Cozy, homey décor with a simple Taiwanese countryside style.

A menu that tells a story:

The server shows you how to take apart and put together these paper cards. Each card is a different chapter of the meal. The courses flow really clearly, starting light and building up to stronger flavors step by step.

Far left: Light, silky cheese with sweet, crunchy raw zhong juan (squid), plus strong tangy tomato and slightly sweet meringue. A super Taiwanese seafood-style starter that’s fresh and gets you hungry.

Second from left: Topped with jia ju leaves, which are common in new immigrant cooking. Strong satay flavor but with a nice light herby smell that balances out the rich beef tongue.

Second from right: Thick, bouncy giant grouper with rich Shaoxing wine. As soon as you take a bite, the warm Shaoxing aroma fills your mouth — fresh and cold, with zero alcohol burn.

Far right: Built on fu cai, basically the soul of Hakka cooking, mixed with smoky, salty pork bacon and sweet, crunchy seasonal snap peas. As the last appetizer, it has the boldest, most layered flavor.

Cold appetizer: trout, ci cong, wood ear, millet, lu jiao, and arrow bamboo shoots. Two parts — the left bowl is kind of like Peruvian ceviche, and the right is Da Ma Mian (Tmmyan), a traditional Atayal cured meat.

The main uses Yunlin pork from the chef’s hometown — fatty but not greasy, bouncy, and no gamey smell at all. Sweet and juicy: the meat itself is really flavorful, and you taste natural pork fat as you chew. The fat is spread out evenly, so even the fattier parts are soft and smooth, not oily. No gamey smell, no worries: the pigs are raised really carefully (no food-waste feed, no antibiotics or drug residue), so the meat tastes clean, without the grassy smell regular store-bought pork can have.

Rice dishes: Zhu Tong Fan, Zong Zi, Wan Gui

The Penglai rice zhu tong fan is cooked with kombu water, green beans, edamame, and bamboo shoots — every grain is separate, not too hard, and the saltiness is just right.

The wan gui is made with Zailai rice and topped with veggie mushroom rou zao and a soft-yolk quail egg. It’s not chewy, not mushy, just a little powdery. The chili sauce is SO good — it makes both the wan gui and the zong zi even better.

The northern-style zong zi has seafood and chestnuts inside, but honestly the best part is the sticky rice with that strong bamboo-leaf smell.

HOSU is a place I want to keep coming back to. Every season’s menu mixes familiar Taiwanese flavors with fun new surprises. It takes the culture, memories, and love for the land that Taiwanese people know so well and turns them into modern dishes that feel special.

Up to 95% local ingredients: They pick crops from small local farmers and Indigenous tribes, use every part of the ingredient, and cook sustainably. You can taste their respect for this land in every bite.