have been thinking about these so much lately.
When I was there, that imported oyster bar at the Bellavita was serving varieties from France, Spain, Pacific Northwest USA, Australia. I tried 4 of the varieties and they were good.