25 Tasty Restaurants to Visit in Taipei

“Where should I go for Taiwanese breakfast in Taipei?“

“Fu Hang Soy Milk! It’s the best Taiwanese breakfast place in the city! Everyone knows that.”

“Who serves the best mee sua?“

“Ay-Chung Flour-Rice Noodle, of course! That place is legendary, and it’s right in Ximending too. So convenient!”

If you’ve spent any time researching where to eat in Taipei, you’ve probably come across those restaurants again and again. They’re popular for a reason, and many of them are genuinely delicious, but they aren’t necessarily where the locals go.

I learned that a few years ago, when a Taipei local told me that only tourists went to Ay-Chung. Aiya! And here I was thinking I was being cool and eating like a local. Ha!

That conversation stuck with me. In a city as delicious and diverse as Taipei, limiting yourself to just the most popular or frequently recommended restaurants would be doing yourself a disservice. Some of the city’s best meals can be found in places that don’t necessarily make the rounds on TikTok or Instagram.

After digging a little deeper on our most recent trip, we’re happy to bring you the third iteration of our Taipei food guide. If I remember correctly, we first published it way back in 2014. We’ve updated the guide several times over the years – tweaking, editing, dropping, and adding new discoveries with every return trip to Taiwan’s capital.

This guide will lead you to some of the tastiest examples of iconic Taiwanese dishes like beef noodle soup, lu rou fan, and mee sua with oysters and pork intestines. A few of the restaurants on this list may not be as popular, but in our humble opinion, they’re definitely worth seeking out.

THE BEST RESTAURANTS IN TAIPEI

To help organize this guide, I’ve categorized the restaurants by the type of food they serve. You can click on the links to jump to any section of the guide. I’ve also pinned each restaurant’s location to a map at the end of this article.

TAIWANESE BREAKFAST

1. Gan Mei Alley

Fu Hang Soy Milk is easily the most-visited Taiwanese breakfast place in Taipei, at least among foreign tourists. It’s super popular with lines often snaking around the block.

While they do serve tasty examples of soy milk, egg pancakes, and youtiao, Fu Hang is hardly the only breakfast spot worth waking up for in Taipei. I find Gan Mei Alley to be just as good, if not better. Plus, I never had to worry about dozens of early risers waiting ahead of me in line.

 

Gan Mei offers a good range of Taiwanese breakfast staples like radish cake, steamed buns, soup dumplings, and Taiwanese omelette. You can order a la carte, but I like to get one of their combo meals. Pictured below is the Combo D – it consists of Taiwanese radish cake, a basil and cheese Chinese omelette, and a glass of either soy milk or black tea.

The radish cake and omelette were tasty, but this steamed mantou with creamy cheese and egg made me do the happy dance. It’s delicious.

Gan Mei Alley is conveniently located in Ximending. I’ve read that a crowd can form outside the restaurant, but never to the degree at Fu Hang.

Gan Mei Alley

Address: No. 130號, Kunming St, Ximen Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108
Operating Hours: Wed-Thurs, 7AM-2:30PM, 5-9PM / Fri-Sat, 7AM-11:30PM / Sun, 7-9PM / Mon, 7AM-2:30PM, 5-8:30PM (closed Tuesdays)

TAIWANESE/CHINESE FOOD

2. 面線町

Mee sua with oysters and pork intestines is one of our favorite Taiwanese street foods. Ay-Chung has never disappointed us, but there are other places you can visit that may be better. 面線町, located along trendy Chifeng Street in Zhongshan District, is one of them.

Like Ay-Chung, 面線町 offers just one dish on its menu – mee sua or vermicelli. It’s topped with any combination of oysters, pork intestines, chicken meatballs, squid, and fish crackers. Being “everything-but-the-kitchen-sink” type of eaters, we got our bowls fully loaded.

Here’s a picture with every ingredient in clear view. These mee sua bowls are delicious and absolutely overflowing with ingredients.

面線町 is a tiny restaurant with just five or six counter seats and one container drum table for two. It’s popular, so I suggest arriving 15-20 minutes before opening to minimize the wait. If I remember correctly, we got there half an hour before, and we were second in line.

面線町

Address: No. 25號, Lane 49, Chifeng St, Guangneng Village, Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan 10353
Operating Hours: Wed-Mon, 11:30AM-7:30PM (closed Tuesdays)

3. 螺螄福Rose Food正宗柳州螺螄粉

Zhongshan District, particularly the area around Chifeng Street, is one of the coolest neighborhoods in Taipei. It’s a great neighborhood to wander around in aimlessly, looking for trendy boutiques, cafes, and hidden restaurants. One of the places we stumbled upon was Rose Food, a small restaurant known for serving luosifen, or Guangxi-style snail rice noodles.

We weren’t familiar with this dish until we saw it here, but what piqued our attention was its use of river snails. The dish gets its name from its soup base, which is prepared by slow-cooking river snails, pork bones, Sichuan peppercorns, and an assortment of Chinese medicinal herbs for at least three hours. The finished dish isn’t served with any snails, but the broth does boast a distinctly pungent, earthy flavor that’s at once spicy, sour, savory, and aromatic.

What you’re looking at below is the soup version, but they do offer a dry version as well. Both are made with rice noodles topped with wood ear mushrooms, pickled bamboo shoots, pickled beans, green vegetables, peanuts, fried tofu skin, duck meatballs, and quail eggs.

Luosifen has an interesting flavor profile that may not be for everyone, but as you can see in the next picture, it does have its loyal fans.

This is what initially caught our attention – any restaurant with a long line of customers always deserves a closer look. We were back the following day for lunch.

螺螄福Rose Food正宗柳州螺螄粉

Address: No. 14-1號, Chifeng St, 大同區 Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan 103
Operating Hours: 11AM-9:30PM, daily

4. 華承軒 麵館

We’re simple people. When we see “hand-pulled noodles” on a restaurant’s menu, we don’t ask any questions – we just go. And when a restaurant makes its own hand-pulled wide noodles, well, that’s doubly appealing.

華承軒 麵館 offers five types of noodle soup, ranging from relatively simple options to more luxurious bowls. Pictured below is the abalone and fish maw chicken soup noodles. Made with more premium ingredients served in a rich and surprisingly flavorful broth, it may not look like much, but my god, was this delicious.

I ordered this version mainly for the abalone, but it turned out to be the least interesting part of the dish. The thick, chewy noodles were the real star, as were the pieces of chicken, which caught me by surprise. They were tender and fragrant with the most wonderful texture.

Here’s a closer look at the fish maw. If you’ve never had it before, it has a slippery, gelatinous texture and a mild, almost neutral flavor.

Mrs Traveleater had the Jinhua ham and chicken broth noodles. Jinhua ham is a type of specialty dry-cured ham produced in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, China.

As much as I love abalone and seafood, the noodles and chicken were so good that I’ll probably skip the more luxurious options and order this instead on our next trip back to Taipei. Honestly, you don’t need anything else.

華承軒 麵館 draws a small crowd, so it’s best to arrive early if you’d like to be seated right away.

華承軒 麵館

Address: No. 136號, Section 1, Zhongshan N Rd, Min’an Village, Zhongshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 104001
Operating Hours: 11:30AM-3PM, 5:30-10PM, daily

5. Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles

Researching the best beef noodle soup in Taipei is an impossible task. Like finding the best laska in Singapore, every local has a strong opinion on who makes the best, and they’ll defend it to the death (at least from behind a keyboard).

Without a clear number one, you’ll find over half a dozen eateries with some claim to having the best beef noodle soup in Taipei. We’ve tried many of these places over the years, and have come to find our own personal favorites. Lao Shan Dong is one of them.

This humble eatery tucked away in the basement of a building in Ximending prepares its bowls with tender chunks of beef and the most delicious homemade noodles. Served in a deep and savory broth, these flat noodles are a big reason why we enjoyed this version so much. The portions are pretty good too.

A Michelin-recommended restaurant for the last eight or nine years, Lao Shan Dong may be hidden in a basement, but it’s hardly a secret. It has its own army of loyal fans eager to tuck into their bowls of beef noodle soup every day.

This picture was taken just before they opened at 10:30 am. Thankfully, the restaurant has many tables so we didn’t have to wait. I’m not sure what it’s like at peak lunch or dinner hours.

If you do have to wait, you’ll at least be entertained by the sight of the restaurant workers making their signature noodles right by the entrance.

Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodles

Address: 108, Taiwan, Taipei City, Wanhua District, Ximen Village, Xining Rd, 70號B1之15室
Operating Hours: 10:30AM-9:30PM, daily

6. Fuhong Beef Noodles

Lao Shan Dong may be our favorite, but Fuhong isn’t too far behind. It’s another often-recommended contender for best beef noodle soup in Taipei.

Unlike Lao Shan Dong, Fuhong offers diners a choice between two types of noodles – wide and knife-cut (similar to Lao Shan Dong), or a thinner, medium-thick version as pictured below. Both are delicious, though we personally prefer the wide, knife-cut noodles.

We found the broth at Fuhong to be a little less pronounced than the bowls at Lao Shan Dong, but that may be by design. Within easy reach on every table is a set of condiments – pickled sour mustard, chili oil, black vinegar, raw garlic, tallow, and spiced tallow. Much like the choice of noodles, Fuhong gives you plenty of ways to customize your bowl and make it your own.

The orange globs you see below are tallow, or rendered beef fat. Dense, rich, and wonderfully indulgent, they add an incredible depth of flavor to the broth and are a big part of what makes Fuhong’s beef noodle soup so special.

Located just a few minutes’ walk from Lao Shan Dong, Fuhong Beef Noodles is open for 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Fuhong Beef Noodles

Address: No. 67號, Luoyang St, Fuxing Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108
Operating Hours: Open 24 hours

7. Wang’s Broth

Like beef noodle soup, lu rou fan, or braised pork rice, is one of Taiwan’s signature dishes. It’s the kind of humble, comforting dish that inspires fierce loyalty, and I can certainly understand why – it’s personally my favorite Taiwanese dish and something I look forward to on every return trip to Taiwan. Just like beef noodle soup, it seems every Taiwanese person has a favorite restaurant they’ll insist is better than the rest.

We’ve been to a few lu rou fan restaurants in Taipei over the years, but Michelin-recommended Wang’s Broth might just be our favorite. Nicknamed “black gold” braised pork rice, they slow-cook the pork for 6-8 hours until the fat breaks down and infuses the meat with a deep, savory sweetness. Some places cook the pork for too little or too long, but Wang’s Broth does it just right.

Wang’s Broth has been serving their signature lu rou fan at this exact same spot at Huaxi Street Night Market since 1975. That’s over fifty years of braised pork deliciousness!

Speaking of night markets and deliciousness, be sure to check out our article on the best night markets in Taipei for more recommendations on where to find good cheap food in the city.

Wang’s Broth

Address: 108, Taiwan, Taipei City, Wanhua District, Huaxi St, 17之4號攤位153號
Operating Hours: Wed-Mon, 9:30AM-8:40PM (closed Tuesdays)

8. Yuan Fang Gua Bao

Lu rou fan is my go-to comfort food in Taiwan, but Mrs Traveleater prefers gua bao. And it isn’t hard to see why. Not only is it easier to eat, but a perfectly slow-braised, melt-in-your-mouth hunk of pork belly stuffed in a cloud-like steamed bun with pickled mustard greens, cilantro, and ground peanuts is hard to beat. It’s a simple combination, but in the right hands, it’s magic.

We had just finished dinner at Wang’s Broth when we spotted a crowd of people at this stall. Located at Huaxi Street Night Market, just a few doors down from Wang’s Broth, Yuan Fang is a Michelin-recommended gua bao stall that makes some of the best pork belly buns we’ve ever had in Taiwan.

As I said, long lines of people never lie. Gua bao and lu rou fan are relatively small meals, so you can easily enjoy both, one after the other, on the same day.

Yuan Fang Gua Bao

Address: 108, Taiwan, Taipei City, Wanhua District, 青山里華西街17-2號
Operating Hours: 11:30AM-8PM, daily

9. Tian Jin Onion Pancake

Scallion pancakes are among our favorite street food dishes in Taiwan. Crispy on the outside but chewy on the inside, it’s a simple but satisfying snack of pan-fried unleavened dough layered with chopped scallions.

We learned about this hugely popular stall along Yongkang Street with less-than-stellar reviews. Some called it worth the wait, while others dismissed it as a tourist trap. We usually steer clear of places with such mixed feedback, but several reviewers described the old ladies running the stall as a bit Soup Nazi-ish, and that made us chuckle. So, naturally, we had to see for ourselves.

Aside from the classic plain version, Tian Jin offers additional fillings like eggs, cheese, corn, and basil. We tried the one with basil and eggs. I remember one reviewer describing it as “not having the usual texture”, and I totally get that, but I didn’t think it was a bad thing. This onion pancake seems to be less flaky and chewier than what we’ve had in the past, but I actually liked it. It was satisfying, especially for the price, and the egg and basil were nice.

As described, Tian Jin is popular, so be prepared for a long queue under the sun. It’s literally a hole-in-the-wall right next to the Thanh Ky Vietnamese restaurant.

As for the old ladies running the joint, they weren’t particularly friendly, but they’re not going to eat you either. Just fall in line, follow their rules, or no onion pancake for you.

Tian Jin Onion Pancake

Address: No. 1號, Lane 6, Yongkang St, Yongkang Village, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Operating Hours: 8AM-10PM, daily

10. Famous Taiwanese Meatball

As its name suggests, this next restaurant specializes in a dish called bawan, which translates to “crystal meatball“. It gets its name from its gelatinous, translucent wrapper made from a mixture of sweet potato starch, cornstarch, and rice flour.

Bawan is traditionally made with a ball of seasoned minced pork, bamboo shoots, and shiitake mushrooms. The balls are coated in the sweet potato mixture, then steamed – or, in some parts of Taiwan, deep-fried – and served in a sweet-and-savory brown sauce.

Soft and jiggly, the sweet potato wrapper has a gelatinous, chewy texture that’s quite fun to eat.

This was our first time trying bawan, and it was interesting to learn that it was created in 1898 as food for disaster relief. Food became scarce when a flood hit Changhua County. Food became scarce, so this dish was made using readily available sweet potato starch stuffed with equally available chunks of bamboo shoots.

This restaurant is listed on Google Maps as “Famous Taiwanese Meatball”, but its Chinese name is 通化肉圓. It’s located just a short walk from Linjiang Night Market.

Famous Taiwanese Meatball

Address: No. 7號, Lane 39, Tonghua St, Tonghua Village, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Operating Hours: 10AM-9:15PM, daily

11. Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is the most internationally famous restaurant on this list. If you know what a xiao long bao is, then you’ve probably heard of them. Din Tai Fung is an international chain of Taiwanese restaurants known for its dim sum, particularly its xiao long bao, which many say is the very best in the world.

Part of Din Tai Fung’s success can be attributed to their consistency. They make it with the thinnest of wrappers, and every xiao long bao that comes out of their kitchen has eighteen pleats and weighs exactly 21 grams.

I have a Taiwanese friend who’s lived in Beijing, and according to him, there are many Din Tai Fung knock-offs in China. Many have copied the exact look and feel of the place, but they fail in one key aspect – the xiao long bao. No one can seem to match the quality and consistency of Din Tai Fung.

For the uninitiated, xiao long bao refers to a type of baozi or Chinese steamed bun filled with pork and hot soup. To keep from burning yourself, you’re advised to pierce the skin first and suck out the soup. Only then should you put the dumpling in your mouth lest you spew hot soup all over the table.

Klook offers meal vouchers for Din Tai Fung. You can also get a voucher for a Taipei night tour that ends with dinner at Din Tai Fung.

There are several Din Tai Fung restaurants in Taipei, but we always go to the Taipei 101 branch. It’s located in the building’s basement and, like many of the restaurants on this list, expect a line when you go there.

Din Tai Fung

Address: 110, Taiwan, Taipei City, Xinyi District, Xicun Village, City Hall Rd, 45號B1
Operating Hours: 10:45AM-8:30PM, daily

12. Moon Moon

We recently discovered the magic of Moon Moon on our most recent trip to Taipei. A Michelin-recommended restaurant for the last eight years, they specialize in soups, noodles, rice dishes, and other home-style Taiwanese dishes.

Pictured below is one of their signature dishes – spicy sesame noodles. The springy noodles are coated in sesame paste and Sichuan pepper oil, delivering a wonderfully addictive combination of nutty richness and tongue-numbing mala heat. Simple, but delicious!

If you enjoy the taste of truffles, then you’ll probably want to order these black truffle sauce noodles instead. The earthy flavor of truffles is quite pronounced and absolutely wonderful.

These boiled oysters were nice and plump and a great choice as well.

This seabass soup with clams is another Moon Moon specialty. It tasted clean, though it was a bit lacking in flavor compared to the other dishes we tried.

Moon Moon is a popular chain of restaurants with several branches throughout Taipei. I suggest arriving a little early to avoid a wait. We were first in line and were seated right away, but it didn’t take long for the restaurant to fill up.

Moon Moon

Address: No. 6之2號, Qingdao E Rd, Xingfu Village, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
Operating Hours: 11AM-2PM, 5-8PM, daily

13. Shao Shao Ke

I stumbled upon this Shanxi restaurant a few years ago when doing research for a previous trip. I had never heard of Shanxi food before, but two words in the cuisine’s description convinced me to add Shao Shao Ke to our itinerary – lamb and cumin.

Shanxi cuisine is the cooking style of Shanxi Province in China. Noodles figure prominently in the cuisine, as does lamb. They’re also known for using a unique type of vinegar in their food. It’s called Shanxi mature vinegar, and it’s a prized vinegar produced exclusively in the area.

Pictured below are deep-fried lamb skewers with cumin, one of many lamb dishes they have on their menu. This dish was fantastic, and unlike any lamb dish we’ve had in the past. It was tender with a light crisp coating and a flavorful punch of cumin. If you have a fondness for lamb, then I suggest trying this.

Pictured below is a bowl of knife-cut noodles with green onion, carrot, and lamb. Knife-cut noodles are a Shanxi specialty, so be sure to try this as well. The noodles are fantastic – they’re bouncy and elastic with great bite.

These deep-fried soy cheese puff pastries are a must-try as well. In fact, they’re so popular that you’re advised to put in an advance reservation for them!

They’re made with soy tofu cheese that’s deep-fried in a triangular puff pastry and dusted with powdered sugar. The cheese has a texture similar to mozzarella, so it comes away in gooey strings each time you take a bite. It’s absolutely delicious!

Shanxi cuisine is interesting and apparently not something you see too often outside of the region, so I strongly suggest you enjoy a meal at Shao Shao Ke. You can read my article on Shao Shao Ke for more information about this restaurant and Shanxi cuisine.

Shao Shao Ke is about a 5-10 minute walk from Huashan 1914 Creative Park, so it’s a great place to eat before or after a trip to the park.

Shao Shao Ke

Address: 100, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongzheng District, Xingfu Village, 杭州南路一段27號
Operating Hours: Wed-Sun, 11:30AM-2PM, 5:30-9PM (closed Mon-Tue)

14. Orange Shabu

Like beef noodle soup and lu rou fan, hot pot or shabu shabu is a core Taiwanese dish. I asked my Taiwanese friend to recommend a good hot pot restaurant in Taipei, and he said without hesitation – Orange Shabu Shabu House. According to him, it’s one of the best restaurants in Taipei. He may be right.

I honestly didn’t think I’d be able to tell the difference, but I was wrong. This turned out to be the best hot pot we’ve ever tasted in our lives. You can absolutely tell the difference.

From the quality of the soup base to the dipping sauce to the freshness of the ingredients, everything about Orange Shabu Shabu House was phenomenal.

According to my friend, it’s difficult to book a table at Orange Shabu Shabu, so it’s highly recommended you make reservations.

Unfortunately, you can’t do it via email, so you’ll need to call the Orange Shabu Shabu restaurant. They speak limited English, so you may need someone to help you make the reservation.

Orange Shabu

Address: 106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Da’an District, Ren’ai Village, Section 1, Da’an Rd, 135號B1
Operating Hours: 11:30AM-11PM, daily

15. Wulao

Another great hot pot restaurant to consider in Taipei is Wulao. While it isn’t as high-end as Orange Shabu, it offers an excellent hot pot experience at a more approachable price point. Plus, they accept online reservations, making it much easier to secure a table.

Wulao gives you two choices of soup base for your hot pot – bread and tofu white soup or the spicy red base. You can choose either one or get half and half like we did.

If you’re wondering what those two white blobs are, Wulao calls them “ice cream tofu“. It’s one of the restaurant’s signature ingredients, though it isn’t actually tofu. It’s a savory fish-paste mixture with a soft, airy texture. Once cooked in the hot pot, it becomes almost mousse-like and does a wonderful job of soaking up the flavors of the broth. Unexpected and delicious, it’s unique to Wulao and definitely worth trying.

Wulao offers quite a few items on their menu, from premium cuts of beef and meatballs to vegetables and seafood. We’re partial to seafood, so we started with this trio of white shrimp, scallops, and abalone. Thanks to its long history in abalone farming and aquaculture, this prized delicacy is relatively common in Taiwan and not as expensive as you’d expect.

You can order pre-rolled meat or seafood balls, but I recommend getting them in paste form instead. It’s a more fun way of enjoying them because you get to scoop the paste into bite-sized pieces yourself and drop them into the hot pot.

Wulao offers different seafood combos on their menu. This one features shrimp paste, scallop paste, and neritic squid.

And of course, a round of vegetables to make the intestines happy.

Wulao has a few branches in Taipei, including this big one in Ximending.

We made online reservations, but we may not have needed them. The restaurant is quite large and has many tables.

As you can see from the statue, ice cream tofu is a signature item at Wulao. Don’t eat here without trying it.

Wulao

Address: 100, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongzheng District, Guangfu Village, Section 1, Zhonghua Rd, 55號2F
Operating Hours: 11AM-4PM, daily

16. Weekend Chicken Club & Bar

Weekend Chicken Club has to be the coolest fried chicken joint we’ve ever been to. It’s basically a fried chicken restaurant that doubles as a fried chicken cocktail bar at night. Have you ever heard of such a thing? The first floor remains a restaurant while the second floor serves cocktails and functions as a trendy bar/nightlife spot in the evenings.

True to its name, Weekend Chicken Club offers different types of fried chicken on its menu – weekend bombers, hot pot chicken, fucking tender chicken, weekend crispy chicken, Taiwanese beer chicken, and drunken wings. We tried the garlic weekend bombers, and it was delicious – shatteringly crisp on the outside but tender and juicy on the inside.

Based on what I’ve read, Taiwanese fried chicken is known for using coarse sweet potato starch (and sometimes tapioca starch) instead of standard wheat flour or breadcrumbs in its coating. It’s the secret to its delicate, ungreasy, and longer-lasting crunch.

Fried chicken is the star here, but they do offer a few stir-fried dishes and sides as well, like this garlic clam chow mee.

Pro tip, try pairing your fried chicken with the xao xing and radish pickles. They’re a match made in heaven.

Contrary to its name, Weekend Chicken Club isn’t open only on weekends. They open for dinner and cocktails only, from Wednesday till Friday. They were able to accommodate us without reservations, but the place is popular, so advanced booking is highly recommended.

This is what the upstairs chicken bar looks like. Pretty cool, right? It looks nothing like your typical neighborhood fried chicken joint.

No eating fried chicken in the bathroom!

Weekend Chicken Club & Bar

Address: No. 74號, Section 2, Keelung Rd, Zhongxing Village, Xinyi District, Taipei City, Taiwan 110
Operating Hours: Wed-Sun, 5PM-1:30AM (closed Mon-Tue)

INTERNATIONAL CUISINE

17. Yoshikawa Seafood Don

Thanks in part to Taiwan’s shared history with Japan, Japanese food is among the most common – and arguably the most ubiquitous – type of international cuisine in Taiwan. From sushi and sashimi to tempura and unagi donburi, you won’t have any trouble finding great Japanese restaurants in Taipei. If kaisendon is what you want, Yoshikawa is an excellent place to visit.

Yoshikawa is a kaisendon specialty restaurant that prepares their bowls with different types of seafood, both raw and torched (aburi). Pictured below is the aburi kaisendon. It features torched pieces of premium seafood like salmon, cuttlefish, scallop, anago, Argentine red shrimp, and flounder fin.

What you’re looking at here is the medium blessing bowl. Made mostly with raw ingredients, it comes with around ten pieces of premium seafood, including cuttlefish, Argentine red shrimp, scallop, and salmon roe.

Located near Taipei Main Station, Yoshikawa is a small restaurant with only around a dozen counter seats. It’s best to arrive shortly before they open to avoid a wait.

Yoshikawa Seafood Don

Address: No. 2號, Alley 1, Lane 78, Chang’an W Rd, Jianming Village, Datong District, Taipei City, Taiwan 103
Operating Hours: Wed-Fri, 11:30AM-2:30PM, 5-8:30PM / Sat, 11:30AM-3PM, 5-8:30PM (closed Sun-Tue)

18. The Slice Shop 信義安和

Oh man, were these pizzas good. We’ve been lucky to enjoy pizzas in some of the most famous hotspots around the world, and the pizza at this tiny takeaway shop is one of the best we’ve tried so far.

Located near Linjiang Night Market, The Slice Shop describes itself as Taiwan’s first New York-style sourdough pizza brand. They use a naturally fermented sourdough-based dough to make their thin crust pizzas, which you can buy by the slice. Take a bite and you’ll immediately notice the difference – they’re crispy but still chewy and with a sligthly tangy flavor. They’re absolutely delicious and highly addicitive.

Aside from the expected toppings like pepperoni and spicy sausage, The Slice Shop’s menu features a host of interesting combinations, none more intriguing perhaps than the dill pickle (right), reuben (seasonal only), and guanciale pineapple (left). I never would have thought of topping pizza with dill pickles, but it absolutely works. It’s so damn good.

We stumbled upon The Slice Shop by accident after eating out way through Linjiang Night Market. We couldn’t ignore the crowd of locals outside, so we came back the following day, and then again the day after that. This place is a keeper.

The Slice Shop 信義安和

Address: 106, Taiwan, Taipei City, Da’an District, Tong’an Village, Lane 69, Section 2, Anhe Rd, 18號一樓
Operating Hours: Tue-Sun, 11:30AM-9PM (closed Mon)

VEGAN/VEGETARIAN FOOD

19. The Clover Vegetarian

Being middle-aged travelers, we have to be more mindful about our dietary choices. That means cutting down on processed food, watching our sugar and sodium intake, and lessening our consumption of red meat.

Of all the countries we’ve visited on our travels, Taiwan has been one of the most welcoming to plant-based eaters. It isn’t hard to find vegan restaurants, and many places serve some type of vegetable dish. But what if you don’t eat meat and still want to experience iconic Taiwanese dishes like beef noodle soup and braised pork rice? That’s where restaurants like The Clover come in.

A vegetarian restaurant in Ximending, The Clover offers a few plant-forward dishes on its menu, none more inviting perhaps than its signature vegetarian beef noodle soup. It features plant-based beef, noodles, and vegetables in a rich, tomato-based broth.

This is what they use for the “beef”. I believe it’s seitan.

If you read The Clover’s Google reviews, many people – including meat-eating Taiwanese locals – feel that this bowl of vegetarian beef noodle soup closely resembles the real thing. I would agree.

It doesn’t explicitly say it on the menu, but I believe this may be The Clover’s take on vegetarian braised pork, but instead of rice, they serve it on a bed of noodles.

Don’t sleep on their side dishes either. At the owner’s recommendation, we had these refreshing cherry tomatoes and spiced tofu, but I do believe they change with the season.

Its walls painted an electric shade of green, The Clover is certainly hard to miss.

The Clover Vegetarian

Address: 1樓, No. 99號, Kunming St, Ximen Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108
Operating Hours: 11AM-9PM, daily

20. 上頂皇家

I go running every morning, and the vegetarian pan-fried buns from this takeaway-only stall were my go-to recovery snack. Not only are they delicious, but they’re cheap and quite filling. You can get them stuffed with mustard leaves (pictured below), cabbage, bok choy, bamboo shoots, or pumpkin.

I liked all five, but the pumpkin-stuffed buns were my favorite.

Aside from the pan-fried buns, 上頂皇家 makes vegetarian pot stickers as well.

上頂皇家 is a takeaway-only stall located just south of the main Ximending shopping area.

上頂皇家

Address: No. 211, Xining Rd, Xinqi Village, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108
Operating Hours: 6:30AM-8PM, daily

DESSERT

21. 榕美樹館

Douhua is one of our favorite Taiwanese desserts. It’s originally from China, but the version commonly served in Taipei – piled high with chewy taro balls, sweet potato balls, soft peanuts, beans, and more – is distinctly Taiwanese. It’s a delicious dessert I have to stop myself from having every day.

In Zhongshan District, a good place to have silken tofu pudding is at 榕美樹館. Their signature Ron douhua is topped with taro balls, sweet potato balls, and grass jelly, but you can customize your own bowl and choose the toppings yourself.

The signature Ron douhua is their bestseller, but they do offer other desserts as well, like shaved ice tofu pudding and these soft and chewy mochi cakes. They’re dusted with soybean powder and served with a side of sweet red bean paste.

榕美樹館 is a popular dessert cafe, so you may have to wait a bit for a table, especially on warm days.

榕美樹館

Address: 104, Taiwan, Taipei City, Zhongshan District, Min’an Village, Lane 66, Minsheng W Rd, 21號一樓
Operating Hours: Mon-Thurs, 12NN-9PM / Fri-Sun, 12NN-9:30PM

22. MATA Tofu Pudding

On Yongkang Street, google “best douhua” and the uber popular Bai-Shui Tofu Pudding will probably come up. Their douhua is certainly well-loved, but there’s almost always a wait. If you walk a bit farther down the street, you’ll find MATA, a small pudding shop that may be even better.

MATA offers around ten variations of silken tofu pudding on their menu, one of the most interesting being this red-bean-filled boba tofu pudding with peanut crisps. I’d never had tapioca pearls filled with red bean paste before, so trying them here was a nice surprise.

Mrs Traveleater loves black sesame, so she went with this equally interesting tofu pudding topped with black sesame and oatmilk.

The MATA pudding shop may be tiny, but it oozes charm. It’s a great place to relax and enjoy a bowl of tofu pudding while exploring trendy Yongkang Street.

MATA Tofu Pudding

Address: No. 63號, Yongkang St, Jin’an Village, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Operating Hours: 11AM-9PM, daily

23. Apricot. 杏 咖啡 ｜甜點｜輕食早午餐

What’s the oddest dish you’ve encountered at a Taiwanese night market? For us, one of them has to be the peanut ice cream roll. It’s an unexpected street food dessert of ice cream, shaved peanut brittle, and fresh coriander wrapped in a thin, popiah-style crepe. You’d never think of putting all those ingredients together, until you take a bite and realize that it works. It’s quite good actually and something we always look for at night markets in Taiwan.

So when we read about Apricot Cafe’s cilantro peanut butter Basque burnt cheesecake, we just had to try it. It basically takes the peanut ice cream roll and turns it into Basque burnt cheesecake form, which we also love. How can you possibly miss with this dessert?

Rich, nutty, and creamy with the freshness of cilantro, this innovative mashup hits all the right notes. (And that tiramisu is no slouch either).

Apricot is located near Linjiang Night Market, just a few doors away from Famous Taiwanese Meatball (#10).

Apricot. 杏 咖啡 ｜甜點｜輕食早午餐

Address: No. 31號, Lane 39, Tonghua St, Tonghua Village, Da’an District, Taipei City, Taiwan 106
Operating Hours: 10AM-7PM, daily

24. Crispy Milk Donuts

Located in Ximending, Crispy Milk Donuts is one of those viral food stalls that deserves to be on every donut lover’s Taipei itinerary. Yes, there’s a lot of hype around it, but their donuts are legitimately delicious and worth queueing up for. Plus, lines move pretty quickly.

A crispy milk donut is basically a crispier and fluffier version of a Chinese cruller (youtiao) heavily dusted with a sweet milk powder. Yes, it’s every bit as good as it sounds.

This picture was taken at an uncharacteristically quiet moment, but don’t let the lines deter you. If you like donuts, then you need to try one of these.

Crispy Milk Donuts

Address: No. 61號, Chengdu Rd, Wanhua District, Taipei City, Taiwan 108
Operating Hours: 11AM-10:30PM, daily

25. 賢夫美食

For something less TikTok- or Insta-famous, we recommend trying this taro purple rice cake from a stall inside Shuiyuan Market. It consists of a thick slab of sweet taro paste topped with a thin layer of cooked purple sticky rice.

We were planning on taking just a couple of bites and bringing the rest home, but we wound up finishing the entire thing on the spot. It’s surprisingly delicious and not something we’ve encountered too often in Taiwan.

The 賢夫美食 stall is located inside Shuiyuan Market, which is located right next to Gongguan Night Market. They offer a variety of sweet and savory Taiwanese dishes, but these taro purple rice cakes are a bestseller. Try them if you like interesting food.

賢夫美食

Address: 1樓 79攤, No. 92號, Section 4, Roosevelt Rd, Shuiyuan Village, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100
Operating Hours: Tue-Sat, 10AM-6PM / Sun, 10:30AM-6PM (closed Mondays)

LOCATION MAP

To help you find the restaurants recommended in this Taipei food guide, I’ve pinned them all on this map. Click on the link to open the map in a new window.

FINAL THOUGHTS ON RESTAURANTS IN TAIPEI

A big part of any first-time visitor’s Taipei experience is the food, so we hope this newly revamped edition of our Taipei restaurant guide leads you to many memorable meals. From iconic Taiwanese dishes to lesser-known local favorites, there’s so much more to Taipei’s food scene than the restaurants that go viral on social media.

Some of our favorite meals have come from places we discovered by wandering, asking locals, or simply taking a chance on something that caught our eye. So use this guide as a starting point, but don’t be afraid to venture beyond it.

In a city as delicious as Taipei, sometimes, some of the best meals are the ones you never planned on having.

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