After a decade in the restaurant industry, teaching myself how to make Taiwanese food and cooking in the pressure cooker that is New York City, I’ve learned that the most powerful ingredient in many recipes is nostalgia. It often makes you assume the food you were raised on is the best way to eat — the only way — and makes you consistently return to your childhood favorites without a second thought. But just because you grew up with a certain dish or a certain restaurant doesn’t mean it’s good.
I make trips to my hometown of Taipei a few times a year, and with each one, I try to shake off my nostalgia bias. Sometimes I eat at one of my regular spots and realize, This is kind of ass. Sometimes I stumble into a random food stall and end up finding my new go-to. Those experiences got me thinking: Where would I bring my staff from New York to try Taiwanese breakfast for the first time? Or someone who has never been to Taipei and has no idea about the incredible craft beer scene here?
That’s how this list came about. It shows how I maneuver around Taipei in a day — it’s a joy ride through everything that makes this city an international destination. There are old-school spots, like the Taiwanese stir-fry restaurant I always come back to (even though I technically run a Taiwanese stir-fry restaurant of my own), and a temple to beef noodle soup that honors the working man’s meal. Drinking is a massive part of Taiwanese culture, so there’s a taproom featuring brews tailored to our very particular palate, plus the pinnacle of Taiwanese breakfast, ideal for travelers up early from jet lag.
Taiwanese food is so hard to define. It’s an amalgamation of foods from many different groups — Indigenous Taiwanese tribes, Chinese families escaping the Civil War, Japanese and Dutch colonists, Fujian and Burmese immigrants, and American troops — which have come together to form a very specific local point of view. As I return again and again — even more so as I work on my first cookbook, Taiwanese?, which hits shelves this coming fall — I love how Taipei is embracing itself. I see how chefs and restaurateurs are making stars out of dishes that were once only sold at mom-and-pop stalls, and fully owning culinary influences once seen as impositions by foreign powers. That’s the Taiwanese mindset.
This guide is very doable — you could crush it in a day — but it also shows the range, depth, and versatility of Taipei’s food and drink culture.
Every Taiwanese person has a breakfast spot they love. This is mine. Fuhang is a bustling stall on the second level of Huashan Market, but with its large crowd, it’s basically taken over the whole food court. The spread is very Chinese — shaobing (flaky flatbreads), scallion pancakes, soy milk — but Taiwan had the brilliant idea of bringing them together to make the Avengers of breakfast. Fuhang, which has been in operation for three generations, is the best of the best. It consistently cranks out savory soy milk with the ideal amount of vinegary curdle and nutty richness, thick shaobing that are like a hybrid between a bagel and a pepper bun, and fan tuan: perfectly steamed glutinous rice balls bursting with pork floss, sauteed sun-dried turnips, and double-fried youtiao (doughnut sticks). The move is to dip your shaobing, still hot, in the savory soy milk. It’s perfection.
Pro tip: Fuhang always has a long line, snaking from the food court down a couple flights of stairs, but don’t sweat it. It moves fast. Plus, it’s a testament to Fuhang’s quality: It’s busy because it’s good and good because it’s busy.
108 E. Zhongxiao Road, Section 1, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City. Open 5:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
During my last trip to Taiwan, I plowed through more than 60 bowls of lu rou fan in the name of cookbook research, and the one that I can’t stop thinking about is at this nook inside Jiancheng Market. Lu rou fan is pork braised in shallots, soy sauce, some kind of sweetness, and lots of spices, and served with rice. Each lu rou fan cook applies their own tweaks to this classic template, and I love what the owner is doing at Dadaocheng Luroufan. He learned how to cook the dish from his uncle and slowly made it his own by opting for fattier meat (as opposed to the usual skin) and adding extra pork skin to the braise for a gelatinous smack. Don’t skip the mustard greens, a tribute to his hometown of Taichung and the perfect side to balance all that richness.
Pro tip: Finish your meal at Mu Zi Li Ice Cream & Beverage Shop, a shaved ice shop around the corner opened by the owner of Dadaocheng Luroufan. Get whatever fruit is in season, especially ripe mango in summer.
17 W. Chang’an Road, Lane 220, Datong District, Taipei City. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Beef noodle soup is an everyman’s meal, beloved by construction workers and white-collar workers, consumed in karaoke bars and on the street. But this sleek restaurant, located a little further out in Nangang, represents an evolution of the everyday stall. The format is the same as usual — you choose your broth, meat, and noodles — but every little detail is dialed in. The first time I went was as an adult with my dad, an eternal skeptic with high standards, and we both freaked out. He tried to convince the chef to let him buy some of the restaurant’s raw noodles to bring home. What I get depends on my mood, but lately that’s been the clear broth (a super clean version of the iconic red braise) with thin noodles, tender beef shanks, and tendon that’s got some bite.
Pro tip: Order some mozzarella sticks to dip into your beef noodle soup. It’s sacrilegious but delicious.
265 Nangang Road, Section 1, Nangang District, Taipei City. Open 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The first restaurant I opened in New York, 886, is directly inspired by this kind of Taiwanese stir-fry spot.The restaurants, powered by woks and Taiwan Beer, are generally low-key and packed. The best ones are as busy as Taiwanese breakfast spots, have huge menus, and can easily and swiftly accommodate groups big and small. I first heard about Xiao Lin Seafood Restaurant in Da’an from friends in the industry in Taiwan, and I keep coming back — with more people each time. Xiao Lin serves the absolute best fried squid beaks (known as dragonballs), which can be a hard sell for the uninitiated, but they’re so delicious. They tend to clump up in the fryer and get gummy, but Xiao Lin turns out specimens that are distinct and crunchy. Round out an order with chicken soup, seasoned with marinated long hots, and fresh bamboo served with sweet Taiwanese salad sauce.
Pro tip: Come with a lot of people — a party of eight is ideal — so you can order a lot of food and beer to share. On the latter, get Taiwan Beer 18 Days, which is fresher than regular Taiwan Beer (“18 Days” refers to its shelf life) and complements all the heavily seasoned dishes.
574-1 Guangfu South Road, Da’an District, Taipei City. Open 5 p.m. to 1 a.m.
A loyal 886 customer told me about this craft brewery in Taiwan years ago. The next time I was in town, I stopped by the taproom in Da’an and was wowed by everything the place offered. The beer caters to the Taiwanese palate: a little sweet, not too hoppy, with very punny names. There’s a noodle boiler behind the bar and bar snacks you can’t get anywhere else, like lu rou fan and Sichuan-style dumplings. Taihu is so uniquely Taiwanese yet also American, and you can only execute that well if you’re fluent in both cultures. You’ll see a local Taiwanese couple who just dropped their kid off at day care sitting adjacent to an American expat moonlighting as a school teacher — and everyone’s at ease.
Pro tip: I crush the lager every time, as well as the chicken cartilage. If you go the same route, charm your server into handing over some of the salted egg yolk aioli. It technically comes with the chips, but it goes so well with the cartilage.
34 Ren’ai Road, Lane 27, Section 4, Da’an District, Taipei City. Open 4 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 12 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday, 12 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday.
Elyse Inamine is a writer and editor based in New York City, with bylines in the New York Times, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Taste, and more. Previously she was the restaurant editor at BA and is now the co-author of Eric Sze’s cookbook Taiwanese?.
