Early-August dining recap: Kur closes, Embers publishes sustainability data and Blue Bottle expands in Bangkok

Looking back at the dining news for the week from August 3 to August 9, 2026, many news have now been concluded or completed, including the closure of Japanese restaurant Kur in Taipei, Embers’s sustainability declaration, a cross-sea pop-up collaboration with a Tokyo coffee brand, and Blue Bottle Coffee’s first entry into the Bangkok, Thailand market, which were all the focus of the industry at the time.

Why did Taipei Kur Restaurant close its operations?

Kur, a modern Japanese restaurant located on Anhe Road, Da'an District, Taipei, announced on the community that it would close on August 29, 2026. The official post only stated that it was "decided for some reason", without specifying the specific reasons or mentioning follow-up arrangements. Kur opened in September 2025. It is a sister store of the two-Michelin-starred restaurant Logy. It is located at the old site of Logy. Logy chef Ryogo Tahara serves as the general food supervisor, and Japanese chef Koshi Watanabe, who was born in 1998, is the chef. Watanabe Koshi graduated from the Musashino Cooking College in Tokyo. He has worked in two famous restaurants, Tateru Yoshino and Florilège, and went to work in Sydney in 2023. In 2025, he returned to Taiwan to join at the invitation of Ryogo Tahara. The name of the restaurant is taken from the Ainu language meaning "shadow", and it interprets the spirit of Japanese cuisine based on French cuisine training. It was closed less than a year after its opening and became one of the hot topics in the industry last month.

What specific data does Embers’ “Sustainability Declaration 2026” reveal?

Taipei restaurant Embers published an online document "Sustainability Declaration 2026", which organizes the sustainability practices since its opening in five chapters, and attaches a comprehensive data table for comparison. The document shows that since August 2022, a total of 10,158 glass bottles and about 5,200 kilograms have been recycled, and were finally handed over to the domestic glass recycler Spring Pool Glass for processing; it has cooperated with the NGO Do You a Flavor for five years and six operations to provide a total of 1,057 meals. ; After the introduction of reusable silicone lids in October 2022, the average monthly cling film usage dropped from 8.6 rolls to 5.5 rolls, with a cumulative reduction of about 8,900 meters in four years; in 15 months, about 1,500 red earthworms digested 388.3 kilograms of dry food waste. The menu "Miscellaneous Fish Science" uses a total of about 300 species from the waters around Taiwan, spanning 122 families, of which 67 families only use a single species. The restaurant also explained that the bar counter was sourced from thinly logged cedar trees in Wufeng, Hsinchu, echoing Taiwan's current wood self-sufficiency rate of less than 3%. Although the proportion of local ingredients purchased exceeds 95%, this figure is the restaurant's self-assessment and has not been audited by a third party.

What is the content of Tokyo Lonich and Taipei brand coffee planning?

Tokyo-based Kuramae coffee brand Lonich collaborated with Taipei restaurant brand Knock Knock Heaven from August 13 to 16 to launch a limited-time project "Design Your Coffee Experience in Taipei". The event has now ended. The event had two components: Knock Knock Heaven on the second floor is fully reservation-based, with four time periods a day, a maximum of four people per session, and a maximum of 64 bookings over four days. The content includes 5 coffees, 2 meals and 1 cream cheese snack, priced at NT$2,000 per person; Cream & Bean, a takeaway coffee brand on the first floor, will provide limited pour-over coffee during the same period. Lonich founder Reisuke Maruyama, brews more than 10 Japanese limited coffee beans on site, no reservation is required. Lonich, a brand owned by the Japanese start-up company Oriental Coffee Ventures, opened its first store in Kuramae, Tokyo, in April 2023. Cream & Bean also stated that it will invite Stone, the manager of Tainan Cafe St.1 Street Coffee, to serve as a consultant to develop Taiwan's premium cold brew series. The timetable has not yet been announced.

What is the current status of the bakery planning and table hosting activities at the Far Eastern Shangri-La Hotel in Tainan?

The Far Eastern Shangri-La Hotel in Tainan has cooperated with Hashizume Kenori, the second-generation operator of the bakery Croissant in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, to launch 17 types of bread at the "Pinxiang Shop" on the first floor. The sale period is until September 30, 2026, and has currently ended. Its curry bread has won the highest gold medal from the Japan Curry Bread Association, and won the 2025 championship out of 137 entries; in June 2026, its work "Noir Cafe Raisins" won the California Raisin Association's New Baking Product Competition. On the other hand, the Caesar Hotel chain was originally scheduled to hold a Taiwanese cuisine themed banquet at the Keda Hotel in Taipei on September 13, 2026. Executive chef Dai Yuyi will lead the chefs of the four Chinese restaurants to jointly prepare the dishes. The event was open to individual reservations at a cost of NT$2,000 per person plus a 10% service charge. Now the event date has passed.

Are there any other new store openings worthy of attention?

Taoyuan Zhongli mature fish cuisine brand "Yuno Yuno" has arrived. It specializes in the free-topping rice bowl model. It provides more than 15 kinds of fresh fish every day. Customers can combine and choose fish with different aging days. Dream Mall in Kaohsiung welcomes the 20th store of Black Mao House under Ganbei Group in Taiwan. It has 88 seats and specializes in four personal hotpot dishes including shabu-shabu and sukiyaki. Set meals start from NT$380. In Hong Kong, Draft Land, which originated from Taipei, has opened its third branch in Tsim Sha Tsui and has entered Kowloon for the first time beyond Hong Kong Island. It shares space with local coffee brand Nodi and operates day and night. The American specialty coffee brand Blue Bottle Coffee has set its flag in Thailand for the first time. Two stores in Bangkok's Dusit Central Park and EmQuartier were opened on August 21 and August 28 respectively. Now both are officially in operation, marking the brand's further expansion in the Southeast Asian market.