Opened in October '98, Kwei Tai Lang Japanese Restaurant in Yung Ho aims to give diners a wide sampling of Japanese cuisine without having to spend a fortune. Chef Chen Kuan Yu, who learned the skills of Japanese cooking in Taiwan before heading to Japan for six months Intensive training, said he's designed the menu to offer a wide variety of dishes to suit every budget.

Unfortunately, for those who find Mandarin a challenge to decipher, the menu is in Chinese only, without photos. Still, chef Chen said he is still fine tuning the menu and plans to introduce a photo-style menu soon.

The restaurant is light, airy and clean, following the basic rules-of-thumb for Japanese restaurant decor, with black tables standing on a gray-stone-slab floor. The cooks work at the sashimi bar at one end of the restaurant, allowing you to point at all the weird and wonderful seafood you want to try, should you wish.

The restaurant has already become famous around Yung Ho for Its baked crab hot-pot, but at NT$1,000-price range, depending on the seasonal price for crabs, it is at the high-cost end of the menu. Going for something closer to our price range, my companion and I ordered prawn cakes (NT$8O), for our appetizers. This consisted of two 3-inch discs of chopped prawn and onion, bound together with a light batter and deep-fried until golden brown.

Following this, we ordered mixed sushi platter (NT$65). Served on a wooden tray, we were given six slices of different sushi garnished with sliced ginger. Very tasty and excellent value. 

A scary looking dish that we tried was mashed taro and prawn cake (NT$80). In the center of this orange-sized ball of mashed taro and prawn were little chunks of fish, while the whole thing was bathed in a pool of salty green bean paste. This was definitely not one for me, despite chef Chen's reassurances that it was one of the most popular dishes on the menu.

The good thing about going Japanese - like Chinese - is that you can sample lots and lots of little dishes without getting too full. So we added one more little taster, deep-fried tofu (NT$60). This consisted of three cubes of tofu deep-fried and served in a bowl of light soy sauce. Very nice.

Like the crab, we felt the sashimi was a bit on the pricey side - NT$260 for a platter of six styles - and were in need of a filling dish.  So we ordered baked butter beef (NT360) for our main dish. This consisted of a heavy beef stew brimming with button mushrooms, and thick slices of succulent beef. Eaten with plain rice, the dish was the highlight of the meal and satisfied our hunger after all those little appetizers.

For dessert, we tried pao chung green tea jelly, which tasted much nicer than it sounds, and the complimentary sliced orange to bring to an end a very enjoyable, and affordable Japanese meal.