One street number on Dunhua North Road holds two different things. Floors 1 and 2 are four restaurants and a spa, all open to the public. Floors 14 to 17 are 86 rooms and a lobby with no front desk. The eleven floors in between are the offices of a financial group.
This is one page per place, from the awkward side door in the garage to the windows on the fourteenth floor. Hours, seat counts, room orientation and closing days all go into tables. Thirteen pages, about eighteen minutes.
The last page carries a tick-box list of twelve things. Items 2, 5 and 9 cost nothing, happen every day, and most guests never find them. None of the twelve is required. Take the ones that suit you.
01 · The basics
Two slices of a tower, eleven office floors apart
Capella occupies two separate bands of a single tower: floors 1 and 2, then floors 14 to 17. The restaurants, ballroom, spa and gym on the lower band are open to anyone. Above the fourteenth floor, only guests get out of the elevator. Between the two bands sit the offices of KGI Financial Holding, with separate elevators and separate circulation. The same address therefore holds a restaurant floor open to the whole city and a residence nobody else can reach. Which of the two you are in depends on the elevator you stepped into.
| Opened | 1 April 2025. The first Capella in Taiwan and the eighth in the group |
|---|---|
| Keys | 86 (78 rooms, 8 suites) |
| Floor plan | Floors 1 to 2: Plume, Ember 28, Rong Ju, Mizue, Atelier Plume, meeting and event rooms, Capella Wellness and the fitness center. Floors 14 to 17: guest rooms, the Living Room, the outdoor pool |
| Sources disagree | Most Chinese-language coverage and guest accounts give floors 14 to 17. The MICHELIN Guide listing describes floors 14 to 18. No official floor plan is published. Ask at the time of booking |
| Building | Shares the tower with the KGI Financial Holding headquarters. Mori Building of Japan, the developer behind Roppongi Hills, served as master planning and design consultant |
| Interiors | André Fu Studio. Other work includes The Upper House in Hong Kong, HOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO and Waldorf Astoria Osaka |
| Operator | Capella Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in Singapore |
| Registered owner | Kuo Heng Development Co., Dunbei Branch. Taipei City hotel license 803-1 |
| Address | No. 139 Dunhua North Road, Songshan District, Taipei 105021 |
| Telephone | +886 2 7709 6868. The Glasshouse bar complex has its own line, +886 2 7709 6866 |
| Check in / out | 15:00 / 12:00. Early arrival and late departure depend on occupancy, and off-schedule timings may carry a charge |
| Metro | Taipei Arena station on the Songshan-Xindian line, about a 3 minute walk. Nanjing Fuxing station about 9 minutes |
| Airports | Songshan Airport about 5 minutes by car (1.6 km). Taoyuan International about 56 minutes |
| Parking | Free for guests, valet included, with electric vehicle charging |
| MICHELIN | Hotel: one Key in the first Taiwan list, October 2025, one of four in the country. Restaurant: Mizue on the second floor took two stars on 21 July 2026. The two ratings are independent, and page 11 sets out how |
| General Manager | Dennis Laubenstein |
- Arriving by carCome up from the basement garage and turn right. A small door leads straight into the hotel. The signage is thin, and early guests mentioned this repeatedly.
- On footFace the KGI tower, walk left along it, then turn right. That is the Capella entrance rather than the office lobby.
- By metroLeave Taipei Arena station and walk north along Dunhua North Road for three minutes. With luggage, take a taxi instead. There is no covered walkway on that stretch.
- Landing at SongshanFive minutes by car. The hotel limousine starts at TWD 2,500 one way and a street taxi runs under TWD 200. Both are reasonable answers.
02 · Public rooms
The magpie mural downstairs, the sofas upstairs
This tower holds two lobbies with entirely different jobs. Plume on the ground floor is the public face and a Taipei social room, and anyone may walk in for a drink. The Capella Living Room on the fourteenth floor is where guests stay, and check in happens on those sofas rather than standing at a counter.
| Ground floor · Plume | Lobby bar, 48 seats. The backdrop is a site-specific work by the French artist Elsa Jeandedieu, painted in gold leaf around the form and coloring of the Taiwan blue magpie, at the scale of a folding screen |
|---|---|
| Ground floor, other | A white jade spiral stair, Preciosa crystal chandeliers, and a mural of the Taipei basin. Works by local artists hang along the corridors |
| 14F · Living Room | The signature space in every Capella. Fireplace, sofas, books, art. Arrival formalities happen here, and the welcome drink is a sparkling roselle tea, made from the dried hibiscus calyx grown in southern Taiwan |
| Sources disagree | Most guest accounts describe being taken up to the fourteenth floor to check in. Others describe confirming details at a ground floor desk first. Both have happened |
| 14F · Atrium | The evening cultural program runs here. See page 5 |
| 14F · Chef's Table | The afternoon workshops and the Little Stars children's activities run here |
| Open to the public | All of floors 1 and 2. Floor 14 and above are for guests only |
| Elevators | Entirely separate from the KGI office cars. Guests report long waits at peak times, and the in-room control system responds slowly |
The gap between the ground floor and the fourteenth was built in deliberately. All five food and drink venues sit at street level, so on any given night the ground floor fills with people who came for steak or cocktails and have no interest in whether you are staying. Fourteen floors up, the same evening might see a dozen parties moving around. The room rate covers that separation as much as it covers the room.
03 · Rooms
What Skyline means, and one trap in the bed configuration
Eighty-six keys split into thirteen room types, and only two variables decide how the stay feels: which size band you book, and whether the room name contains the word Skyline. Skyline means Taipei 101 is in the window, and its absence means a general city view. The official site states this plainly. The bed configuration deserves closer reading: the 48 square meter Superior Skyline Room comes with twin beds only. A king bed with Taipei 101 in the window starts at the 53 square meter Deluxe Skyline Room.
| Superior Room | 48 m², 34 of them, king or twin, city view |
|---|---|
| Superior Skyline Room | 48 m², twin beds only, facing Taipei 101 |
| Deluxe Room | 53 m², 28 of them, king, city view |
| Deluxe Skyline Room | 53 m², king, facing Taipei 101. The entry point for a king bed with the tower in view |
| Premier Room | 60 m², 12 of them, king, private balcony. Available as city or Taipei 101 |
| Pool Terrace Room | 78 m², 4 of them, king or twin, private terrace with plunge pool. City or Taipei 101 |
| Deluxe Suite | 106 m², 4 of them, open plan living and dining. City or Taipei 101 |
| Pool Terrace Suite | 270 m², 2 of them, large terrace, plunge pool, jacuzzi, sun loungers. The largest in the house |
| Capella Suite | 228 m², 2 of them, private gym and TV room, facing Taipei 101 |
| Beds | Sealy. Guest accounts mention two mattress protectors layered on top |
| Linen | Frette, with a pillow menu |
| In room | Smart room controls, Bluetooth speaker with voice assistant, safe, Nespresso, Dyson hair dryer, complimentary non-alcoholic minibar and snacks, digital newspapers and magazines |
| Families | Connecting rooms available, cribs free |
| Accessible | A Superior Accessible King Room exists and appears on booking platforms. Detailed specifications are not published, so confirm directly with the hotel |
| Corner rooms | Some rooms are corner units with two walls of glass and a glazed passage looking toward Taipei 101. Wooden louvers in front of the bed block part of the street view when closed |
- At bookingFor the tower view, choose a room type with Skyline in the name. For a king bed as well, start at the Deluxe Skyline Room.
- Two travelersIf twin beds are acceptable, the Superior Skyline Room is the least expensive Taipei 101 view in the house.
- After bookingWrite in and ask for a corner unit, with your reason. A written request carries further than one made at the desk.
- If a terrace mattersOnly six exist. Book well ahead in high season rather than treating it as a plausible upgrade.
04 · Bathroom
Every room has a bathtub, which in Taipei cannot be assumed
The official specification lists a separate shower and bath across every room type, along with a double vanity. Among new hotels in this price band in Taipei, entry rooms with a shower only are common enough to be worth checking, and this property does not have that problem. Guest accounts describe the tub as stone and large enough for two adults.
| Layout | Walk-in shower and freestanding bath kept separate, double vanity, marble surfaces |
|---|---|
| Bathtub | Stone. Guests report room for two |
| Amenities | Bamford. Guests mention generous bath salts, and the changing rooms outside the gym carry the same range |
| Single-use items | Supplied on request rather than laid out in the room, under Taiwan's hotel sustainability policy |
| Hair dryer | Dyson |
| Known fault | The waterproof strip on the shower door leaks. Separate guests reported this at different periods. Put the mat down first |
| Also reported | A new-build smell in some rooms during the opening months |
The bathroom and shower sit in a fairly open relationship to each other. The benefit is daylight and a sense of space, and the cost is that with two people using it at once, spray from the shower reaches whoever is in the tub. That comes from the layout rather than the workmanship. One more detail: the visible cover on the rim of the tub does not drop, and the control for the drain is concealed elsewhere. First-time users can spend a while on it.
05 · The Living Room
Four complimentary servings, two of them in the same hour
The Capella Living Room on the fourteenth floor is open daily from 08:30 to 22:30, free to every guest, with soft drinks and snacks available the whole time. Three further servings run on a clock: cakes and specialty teas from 15:00 to 16:00, cocktails and small bites from 17:30 to 18:30, and three separate cultural programs that change theme every day of the week. Read the timetable and you will notice that two pairs of them overlap exactly.
| Living Room | Daily 08:30 to 22:30. Non-alcoholic drinks and snacks all day |
|---|---|
| Sweet Delights | 15:00 to 16:00, cakes and specialty teas. Guests mention the cakes are limited and go early |
| Cocktail hour | 17:30 to 18:30, complimentary alcoholic drinks with small bites |
| Morning Rituals | Daily 07:30 to 08:00 at Banyan Tree Plaza. Seven neighborhood stories, one per day: Monday Dunhua North Road, Tuesday Songshan Airport, Wednesday the green boulevard of the Minsheng Community, Thursday Minsheng Junior High School, Friday the Li Family Old House, Saturday the Matsuyama Tosha Jifuku Temple, Sunday Minsheng Park |
| Evening Rituals | Daily 17:30 to 18:30 in the 14F Atrium. Monday Sankeng Hakka heritage, Tuesday the mining era of Jinguashi, Wednesday the mountains of Taiwan, Thursday Monga and Huaxi Street, Friday Taiwanese night markets, Saturday Dihua Street, Sunday the Nanjichang neighborhood |
| Capella Moments | Daily 15:00 to 16:00 at the 14F Chef's Table. Monday tea tasting and tea sealing, Tuesday wooden window artistry, Wednesday an ai-yu jelly class using the seeds of a Taiwanese climbing fig, Thursday coffee cupping, Friday Hakka oil-paper umbrella painting, Saturday Atayal indigenous weaving, Sunday paper cutting |
| Little Stars | Children's activities. Taiwanese greetings 30 min, gua bao steamed buns 30 min, bubble tea 30 min, ai-yu jelly 45 min, chocolate 60 min, umbrella painting 60 min, cooking class 60 min. Book 5 hours ahead |
| Ages | Children under six need an adult present. Arrive five minutes early and register with the Culturist team |
| Sources disagree | The official program sheet places complimentary alcohol at 17:30 to 18:30. Some guest accounts describe alcohol being available in the Living Room throughout the day. Treat the published window as the baseline and ask on arrival |
- On arrivalAsk which three themes are running today and register for whichever ones appeal while the paperwork is happening.
- AfternoonFor cake, go up at three. For the workshop, go straight to the Chef's Table.
- Early eveningHalf past five is the best hour on the fourteenth floor. Take the day's story in the Atrium first, then return to the Living Room for another drink.
- Early morningThe 07:30 ritual gathers downstairs at Banyan Tree Plaza. If you are awake for it, those thirty minutes are the quietest in the building.
- With childrenLittle Stars needs five hours of notice, so mention it at check in.
06 · Dining
The grill and the Cantonese room close on different days
Eighty-six rooms supporting five food and drink venues plus a three-story bar house is an unusual ratio anywhere in the world. The cost is that the closing days differ from venue to venue, and they do not line up. Laid out across a week: on Monday evening only Ember 28 and Plume are serving, Ember 28 is dark all day Wednesday, and all three bars close on Sunday and Monday. The night you book decides what you get to eat.
| Ember 28 | Ground floor, modern open-fire grill, 40 seats. Beef dry-aged for 28 days, with tableside wood-fire finishing and carving |
|---|---|
| Ember 28 · hours | Lunch Saturday to Tuesday 12:00 to 14:30. Dinner Friday to Tuesday 18:00 to 22:00. No dinner on Wednesday or Thursday |
| Ember 28 · chef | Lance Wang, from Pingtung in southern Taiwan |
| Ember 28 · food | Alishan oolong tea bread, Yunlin pork, wagyu tartare, grilled squid soup. Mains include Australian M9 wagyu, Japanese Omi A5 and US Prime New York strip. Media tastings put a meal around TWD 4,200 to 4,800 per person |
| Ember 28 · room | André Fu took European theaters as the reference. A bronze fireplace anchors the room, with large crystal chandeliers overhead, velvet seats, embossed leather and generous spacing between tables |
| Rong Ju | Cantonese. 26 seats in the main room plus four private dining rooms. The ceiling rises eight meters in terracotta roof tile |
| Rong Ju · hours | Tuesday to Sunday, lunch 12:00 to 14:30, dinner 17:30 to 21:30. Closed all day Monday |
| Rong Ju · rooms | Four private rooms named for plum, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum |
| Rong Ju · chef | Franco Yuen, from a restaurant family, with more than fifteen years across the Philippines, Australia and the Maldives |
| Rong Ju · rating | Listed in the MICHELIN Guide without a star. Its reservations are hard to get for an unrelated reason: Jensen Huang has eaten there |
| Dress | Smart casual at both |
| Reservations | Both run on SevenRooms. The restaurants are busy and walk-ins are not always accommodated. Guests have booking priority |
| Sources disagree | Rong Ju was announced at opening as Tuesday to Saturday. The current official site says Tuesday to Sunday. Take the site as current and confirm when you reserve |
| Another discrepancy | The official page says Rong Ju is named for two old banyan trees. The Capella Curates walk on the same site describes four majestic banyans. Two numbers in one set of official material |
- Before bookingCheck which weekday you are staying. Avoid Wednesday and Thursday if the grill matters, and avoid Monday if the Cantonese room does.
- Once confirmedReserve online straight away. Guests from 86 rooms and the general public compete for the same seats, and Ember 28 seats only 40.
- With family or for businessThe four private rooms at Rong Ju let a conversation stay at your own table, under an eight meter tiled ceiling.
- Monday arrivalBook dinner at Ember 28, or walk out. The surrounding streets carry plenty of options, covered on page 12.
07 · Dining
Fourteen counter seats, and a breakfast with oysters and champagne
Mizue holds the fewest seats in the building: fourteen at the counter plus two private rooms. On 21 July 2026, a little over a year after opening, it entered the MICHELIN Guide for the first time and took two stars outright. Chef Hara Katsunori comes from Chiba and spent eight years in Ishikawa under Morita Kazuo, widely called the sushi master of Kansai. Breakfast happens downstairs at Plume, oysters and champagne included.
| Mizue | Japanese omakase. 14 counter seats, 2 private rooms. Shoji screens filter the daylight and the room follows a wabi-sabi restraint |
|---|---|
| Mizue · hours | Lunch Friday to Sunday 11:30 to 15:00. Dinner Wednesday to Sunday 18:30 to 22:00 |
| Mizue · MICHELIN | Two stars, MICHELIN Guide Taiwan 2026, announced 21 July 2026. A first-time entry straight to two stars, and one of only two new two-star restaurants that year |
| Mizue · floor | 2F of the hotel |
| Mizue · price | TWD 9,000 per person plus 10 percent service, paid at the time of booking to hold the seat. Releases have been selling out within minutes |
| Mizue · chef | Hara Katsunori, from Chiba. Worked at Isosei, an early private counter in Taipei, then spent eight years at Komatsu Yasuke in Ishikawa under Morita Kazuo |
| Plume | Ground floor lobby bar, 48 seats. Daily 06:30 to 24:00 |
| Breakfast | 06:30 to 11:00, guests only. Oysters and champagne are part of it. The champagne breakfast under a Fora booking is served here, for up to two guests per bedroom |
| Plume · other hours | Champagne and breakfast in the morning, afternoon tea and specialty coffee later, then a champagne lounge after dark, with a list running from the major houses to grower cuvées |
| Atelier Plume | Patisserie, 16 seats. Tuesday to Sunday 11:00 to 19:00, no reservation needed. French pastry work built on Taiwanese seasonal fruit |
| In-room dining | 06:00 to 01:00 |
| Split opinion | Breakfast and the Living Room food draw the most polarized reviews in the house. Some guests find them generous, others feel the bread and the plates fall short of the building, and several compare them directly with Mandarin Oriental |
The vinegar in one course damages rings, so guests are asked to remove them before the course arrives and are handed a small cushion to rest them on. The chef's mother made those cushions. Nothing about that appears on the menu or in any official copy.
The two stars will only make the counter harder to reach. It was already selling out within minutes of each release, at TWD 9,000 a head paid up front, across fourteen seats. Book the room and the table on the same day.
08 · Bars
A three-story bar house at number 129
The Glasshouse sits at No. 129 Dunhua North Road. The hotel is at 139. It has its own door, its own telephone line and its own Instagram account. Each of the three floors is a separate bar: vinyl and live music in the basement, Taiwanese terroir cocktails at street level, aged spirits and old champagne in the quiet room upstairs. Getting there means walking out of the hotel.
| Address and phone | No. 129 Dunhua North Road, Songshan District, Taipei. +886 2 7709 6866 |
|---|---|
| Tilt (ground) | Cocktails built on Taiwanese terroir. Native botanicals, mountain herbs, artisanal spirits and precision-cut ice. Tuesday to Saturday 18:00 to 01:00 |
| Cooper (upper) | Aged spirits and vintage cuvées, named for the craftsmen who make casks. Tastings and private masterclasses. Tuesday to Saturday 19:00 to 02:00 |
| Playback (basement) | Vinyl and live performance, with Japanese mixology technique. Thursday to Saturday 19:00 to 01:00 |
| Closures | All three close on Sunday and Monday. Playback also closes Tuesday and Wednesday |
| Reservations | Each floor books separately, through SevenRooms |
| 2026 package | An anniversary room package launched in 2026 carries a TWD 2,026 credit for The Glasshouse |
The three floors differ sharply in character. Tilt runs warm, Playback runs loud, Cooper runs quiet. Covering all three in one evening is manageable, and bottom to top tends to flow better: a cocktail built on citrus or maqaw pepper at street level, a set downstairs if the music pulls you, then the quiet room at the top to finish. Cooper runs until two, later than almost anything else on this stretch of Dunhua North Road.
09 · Wellness
The pool is on fourteen, the spa and gym are on two
The pool sits on the fourteenth floor with Taipei 101 in view, while Capella Wellness and the fitness center sit on the second floor with no view at all. The hours differ too, and the pool closes earliest of anything in the building, running 07:00 to 18:00. A Taipei summer still has daylight at six, so the public pool closes before the city lights come on.
| Pool | 14F outdoor, 07:00 to 18:00, heated. Taipei 101 in the distance, with heavy planting and day beds around the deck. A children's pool is also listed |
|---|---|
| Pool scale | Guests consistently report a fine view and a modest size. Taiwanese building regulations rule out an infinity edge |
| Fitness center | 2F, 24 hours. Technogym, including the Biostrength AI range and body composition analysis. Personal trainers available |
| Fitness outlook | Guests report good daylight and no view from the second floor. Equipment is new and complete |
| Sauna and steam | 10:00 to 22:00, inside the changing rooms off the gym. Each holds around six. Same Bamford range as the rooms |
| Spa | 10:00 to 22:00, treatments 10:00 to 21:00. Four single suites, one double suite with a Taiwanese hinoki cypress tub, a flotation pod, a relaxation lounge and a movement studio |
| Treatment prices (TWD, before service) | Intuitive Wellness Massage 60 min 5,880. Deep Tissue or Warm Stone 90 min 7,880. Full Moon 90 min 8,280. New Moon 90 min 9,280. Foot Reflexology 60 min 4,880. Indian Head 60 min 4,880. Floating Meditation 60 min 5,280 |
| Add-on | Ancient Hinoki Renewal Bath 45 min, 2,500 single and 3,600 double, with Taiwanese tea and light snacks |
| Journeys | Mind and Body Rejuvenation 4 hours, 18,800 single and 35,000 double. Unwind and Recharge 3.5 hours, 16,800 and 32,000. Fitness Journey 2.5 hours, 9,880 |
| Training | Personal training 3,800 per session, 21,600 for six, 38,400 for twelve. Private yoga 60 min 6,080 |
| Service charge | 10 percent on all of the above |
| Age policy | Capella Wellness is for guests aged 18 and over. Under 18 requires a separate conversation, possibly an adult in the room and a consent form. Not suitable for small children or babies |
| Cancellation | 12 hours for individual treatments, 24 hours for group and classes. Late or no-show is charged in full |
| Arrive early | 15 to 20 minutes before a treatment, covering the health assessment, consultation and tea ritual |
| Sources disagree | The official spa menu describes the gym as 140 square feet, which does not match the equipment list it sits beside. A unit error looks likely |
Because the pool closes at six, the photograph of someone floating with the Taipei skyline behind them is not taken from the public pool on the fourteenth floor, it is taken from one of the six rooms with a terrace plunge pool. That is the most easily misread line item in the whole rate card. The premium on a Pool Terrace Room or Suite buys more than floor area. It buys the hours after six, which the public pool does not cover.
10 · Booking
Two channels, and you may use both
Capella is an independent group with none of the points logic of Marriott or Hyatt, so this page has to be read from scratch. Two separate channels apply here: the Virtuoso advisor network, and GHA DISCOVERY membership. The rules do not conflict, and both can sit on a single reservation. As of early 2026 this hotel does not appear in Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts, Chase Edit or United Renowned.
| Virtuoso and Fora | Capella is a Virtuoso partner. Fora Travel is a Virtuoso member agency, so this channel applies |
|---|---|
| Fora benefits | Upgrade on arrival subject to availability. Daily champagne breakfast for up to two guests per bedroom, served at Plume. USD 100 equivalent in local currency as a food and beverage credit per stay. Early check-in and late check-out, both subject to availability |
| Suites only: one transfer | Suite bookings include one one-way transfer, from Songshan Airport, Taoyuan Airport, Taipei High Speed Rail Station, or any address within Taipei and New Taipei City |
| Credit conditions | Not combinable, not valid against the room rate, no cash value if unused |
| Rate | Same as booking direct, with no advisor fee |
| GHA DISCOVERY | Participating. Tiers run Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, with an invitation-only Red above them |
| D$ earning | Silver 4 percent, Gold 5, Platinum 6, Titanium 7. One D$ equals one US dollar and can offset room, dining and spa, usable from D$10 |
| D$ expiry | 12 months at Silver, 18 at Gold, 24 at Platinum and Titanium. Promotional D$ expire in six months |
| Tier thresholds | Platinum: 10 nights, or USD 5,000, or stays at 2 brands. Titanium: 30 nights, or USD 15,000, or stays at 3 brands |
| Titanium, sources disagree | GHA publishes double upgrade, 11:00 check-in and 16:00 check-out. A 2025 guest received a Capella Taipei welcome sheet stating 09:00 check-in and 18:00 check-out, and all three were honored. Individual brands may go beyond the published terms, so confirm when booking |
| Status match | The paid GHA match runs to 1 September 2026. Titanium costs USD 150 and returns D$75, with status valid to 31 December 2027 |
| Stacking | A Virtuoso booking still earns GHA nights and D$. The two layer |
| Rate range | English-language reviews in early 2026 report around USD 700 per night. Taiwanese media and guest accounts cite roughly TWD 20,000 and up |
| Beyond the rate | No resort fee and no destination fee. Parking is free including valet. Spa and dining carry a 10 percent service charge |
| Transfers (tax included) | Taoyuan Airport one way: S-Class TWD 4,200, V300 van TWD 4,900. Songshan Airport one way: S-Class TWD 2,500, V300 TWD 2,900. City hire from 3 hours, each extra hour TWD 2,500 or 3,000 by vehicle |
| Taoyuan VIP terminal | TWD 15,000 or 16,000 for one person, plus TWD 12,000 for each additional guest. Book 3 days ahead with passenger and driver details |
| Transfer rules | Book cars one day ahead. Cancellation inside 4 hours or a no-show is charged in full. Taiwanese law requires a child seat under age four or 18 kg, supplied free on request |
| Transfer prices, a caution | The table layout in the official PDF leaves some vehicle and price pairings unclear. Confirm line by line before you book a car |
- Before bookingCheck your GHA tier first. Titanium arrival and departure times are the benefit you will feel most in this particular building.
- At bookingTake the advisor channel for breakfast for two and the USD 100 credit, and add your GHA number to the same reservation.
- Spending the creditIt cannot touch the room rate, so the cleanest use is one dinner at Ember 28 or Rong Ju, which absorbs it in a single sitting.
- Booking a suiteArrange the transfer at the time of booking. It is not restricted to airports, so a car within Taipei or New Taipei counts, including a run to the high speed rail station.
- CarsSongshan is five minutes away and either a hotel car or a street taxi works. The Taoyuan run is long enough to be worth arranging in advance.
- Two nightsPage 5 explains why. Two hours of the day collide, and a second night is what unlocks both.
11 · Reviews
The praise and the complaints, listed separately
Hardware and gifting draw near-uniform praise, while service and food split hard. The same guest population produces scores ranging from best in Taipei to would not recommend, and they are usually describing the same set of details. Both sides are listed separately below.
Two MICHELIN ratings apply here, from two separate systems
The hotel holds a Key. The restaurant holds stars. The two are inspected separately against different criteria, so stars in the building do not lift the Key and the Key does not lift the stars. Since the MICHELIN Guide Taiwan 2026 was announced on 21 July 2026, this address carries both.
| Mizue | Two stars, announced 21 July 2026, a little over a year after opening. A first-time entry straight to two stars, one of nine two-star restaurants in Taiwan and one of only two new ones that year. The other was NOBUO, promoted from one star |
|---|---|
| That year's list | 61 starred restaurants in Taiwan: 3 with three stars, 9 with two, 49 with one. The three-star holders remained Le Palais, Taïrroir and JL Studio |
| MICHELIN Key | Rates the stay itself: design, service, character, sense of place, and whether the price matches. In-house restaurants are not part of the calculation. Introduced in 2024 and extended to Taiwan in October 2025 |
| Capella Taipei | One Key. One of four in Taiwan, alongside Mandarin Oriental Taipei, Kimpton Da An and HOSHINOYA Guguan |
| Key tiers | One Key is a very special stay. Two Keys is exceptional, and repays a detour. Three Keys is extraordinary, and repays a dedicated trip. Taiwan currently has no two or three Key hotels |
| Rong Ju | Listed in the MICHELIN Guide without a star. Its reservations are hard to get for an unrelated reason: Jensen Huang has eaten there |
| For comparison | Mandarin Oriental Taipei holds the same single Key, and its Cantonese restaurant Ya Ge has held one star for nine consecutive years. Level on the Key, one star apart on the food |
This changes the arithmetic of staying here. Before the stars, almost all of the value sat on the fourteenth floor and discounted the moment you left the building. There are now fourteen seats on the second floor that belong to a group of nine restaurants nationwide, and guests have booking priority for them. That makes the opening days on pages 6 and 7 matter more: Mizue serves dinner Wednesday to Sunday and lunch only Friday to Sunday.
On timing: the two stars were announced on 21 July 2026, very recently. Reservation rules, pricing and availability may still be settling, so treat the official booking system as the current word.
Praise
- André Fu's design is the single most cited element. Guests describe it as a private house rather than a hotel
- Dense gifting: welcome champagne, fruit and dessert, a fully complimentary non-alcoholic minibar, and a different small gift at each turndown, from acupressure tools to herbal sachets and walnut massage balls
- Early departures are offered a packed breakfast, with sandwiches and a full plate of fruit rather than a single croissant
- A handwritten card and a departure gift at check out
- The fourteenth floor Living Room is free to all guests, and the afternoon tea and evening cocktails are named repeatedly
- The General Manager greets guests in the lobby personally, mentioned across many accounts
- Five restaurants and three bars behind 86 rooms, a density English-language reviewers describe as without precedent
- Mizue drew the highest marks of any venue in the building well before the two stars arrived
- Upgrade requests are often accepted. One guest asked whether Taipei 101 was visible and was moved to the best view in the house
- One MICHELIN Key in the first Taiwan list in 2025, and two stars for Mizue on its first appearance in July 2026
Complaints
- The waterproof strip on the shower door leaks. Different guests raised it in different periods, making it the most specific and most consistent complaint
- A new-build smell in some rooms during the opening months
- Sound insulation: elevator and corridor noise reaches the room
- Too few elevators, long waits at peak, and slow response from the in-room control system
- Thin staffing, and front desk colleagues whose Mandarin is limited. One guest's welcome card addressed a Mr as a Ms
- Service described as professional but cool. Experienced travelers report warmth missing behind the smile
- Breakfast and Living Room food are compared with Mandarin Oriental and judged to fall short
- The rate runs around double Mandarin Oriental Taipei, which holds a MICHELIN Key of its own, has larger rooms, and stands diagonally across the road
- The pool and gym are considered generic. One reader remarked the photographs would pass for any hotel in Bangkok
- A traveler who has stayed at all eight Capellas places Taipei in the lower half
- Convenient without being a sightseeing base. Anyone out of the building all day may use less than half of what they paid for
This hotel puts its value into gifting, cultural programming and the complimentary servings on the fourteenth floor, and all of that requires being in the building to collect. Guests willing to spend a whole day inside find the rate buys a great deal. Guests who treat a hotel as somewhere to sleep, and eat every meal out, will note that the same money buys a larger room elsewhere in Taipei. Most of the negative accounts cluster in the first months after the April 2025 opening, so the service question is better judged from more recent reports.
12 · Around it
Dunhua North, the Arena, and a 1960s suburb three minutes away
The location divides opinion because it is far from the sights and close to how Taipei lives. The walkable radius holds no palace museum and no old gold-mining town. It holds a tree-lined boulevard, an indoor arena, a low-rise district laid out in the 1960s, and a street of night market stalls that fills up after dark. It is a comfortable address rather than a spectacular one.
| 3 min walk | Taipei Arena metro station and Taipei Arena itself, at Nanjing East Road and Dunhua North Road |
|---|---|
| 9 min walk | Taipei Municipal Stadium |
| 11 min walk | Breeze Center |
| 10 to 15 min walk | The cafes, concept shops and Taiwanese kitchens of the Minsheng Community and Fujin Street |
| Within the walk | Liaoning Street Night Market, and the boulevard of Dunhua North Road itself |
| 5 min drive | Songshan Airport |
| 15 to 20 min drive | Taipei 101 and Xinyi, and Dadaocheng, the nineteenth century tea trading quarter |
| Diagonally opposite | Mandarin Oriental Taipei. One MICHELIN Key in 2025, with Ya Ge inside, a Cantonese restaurant holding one star for nine consecutive years |
| Same boulevard | ILLUME Taipei. It opened in 1983 as the Asiaworld Hotel and was a landmark of 1980s Taipei, later trading as Holiday Inn Asiaworld and Sunworld Dynasty. It rebranded as ILLUME in 2022 and converted roughly three hundred of its rooms into social housing, the first conversion of its kind in Taiwan |
| Hotel-run paid walk | Songshan Reverie, 3 hours, TWD 3,500 plus 10 percent per guest, booked 3 days ahead. Route: Banyan Tree Plaza, Songshan Airport, the Li Family Old House, the Minsheng green boulevard, Minsheng Junior High School, the Matsuyama Tosha Jifuku Temple, Minsheng Park |
| The other one | Tea Journey to Pinglin, 5 hours, TWD 22,500 plus 10 percent for two guests minimum, booked 4 days ahead. A forest trail, twenty minutes picking at a private tea farm, withering and rolling, a tea ceremony, and lunch in a heritage building |
Other options in the same city
- Mandarin Oriental Taipei: diagonally opposite, larger rooms, roughly half the rate, and the stronger reputation at breakfast. Same single Key, one star to Capella's two
- Kimpton Da An: the Zhongxiao East Road district, also one Key. An apartment-building conversion with a daily social hour
- ILLUME Taipei: the same boulevard at an entirely different price point, for a trip that wants the budget spent elsewhere
- HOSHINOYA Guguan: the mountains outside Taichung, the fourth of Taiwan's four Keys. A comparison between urban luxury and a hot spring resort rather than a like-for-like
13 · Hidden details
Four things, one day, and twelve boxes to tick
One. Why the road is this wide
Dunhua North Road is one of the few arterial roads in Taipei with a complete canopy, and neither the width nor the trees happened by accident. Taipei built nine boulevards with United States aid money during the 1950s and 1960s, all drawn to a planned width of forty meters, and this was one of them. It was then treated as the ceremonial approach from Songshan Airport into the city. The airport had opened in 1936 as Taihoku Airfield and served for decades as the first thing a state visitor saw on landing. The whole scale of the street was drawn to be looked at. That also explains why the hotel puts the first stop of its morning ritual on this road, and why the fourteenth floor windows land exactly at the height of the leaves.
Two. What stood here before
According to the hotel's own guide copy, this plot housed the China Youth Corps in the 1960s, a state-backed youth organization of the martial law era. That is the hotel's account, and public records are hard to check it against, so it is recorded here as their claim. What occupies the same ground today is a financial headquarters, and the hotel leases only its top and bottom. A youth organization, then a bank tower, then a hotel, inside seventy years.
Three. How many banyan trees
The Cantonese restaurant is called Rong Ju, meaning banyan dwelling. The official page says the name comes from two old banyan trees outside the window. The Capella Curates walk, published on the same official site, describes four majestic banyans. The morning ritual gathers at a spot called Banyan Tree Plaza. Two numbers in one set of official material, and there is no basis here for settling it. Anyone who cares can go down at half past seven and count.
Four. The drain in the stone tub
The stone bath drains differently from a standard tub. The visible cover on the rim does not drop, and the actual control sits concealed elsewhere. On first use it reads as a fault. No official material covers it, so the warning comes only from guests.
- 15:00Check in on the fourteenth floor. The sparkling roselle tea arrives first. Register for today's three programs while you are sitting there.
- 15:30Into the room. Open the wooden louvers fully once and find where Taipei 101 sits.
- 16:00The fourteenth floor pool. The day beds are better than the water, and it closes at six.
- 17:30The Evening Ritual in the Atrium, one hour. Then back to the Living Room for another drink.
- 19:00Downstairs for dinner. Ember 28 skips Wednesday and Thursday evenings, Rong Ju closes Monday. Check the day first.
- 21:30Walk out to The Glasshouse at number 129. Closed Sunday and Monday.
- Before bedFill the stone tub. The bath salts are generous.
- 07:30 next dayThe Morning Ritual at Banyan Tree Plaza, thirty minutes.
- 08:30Breakfast at Plume, in front of the magpie mural. Order the oysters.
- Before check outThe sauna and steam room on two, or ten minutes on foot into the Minsheng Community.
Suits
- Anyone willing to spend a whole day inside. Almost all of the value sits within the building, and it discounts the moment you leave
- Anyone for whom eating is the point. Five restaurants and three bars behind 86 rooms is a ratio that should not exist, and the second floor now holds two MICHELIN stars
- Anyone holding GHA Titanium or booking through an advisor. The arrival and departure times and the champagne breakfast make a wide difference, and a suite booking adds a one-way transfer
- Anyone who likes André Fu, and likes a room that stays quiet about itself
- Anyone staying two nights, which is what it takes to cover both sides of the two colliding hours
Does not suit
- Anyone with a full itinerary who is out all day. The same money buys a larger room in Taipei
- Anyone who needs a grand pool. Regulations rule out an infinity edge on the fourteenth floor
- Anyone traveling with small children who also wants the spa and gym. Those are restricted to guests 18 and over
- Anyone unusually sensitive to sound. Elevator and corridor noise has been reported
- Anyone arriving on a Monday who hoped to eat across all five restaurants
Most luxury hotels in Taipei sell their address, whether that means Taipei 101 from Xinyi, the old shophouses at Dadaocheng, or the runway at Songshan. This one has none of that to sell. It stands on a boulevard with no tourists, inside somebody else's office tower, and puts its money into the fourteenth floor instead. That works if you plan to be in the building. If your days are already booked out across the city, the calculation changes, and page 11 sets out both sides of it.
This article is written in the prospective voice, describing what you will encounter. Facilities, hours, seat counts, prices and room types are compiled from the hotel's official site and official PDFs, the MICHELIN Guide, published Virtuoso and GHA DISCOVERY material, Taiwanese press coverage, and guest accounts on booking platforms and blogs. The author has not stayed at this property, and nothing here is presented as first-hand experience. Every point drawn from guest reports is identified as such. Several conflicts between sources are flagged in the text (floor count, number of banyan trees, Titanium arrival and departure times, gym area, transfer price pairings, Rong Ju opening days), and those are worth confirming with the hotel or your advisor before booking. The two stars for Mizue were announced on 21 July 2026, shortly before this article was written, so reservation rules and pricing may still be settling. Restaurant closing days and the cultural program also change often, so check the official site again before you travel.