Taipei Food Guide: Night Markets, 18 Dishes to Try and Prices

• Raohe Street (Songshan): one straight 600 m lane from the Ciyou Temple gate, next to Songshan station on the Green Line. The easiest market for a first visit. Start at the east gate with the Fuzhou pepper buns, then herbal pork rib soup, grilled squid and mochi. Open roughly 5pm to midnight daily.
• Ningxia (Zhongshan): a short road of food-only stalls near Zhongshan and Shuanglian stations (Red and Green lines), favoured by locals for taro balls, oyster omelette, lu rou fan and grilled mochi. Small enough to finish in an hour.
• Shilin: Taipei’s biggest market, spread over the lanes around Cixian Temple and Jiantan station (Red Line). Fried chicken cutlets, sausages, oyster omelette and the underground food court; also clothes, games and crowds. Go on a weekday and arrive by 6pm.
• Tonghua / Linjiang Street (Da’an): a residential market near Xinyi Anhe station (Red Line), 10 minutes’ walk from Taipei 101. Few tourists, good grilled meats, fruit and desserts.
• Nanjichang (Zhongzheng): an unglamorous lane beside the Nanjichang housing estate, a 15-minute walk from Xiaonanmen station, where neighbourhood stalls sell braised dishes, noodles and dumplings to locals. Best for a second or third market night.
• Ximending: not a market, but its streets work like one in the evening: Ay Chung’s flour-rice noodles, fried chicken and bubble tea until late.

Bring cash in small notes (many stalls do not take cards, though EasyCard and mobile payments are spreading), a pack of tissues and a bag for rubbish, since bins are rare. Eating while walking is normal in markets; on the MRT it is banned.

The beef noodle soup comes in two main styles: red-braised (hong shao), dark with soy, chilli bean paste and star anise, and clear-broth (qing dun), where the beef and bone flavour is the point. Yongkang Street near Dongmen station has several well-known shops; Lin Dong Fang on Bade Road and the Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival winners are worth a detour. Many shops add pickled mustard greens at the table for free.

Bubble tea was born in Taiwan in the 1980s; Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin in Tainan both claim the first pearl milk tea. In Taipei you order at chains such as 50 Lan, CoCo, Milksha and Kebuke: sugar levels run from 0 to 100%, and “half sugar, less ice” is the common local order.

Din Tai Fung began as a cooking-oil shop on Xinyi Road in 1958 and switched to steamed dumplings in the 1970s; it is now a global chain, but Taipei still has the best branches. The original Xinyi Road shop sits by Dongmen station, and the Taipei 101 basement branch is the busiest. Expect a queue of 30 to 90 minutes at peak times; take a number, then wait nearby, or arrive at 11am or after 2pm on a weekday. Order the pork xiaolongbao (10 per basket), the truffle and pork version for a splurge, shrimp and pork shaomai, the spicy wontons in chilli oil, the fried rice with shrimp and the cold cucumber salad. A meal for two runs around NT$1,000-1,500.

To eat a xiaolongbao, lift it gently into your spoon, bite a small hole in the skin, let some soup out, add the ginger and black vinegar, then eat. For cheaper alternatives, Hangzhou Xiaolongbao near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Jing Ding Lou in Zhongshan serve similar dumplings with shorter queues.

Taiwanese breakfast is a meal of its own and one of the cheapest in the city. Two types of shop serve it. The traditional soy-milk shops (dou jiang dian) sell warm sweet or savoury soy milk (the savoury version curdles with vinegar and comes with chilli oil, pickles and dried shrimp), shao bing flatbread wrapped around you tiao fried dough, fan tuan and egg crepes. Fu Hang Soy Milk, on the second floor of the Huashan Market by Shandao Temple station, is the famous one; the queue often runs down the stairs from 6am, it closes around 12.30pm and is closed on Mondays. Any neighbourhood shop does a good version without the wait.

The second type is the Western-style breakfast chain (Mei Er Mei, Q Burger and many independents) serving toast with egg and ham, “breakfast hamburgers”, radish cake, iced milk tea and dan bing. Breakfast at either costs NT$50-120.

• Yongkang Street and Dongmen (Da’an): beef noodles, the original Din Tai Fung, dumpling houses, shaved ice, tea shops. The best single food street for a first day.
• Dadaocheng and Dihua Street (Datong): old tea houses, the Yongle Market food stalls, rice noodle soup and braised pork rice in shophouse canteens.
• Zhongshan: cafes, Japanese restaurants, izakayas and cocktail bars in the lanes behind the department stores.
• Xinyi: department-store food halls (the basements of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi and Breeze), the Taipei 101 food court and upscale restaurants.
• Gongguan (near National Taiwan University): cheap student food, a night market and good coffee.
• Addiction Aquatic Development (Zhongshan): a seafood market hall with a stand-up sushi bar, raw bar and grill.

For fine dining, Taipei has a growing list of tasting-menu restaurants, including MUME and RAW; book weeks ahead. The Michelin Guide’s Bib Gourmand list for Taipei includes many market stalls; the Fuzhou pepper bun stall at Raohe’s east gate has been on it for years, which explains the queue.

Taiwan has one of the largest vegetarian populations in the world, much of it for Buddhist reasons, and Taipei is easy for vegetarians. Look for the 卍 symbol or the character 素 (su, vegetarian) on signs. Strict Buddhist vegetarian food also leaves out the “five pungent” vegetables (garlic, onion, leek, chives and shallot), and many places use mock meat made from soy and wheat gluten. The cheapest option is the self-service vegetarian buffet, where you fill a box and pay by weight, typically NT$100-200 for a full meal. Sit-down chains such as Sufood and the Vege Creek build-your-own hot pot counters are reliable, and several teahouses and cafes in Da’an have full vegan menus.

Vegans should watch for egg and dairy, which many vegetarian kitchens use (labelled 奶蛋素 for lacto-ovo). Halal options are fewer; the area around the Taipei Grand Mosque in Da’an has a few halal restaurants, and some hotels and restaurants hold Taiwan’s halal certification.

Taiwan grows some of the world’s best oolong. High-mountain oolong from Alishan and Lishan, Dongding from Nantou, Baozhong from Pinglin and Tieguanyin from Maokong in Wenshan are all sold in Dadaocheng’s tea merchants on Dihua Street, where you can taste before buying; a 150 g pack of good tea starts around NT$400. Teahouses in Maokong charge a per-person water fee plus the tea, roughly NT$300-600 for two.

Taiwan Beer is the national lager, with fruit-flavoured versions in convenience stores (NT$40-60 a can), and Taipei has a good craft beer scene. For seafood, the Miaokou night market in Keelung is 45 minutes away by train. Kavalan whisky from Yilan is a sought-after souvenir. Fresh juice and smoothie stands sell watermelon, papaya milk and sugarcane juice for NT$50-100, and convenience stores carry unsweetened tea in every variety.

• Tipping: not expected. Sit-down restaurants often add a 10% service charge; stalls and noodle shops never do.
• Chopsticks: do not stand them upright in rice, which evokes funeral offerings. Use the serving spoon or the back of your chopsticks for shared dishes in formal settings.
• Ordering: many small shops use a paper menu you tick and hand in; point to photos or use a translation app’s camera.
• Payment: carry cash for stalls; restaurants and department stores take cards, and the EasyCard pays at convenience stores.
• Water: do not drink tap water unboiled; hotels, MRT stations and many public buildings have filtered water dispensers.
• On the MRT: eating, drinking and chewing gum are banned past the yellow line, with fines from NT$1,500.
• Food safety: night markets are generally safe; pick busy stalls with high turnover.

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