Taipei is definitely a heaven for foodies. There are so many good foods available around the clock. When I first visited Taipei seven years ago, I was a newbie traveler who didn’t do much research. It has always killed me to realize how much food I missed out. So when I finally had the chance to go back, I redeemed myself by going on a 3-day Taipei food marathon.
Read on to find out which food I ate and enjoyed in Taipei, so you won’t miss out like I did!
General Travel Tips on visiting Taipei
Taipei is a very safe and tourist-friendly city. I saw it as a very cool combination of Shanghai, Japan, and Singapore. I wouldn’t be concerned if even I were to go by myself, but here are some tips that would make your trip even easier:
When you first arrive at the airport, buy an EasyCard – this is their transport card that you can use for trains/buses. You can buy the airport train and EasyCard bundle online here and pick it up once you land in Taoyuan Airport. I recommend picking up the bundle with prepaid local SIM cards too. Normally, you can buy the EasyCard when you get to Taipei for NT$500 (US$16) – NT$100 is for card deposit and NT$400 is to be used for transport. The airport express MRT to Taipei Main Station costs NT$160 but most journey inside Taipei city is only about NT$20-something per ride so this card gets you far. It was enough for me to go around the city for the entire 3-day including the round trip airport journeys. Prepaid SIM Card costs an additional NT$500 so if you want both, the bundle is definitely the more economical choice!
Public Transport is top-notch in Taipei. The train system is efficient – you can expect to not wait longer than 5 minutes for a train. The buses, on the other hand, are slower. On average it requires about 15-45 mins waiting time.
Taxis and Car Sharing – If public transport is not an option for you, Uber is legal in Taipei, super convenient and relatively cheap. The yellow metered taxis are also everywhere.
Private Car Charter – If you are traveling in a group and want to see things outside of Taipei too, I highly suggest getting a Private car charter. You can book one here, and it can take you to places like Jiufen or other night markets outside of Taipei.
Local SIM Card – As with any other travels, it would also be handy to have an internet connection at all times, so I recommend getting a prepaid local SIM card. You can buy SIM Card Bundle online here (you should get the one with Airport Express and EasyCard), or at the airport and convenience stores throughout Taipei.
If you don’t speak or read Mandarin, download Google Translate and pre-download the Traditional Chinese pack so you can translate it on the go. Locals are VERY nice and helpful but English is not their first language. I found that younger locals can speak English, but it still would help to have translations handy.
Google Maps works really well in Taiwan, in fact for most of the recommendations below you can just type the English name and you’ll find it on Google Maps. So definitely pre-download a map of Taipei to save data while you’re there!
You can store your luggage at the Taipei Main Station. If you need to check out of your accommodation and your flight is not till night time, there are plenty of lockers at the station. Also, don’t be deceives by the size of the locker from outside – each locker can fit a lot! We managed to fit 2 of our carry-on luggage and 3 backpacks inside. Just make sure you remember which lockers you’ve put your stuff into because the main station is huge and you don’t want to lose your luggage later on.
Alright, now that we’ve got the practical stuff out of the way – on to the fun stuff: TAIWANESE FOOD! Before you ask, NO I did not try stinky tofu. As much as I try to be adventurous I just can’t bear the smell… let alone try to eat it. So there is that.
Here are the 10 Must Eat Taipei Food:
1. Beef Noodle Soup (Niu Rou Mian 牛肉麵)
I was introduced to Taiwanese cuisine when I moved to Singapore. There is a stall I frequent at Food Republic (a food court in Singapore) called Formosa Delights, which specializes in… well, Taiwanese food. Throughout the years of coming here, I’ve become fond of their beef noodles, especially with the “Dao Xiao” style – I’ll elaborate more on what this means later!
So while I was in Taipei, it’s a no-brainer that I had to go look for the authentic version of Taiwanese beef noodles. I went to Yong Kang Beef Noodle as it has been lauded as one of the city’s best beef noodles! This is kinda silly of me, but I decided to go on a Sunday afternoon, shortly before 1 PM, when they were probably at the busiest. Sure enough, when I arrived there was already a line of 30 people ahead of us. It was very intimidating. But thankfully they are very efficient and the line moved fast. We waited only about 10-12 minutes for a table for two.
I ordered the small dark-broth spicy noodles, which is the typical Taiwanese style, for myself while my boyfriend ordered the small clear broth noodles, both of which are actually not very “small”. I think most people would be happy with the small portion especially if you plan to walk around Taipei and eat more after this. You can also get some side of stir-fried vegetable dishes, which you have to order separately from the booth next to the entrance – this will get added to your bill later.
So remember how I said I would elaborate on what “do xiao” means? “Dao Xiao” means knife-cut, and this refers to the way the noodles are cooked – by literally hand-shaving a huge block of dough straight into a boiling pot of the broth. It results in uneven cuts of noodles which are chewy and thicker in the middle and thin on the edges. The beef noodles at Formosa Delight in Singapore come “Dao Xiao” style by default. Love it! PS: You could also order the noodles “Dao Xiao” style at Yong Kang but I totally forgot while I was there! I loved both noodles at Yong Kang. The beef chunks are so tender and just falls apart on the first bite. The soup broth is made from tomatoes and dark soy sauce so it tasted slightly sweet, but very savory thanks to the beef chunks. And although they said it’s spicy, honestly it’s not THAT spicy. I personally prefer the dark broth style as the broth is more flavorful. If you want to taste more of the beef chunks then you’d want to try the clear broth version.
Thanks to my friend Jasmine Chen for recommending this one!
Where to eat Beef Noodle in Taipei:
- Yong Kang Beef Noodles (永康牛肉麺館)
- Liao Jia Beef Noodle Restaurant (廖家牛肉麵)
- Liu Shandong Beef Noodles (劉山東牛肉麵)
- Lin Dong Fang (林東芳牛肉麵)
- In addition to the above, many beef noodle restaurants/stalls have received Michelin Bib Gourmand's title in 2018. You can see the list here.
2. Scallion and Daikon (Radish) Pancake
One of my fondest memories from my first visit to Taipei in 2011 is getting a freshly fried scallion pancake from a street stall in Ximending. It was one of the modern stalls, so they had a bunch of toppings you could add onto your pancake – I added egg, cheese, and ham with the help of my friend Serena, who speaks Mandarin. The pancake was really delicious, especially during the cold winter!
It wasn’t until later that I learned the authentic pancakes are not supposed to have that many toppings, maybe just the option to add eggs. Fast forward to last weekend I was on a bus to Shida night market with my friend Kyle – except I wasn’t sure if we were on the right bus. We had problems communicating with the bus driver and even though I showed him the location on the map, he didn’t confirm whether the bus was going in that direction.
While I was busy racking my brain on how to get out of this situation, with the bus speeding and us holding on to dear life so that we wouldn’t fall, a kind lady behind started talking to us (in perfect English) and asked where we were going. She told us that we are on the correct bus, but since she knew we were visiting, she asked if we would like to get off one stop earlier and come with her to get some scallion pancakes that is popular with the locals – it took me about 0.2 seconds to agree and follow her.
When we got to the place, which I found out from Google Maps is called Wenzhou Street Daikon Pancake, and there was already a long queue forming. The total wait time was about 15-20 minutes, but it was definitely worth every second. Most people in the queue were locals who would buy multiple pancakes to bring home to their families.
While we were waiting in the queue, Anne, the lady who helped us, told me about Daikon pancakes. I’ve never tried this so I decided to get two pancakes – one normal scallion pancake with eggs and one daikon pancake.
The scallion pancake was wonderful – perfectly chewy on the inside but crispy on the outside. The daikon pancake was also very interesting, it was much thicker than the scallion pancake and most of the filling is fresh daikon wrapped in a crispy deep-fried batter, which creates a contrasting texture as you bite into the pancake. I personally prefer the daikon pancake more than the scallion one.
And that’s the story of how I followed a stranger on a bus in Taipei. My friend and I still joke about how easy it would be to kidnap me – just promise me some food and I’ll gladly follow any strangers! 😀
Where to find Scallion and Radish Pancake in Taipei:
- Wenzhou Street Daikon Pancake (温州街蘿蔔絲餅達人)
- Any of the Night Markets in Taipei
3. Authentic Taiwanese Breakfast
The traditional Taiwanese breakfast basically consists of loads of carbs, eggs, and soy milk. Dip your youtiao (dough fritters) into a warm bowl of soy milk, and get yourself a roll or two of the omelet cake.
I went to Yong He Soy Milk King at Da’an MRT which opens past breakfast except on Sundays. First of all, I must thank my friend Yi-Wei for sending me here, as well as telling me exactly what to order. There was no English menu and I would have been pretty lost. So, I’m paying it forward by telling YOU what to get! Order a portion each of 甜豆浆 (Tian Dou Jian – Sweet Soy Milk)， 蛋饼 (Dan Bing – Omelette Cake)，油条 (You Tiao – Fritters)， 葱油饼 (Cong You Bing – Scallion Pancakes). This should be good to share between two people. If you want, you can also order 小籠包 (Xiao Long Bao – the beloved soup dumpling). The cashier could speak basic English, but showing the items written in traditional Chinese characters and showing him these on my phone definitely made the ordering process MUCH easier.
Where to eat:
- Yong He Soy Milk King (永和豆漿大王)
- Fu Hang Dou Jiang (阜杭豆漿)
- Shin Taipei Dou Jiang (新台北豆漿)
4. Taiwanese Spicy Hot Pot
Hot Pot is a universal meal in Asia – you can find variations of hot pot in China, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. Hot Pot is usually best enjoyed with a group, where a boiling pot of soup is shared in the middle of the table along with a variety of raw ingredients (meat, vegetable, tofu, dumplings, and seafood). Usually, you choose two types of soup as a group but each individual can choose what they want to put into the pot.
In Taiwan, Hot Pot is also a popular choice for a group meal and it is often eaten with a DIY dipping sauce, which you can make your own personal sauce by combining different sauces and/or egg yolk.
Serena‘s friend took us to have a hot pot at Tai Ho Dien on our first night in Taipei seven years ago. We enjoyed the meal very much especially because we went during winter, and the hot pot is perfect to have during cold months.
Where to Eat Hot Pot in Taipei:
- Tai Ho Dien (太和殿)
- Ding Wang Spicy Hot Pot (鼎王麻辣鍋)
5. Pork Pepper Bun (Hu Jiao Bing 胡椒餅)
Take note, this might just be my favorite item among the entire list of food to eat in Taipei. MUST MUST try. I found the famous Fuzhou Pork Pepper Bun at Raohe Night Market, where the bun is baked en-masse by sticking the dough, filled with peppery minced pork, to the sides of a large cylindrical oven. This process oddly reminds me of the method used to cook Zarb underground barbecue in Jordan.
The result is a very tender, juicy, and very peppery pork bun. I’m a huge fan of pepper, so needless to say I was sold from the first bite. Fuzhou Pepper Buns is the very first stall you see if you enter Raohe Market from the North East side, next to Songshan Temple.
Hat tip to my friends Yi-sheng and Michael Paravati for this recommendation!
Where to find Pork Pepper Bun in Taipei:
- Fuzhou Pepper Buns (福州世祖胡椒饼) at Raohe Night Market
6. Braised Pork Rice (Lu Rou Fan 滷肉飯)
Lu Rou Fan is another Taiwanese cuisine that keeps coming up on my recommendation list. I’m cheating a bit because I actually didn’t try Lu Rou Fan in Taipei (I ran out of time!) – I had it during our day trip to Jiufen instead, and I’m so glad I didn’t miss out on this dish.
Lu Rou Fan is a very simple but comforting dish, consisting of small cubes of braised pork marinated in thick, dark gravy sauce, served over piping hot steamed rice. When you get your bowl of Lu Rou Fan, you can mix the meat gravy sauce into your rice – I found this to be the best way to enjoy the dish. That taste of the sauce coating over each grain of rice was the definition of comfort food. It kinda reminds me of Mapo Tofu in terms of comfort level, but they taste completely different.
Some say Lu Rou Fan is probably the most well-loved Taiwanese dish, tied with the beef noodles, and I can totally see why! You can also order braised boiled eggs and braised tofu to complete the experience.
Where to find Braised Pork Rice in Taipei:
- Jin Feng Lu Rou Fan (金峰魯肉飯)
- Huang Ji Braised Pork Rice (黃記魯肉飯)
7. Taiwanese Fried Chicken
In recent years, street food in Taiwan has also become synonymous with Fried Chicken, thanks to its prevalence in the night markets, which is an important part of Taiwanese culture.
The Fried Chicken you can find in the night markets usually consists of bite-sized chicken coated in potato starch with salt, pepper, garlic and basil leaves. You can then add some chili into it as you like. It’s basically Taiwan’s take on popcorn chicken, but because they usually use potato starch instead of simple, this result is a more tender coating around the chicken pieces.
Yi-Wei (again) messaged me because he watched my Instagram stories and saw that I was at the Shida market. He recommended Shi Yun Fried Chicken, and that message came at perfect timing because I was actually standing right in front of the stall, wondering what to get! So I quickly placed my order for their most popular item – salt pepper chicken. This place is actually a Yong Tau Foo type of place, where you can mark items to orders for items on a pink sheet of paper, or grab a basket and place ingredients you see on the stand into the basket, and they’ll fry it up for you. I was already eating non-stop that day so I just ordered the fried chicken – which was wonderfully juicy and very strong on the garlic side. Thanks, Yi-Wei! I might have had bad breath for the rest of the night but it was worth it 😛
In the more recent years, Taiwan has also became known for the deep-fried chicken cutlets, which was introduced by Hot Star XXL Fried Chicken and became popular due to its massive size. Basically, fried chicken has earned its status as the most popular street snack in Taiwan.
Where to find Fried Chicken in Taipei:
- Shi Yun Fried Chicken (師園鹽酥雞) in Shida Night Market (Facebook)
- Hot Star Large Fried Chicken (士林豪大大雞排) in Ximending
- Shilin Night Market
8. Bubble Tea / Pearl Milk Tea
When I was living in Los Angeles in the early 2000s, Bubble Tea (aka “Boba”) had somehow gained popularity and became the hottest thing in the city. I remember my Taiwanese friends told me that Boba is not anything new to them – in fact, the concept of Bubble Tea was invented in the 1980s in Taiwan.
The original bubble tea was simply just black tea mixed with milk and tapioca balls, but since it became popular, it has sprouted new variations which include fruit-flavored juice (such as passion fruit, strawberry, mango, lychee, etc) and ice blended base. In recent years, it has also become a trend to be able to pick the level of sugars so you can feel slightly better when you are sipping on your milk tea drink. However, I personally think the traditional pearl milk tea with full sugar is still the best thing to get!
Where to find Bubble Tea in Taipei:
- Chunsui Tang (春山茶水舖)
- chachago (茶茶果)
- Chen San Ding Bubble Tea (陳三鼎黑糖粉圓鮮奶 專賣店)
9. Pineapple Cake
I suppose Pineapple cake is not something you actually eat while you are in Taipei – instead, it’s something often brought back as a souvenir.
Why Pineapple cake? Pineapples became a critical component of Taiwan’s economy during the Japanese era, during which the Japanese imported a wide variety of pineapples and established numerous processing plants. When the export demand diminished, local bakeries did not let the pineapples go to waste and used them as jams inside pastries, which resulted in the Taiwanese Pineapple Cakes as we know them today.
There are many popular places to get your pineapple cakes from, with one of the names I kept hearing being Chia Te. I did not have enough time to go to the store but I happened to come across Amo Bakery at Taipei Main Station, which is the station you take the airport express from if you’re flying out from Taoyuan Airport. I bought a dozen to share with my roommates and office friends. Many of them told me this was one of the best pineapple cakes they’ve had! So if you are taking the airport express from Taipei, I recommend saving your time and just getting your pineapple cakes from Amo Bakery. They are near locker 307 in the Taipei Main Station. However, if you are still keen on buying the most famous one but don’t want to visit the store in Taipei, you can still order Chia Te Pineapple Tart and pick it up at the airport when you fly out. I wish I knew about this option when I was in Taipei!
Where to get Pineapple Cake in Taipei:
- Amo Bakery at Taipei Main Station
- Chia Te Bakery (佳德鳳梨酥) (also available at Taipei Airport)
10. Pork Intestine & Oyster Noodle
During my time in Taiwan, I mostly employed the eat-first-google-later method. So when we found out that our accommodation was only 5 minutes walk from Ay Chung Flour Rice Noodle, which was recommended by friends and blogs, I quickly dragged my friend there without much research.
The shop is located in Ximending a popular shopping area in Taipei. Once you get to the vicinity, the shop was easy to find. Just look for a large crowd slurping noodles out of paper bowls on the street. Ay Chung is not a sit-down restaurant after all, and they only have one thing on their menu – the noodles! You go up to the store and place your order (Small or large) then immediately queue up to the left of the cashier to receive your noodles. The process is highly optimized and very fast so you’ll receive your order and before you know it, you’ll be joining the rest of the crowd slurping on your bowl in the middle of Ximending.
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