Restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan
Sichuan tasting menu worth the splurge.
A Michelin Plate-recognised Sichuan tasting menu on the 46th floor of Breeze Nanshan, with views of Taipei 101 and a $$$ price point that sits below most of Taipei's comparable fine dining. Three set menus cover the full range of Sichuan cooking styles, from home cooking to imperial-era recipes. Book for lunch if it's your first visit — the room earns its setting in daylight.
If you have already been to Chuan Ya once, the question on a return visit is simple: has anything changed enough to justify coming back? The short answer is yes. The kitchen continues to refine its three-set-menu architecture, and the Michelin Plate recognition it has carried through both 2024 and 2025 confirms that the standard is being held, not coasted on. For a food-focused traveller who wants to understand what Sichuan cuisine looks like when it is taken seriously outside mainland China, this is the most coherent argument for that category currently operating in Taipei.
Chuan Ya sits on the 46th floor of the Breeze Nanshan building in Xinyi District, which means you are eating Sichuan food with Taipei 101 in your eyeline. That physical fact matters practically: the room is formal, the light is good during lunch service, and the setting will suit a special occasion without requiring any explanation to your guest. The address is Songzhi Road 17, Xinyi District, and the building is well-serviced by the MRT Xinyi Anhe or Taipei 101/World Trade Centre stations.
The kitchen operates on a tasting menu framework, offering three fixed set menus alongside the option to build your own course selection. This is an important structural detail for the explorer-type diner: the menus are not interchangeable. According to Michelin's own documentation of the venue, the sets are designed to cover distinct registers of Sichuan cooking, from home-style preparations through to ancient recipes that were historically associated with imperial officials. That range is not a marketing claim — it reflects a genuine curatorial decision about how Sichuan cuisine should be presented. If you are already familiar with the heat-forward, numbing-spice version of Sichuan that dominates most restaurants in this category, Chuan Ya's approach will read as a deliberate correction of that reduction.
The signature dishes noted by Michelin , cabbage in consommé and snowflake chicken with lobster , are described as subtle and delicate, which signals the kitchen's intent. These are not the dishes you would build around if you were optimising for spectacle or Instagram heat. They reward attention rather than surprise. For a diner who has worked through the obvious Sichuan canon, that restraint is precisely the argument for booking.
Three-set structure is the core decision point before you arrive. Choosing between the fixed menus or composing your own is not a trivial choice. If this is your first visit, one of the pre-composed menus gives the kitchen a better chance to show you the progression it has designed: the movement from delicate to more assertive flavour profiles across a full service is where the kitchen's skill is most legible. On a return visit, building your own selection makes more sense , you will know which register interests you most and can weight the meal accordingly.
Dining room runs two services daily across all seven days: lunch from 12 PM to 2:30 PM and dinner from 6 PM to 9:30 PM. At the $$$ price tier, Chuan Ya is positioned below the $$$$ bracket that covers most of Taipei's Michelin-recognised fine dining, including logy, Le Palais, and Taïrroir. That pricing differential is one of the more practical reasons to book here: you are getting a Michelin-recognised tasting menu experience at a price point that sits meaningfully below the city's top tier.
Booking difficulty is rated moderate. This is not a counter with six seats that sells out three months in advance, but it is also not a restaurant where you can walk in without a plan. For dinner on a Friday or Saturday, allow at least two to three weeks. Lunch is generally more accessible and, given the floor-to-ceiling views of the city, is arguably the stronger service for first-time visitors who want to take in the room properly. The restaurant does not publish a phone number or website in Pearl's current data, so reservations should be approached through the Breeze Nanshan building's dining concierge or through whichever booking platform covers the venue at the time of your visit.
For context on how Chuan Ya fits into Taipei's broader dining scene, our full Taipei restaurants guide covers the complete range of options. If you are building a longer itinerary, our Taipei hotels guide, Taipei bars guide, and Taipei experiences guide cover the surrounding decisions.
Taiwan has a long and well-documented relationship with Sichuan cuisine, shaped by the migration patterns following 1949. That history means Taipei has a deeper bench of serious Sichuan cooking than most cities outside Sichuan province itself. Chuan Ya is at the refined end of that tradition, but it is worth noting that if you are in mainland China, the reference points shift: Yu Zhi Lan in Chengdu and Fang Xiang Jing in Chengdu represent the source-location standard. Chuan Ya is not trying to replicate that , it is doing something more specific to Taipei's own culinary positioning.
If your Taiwan trip extends beyond Taipei, JL Studio in Taichung and GEN in Kaohsiung are the reference points for serious dining in the island's other major cities. For something completely different in register, A Cun Beef Soup in Tainan is the practical counterargument to everything Chuan Ya represents , and worth the trip in its own right.
Book Chuan Ya if you want a Michelin-recognised tasting menu that takes Sichuan cuisine as a serious subject rather than a delivery mechanism for heat and spice. The $$$ price point makes it more accessible than most of Taipei's comparable fine dining options, the 46th-floor room is genuinely impressive at lunch, and the three-set architecture gives you real choices about how to engage with the meal. A second visit justifies itself if you want to use the build-your-own option with the benefit of knowing the kitchen's range. It is not the right booking if you want a looser, more casual Sichuan experience , for that, Taipei's street-level options serve the purpose better and at a fraction of the cost. Also consider Gi Yuan and L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Taipei if you are weighing Chuan Ya against other formal options in the Xinyi area.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chuan Ya | Michelin Plate (2025); The pristine room affords stunning views of the city and Taipei 101. The three set menus highlight the well-honed skills and boundless creativity of the kitchen team covering various styles of Sichuan cuisine, ranging from home cooking to ancient recipes for imperial officials. You may also create your own set menu according to your preferences. Signatures like cabbage in consommé and snowflake chicken with lobster are subtle and delicate.; Michelin Plate (2024) | $$$ | — |
| logy | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | $$$$ | — |
| Le Palais | Michelin 3 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Taïrroir | Michelin 3 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Mudan Tempura | Michelin 2 Star | $$$$ | — |
| Golden Formosa | Michelin 1 Star | $$ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Groups are workable here given the custom set menu option, which lets larger parties align on a shared format without everyone defaulting to the same fixed menu. For parties of six or more, check the venue's official channels to confirm private dining availability on the 46th floor. Booking lead time increases with group size at $$$ price-point restaurants in Xinyi District, so plan ahead.
The custom set menu path is your best tool here. Because Chuan Ya allows guests to compose their own menu from the available options, there is more flexibility than at a single fixed-progression omakase. Flag restrictions at the time of booking rather than on arrival. The kitchen's range spans home-style Sichuan to imperial-era recipes, so there is breadth to work with, though this is not a vegetarian-specialist venue.
The Michelin Plate recognition specifically calls out cabbage in consommé and snowflake chicken with lobster as signatures. Both lean toward subtle and delicate rather than the numbing heat Sichuan is often reduced to, which is the point. If you want to experience the kitchen's range across home cooking and imperial-style Sichuan, choose one of the fixed set menus over building your own.
At $$$, the tasting menu format is justified if Sichuan cuisine as a serious subject interests you. The three-set structure and custom option give you more control than most tasting menus at this price tier, and the Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 confirms consistent kitchen execution. If you are primarily coming for the view rather than the food, the value case weakens.
Yes, with the caveat that the occasion should match the format. The 46th-floor room with Taipei 101 in the window is visually strong, and the custom set menu means you can shape the meal around the group. At $$$, it sits in the right price tier for a meaningful dinner without requiring a James Beard-level budget. Compare to Taïrroir if you want a more Western fine dining frame for the same occasion.
Dinner gives you the better visual payoff: Taipei 101 and the Xinyi skyline lit up from the 46th floor is a different experience than the daytime version. Lunch runs the same hours (12 PM–2:30 PM daily) and likely the same menu structure, so it is a practical option if your schedule is tight, but it is not the recommended first visit.
At $$$ with two consecutive Michelin Plate years and a menu that covers Sichuan from street-style to imperial recipes, the price is defensible for what you get. Where Chuan Ya earns its rate over cheaper Sichuan options in Taipei is in the set menu architecture and kitchen consistency, not portion size or scene. If you want a lower price point for similar cuisine, Taipei's Sichuan mid-market is competitive, but nothing else in the city pairs this format with that view.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
