When it comes to food, you’ll never go wrong with Taipei. The Taiwanese capital proudly and rightfully ranks among the world’s best foodie destinations, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Osaka, Bangkok, Paris, Rome, and Singapore. It is an ideal place to go when the topmost item on your travel checklist is “to eat.”
That’s what my family and I did on our latest trip to Taipei. We arrived, we ate—and we did little else in the five days we were there. Not a smidge of regret for the lack of itinerary, as we found ourselves falling in love with the city all over again, nonetheless, and notwithstanding the few kilos we gained along the way.
If you’re planning your next Taipei trip, you may want to read on for eight honest-to-goodness food recommendations to help open up your palate to the wonderful world of Taiwanese flavors.
Beef noodle soup
While Taiwan does not have an official national dish, beef noodle soup is widely recognized as the island nation’s representative dish. It is so well-loved by locals that you’d find a beef noodle stand literally everywhere.
For our first dinner in the city, we each had a steaming bowl of beef noodle soup at Liu Shandong, located just a few minutes’ walk from Taipei Main Station. For over seven decades, this humble yet Michelin Bib Gourmand-recommended stall has been serving what is considered one of Taiwan’s best beef noodle soups. For just NTD240 (P460-470), you get to feast on melt-in-your-mouth braised beef, thick and chewy noodles, and unbelievably flavorful broth. Each order can be shared (portions are ginormous!), but it’s so good you’re scraping the bottom of your bowl before you know it.
Pro-tip: There’s almost always a long queue waiting for you at Liu Shandong, especially since it can seat around only 30 people inside and a few more al fresco. It’s best to go early in the morning and avoid going late in the afternoon, as many locals tend to go there after school or work.
Fried chicken
You cannot go to Taiwan and not eat its signature humongous fried chicken. While there are already big-name brands that have made their way to Philippine shores, like Hot Star, there’s nothing like chicken fillet pounded, breaded, and fried to glorious perfection in a Taipei night market.
On our recent trip, we decided to go for the first fried chicken stall just outside Jiantan MRT Station, the nearest one to Shilin Night Market, Taipei’s biggest. Called Hometown Barbeque Chicken, the kilometric line is proof of how good their chicken is—and mind you, there’s only one item on the menu, a perfectly deep-fried and wickedly crispy chicken slathered in a slightly sweet barbeque sauce (NTD100/P190-195).
Don’t be discouraged by the queue; it’s still quite a wait, but the staff moves like an assembly line, and watching them pound, coat, and fry the piles of chicken is in itself a joy to watch while waiting for your turn to order. Once you’ve reached the finish line and in just five seconds tops, the server cuts up the chicken into smaller pieces for you to more easily enjoy (preferably with a bottle of soda).
Pepper buns
The classic Taiwanese on-the-go snack is pretty much like how the onigiri is to the Japanese and the gimbap is to the Koreans. Cheap, compact, yet surprisingly flavorsome, it is an all-around safe recommendation even to those who aren’t adventurous eaters.
Just like beef noodle soup and Taiwanese fried chicken, pepper bun stalls are peppered (pun intended) around Taipei, and even the humblest-looking one is most likely to have a really good bun waiting for you. The best ones we tasted, however, were the ones from Fuzhou Ancestor Pepper Pie Shilin, which is Michelin- and CNN-recommended.
Each bun (NTD65/P125-130) is packed with juicy and peppery pork and lots of green onions, herbs, and sesame seeds. It is best eaten fresh out of the tandoor oven and with a large order of iced-cold wintermelon tea. Trust me, one bun is far from enough. Now, I’m hungry.
Scallion pancakes
Good lord, I forget how many of these we had during our last trip. Perhaps because it’s quite hard to look for good scallion pancakes here in Manila, we bought an order or two at almost every stall we chanced upon. (Pilya’s Kitchen at the Grid Food Market, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell churns out excellent ones, though.)
Equal parts flaky, chewy, and moist that it’s near miraculous, scallion pancakes are a favorite savory snack in Taiwan. It’s also very affordable yet filling, too, at only NTD25-30 (P48-58) per order. Apologies if I cannot name a single recommendation because, as already said, we grabbed an order every time we saw a hawker selling this delightful treat.
Cold sesame noodles
If there is one dish I wish I could eat over and over again in Taiwan (and back here in Manila, too, if only they had a branch!), that would be Good Friend Cold Noodles’ classic Taiwanese cold noodles with sesame sauce (NTD80/P150-160).
Also located in Shilin Night Market, this unassuming stall serves a mind-blowing version of the popular dish, which features fresh dandan noodles drenched in a delectable sesame sauce and topped with thin slices of cucumber. This was so good that my son and I were reduced to uttering monosyllabic grunts with every bite. No wonder they have been a mainstay of Michelin’s Bib Gourmand Taiwan list since 2019. Their Taiwanese-style miso egg drop soup with eggs is a must-try, too!
Minced pork belly over rice
Another popular and well-loved Taiwanese dish, braised minced pork belly over rice (or lu rou fan) is pure comfort in a bowl. No, it’s not your typical pork giniling, far from it, actually. Lu rou fan is minced pork braised in rice wine, soy sauce, water, and five-spice powder until tender and umami-packed (what with all the shiny, flavorful oil).
While we did not have the chance to try lu rou fan at a typical restaurant, we did so at two random stalls with no English signs or menu. The first one was in a quiet alley, and the other at a busy corner of the basement level of Taipei City Mall (past exit 13)—they did not disappoint. In both instances, I had mine over rice (NTD50/P97-100, small bowl), while my husband and son tried theirs over vermicelli noodles instead (NTD80/P155-160, large bowl), and yes, those two options were equally satisfying.
Bubble tea
Of course, no well-meaning Taiwan foodie guide is complete without mention of its most famous food export, the near-universally loved Taiwanese bubble tea (also called pearl milk tea or just boba). There are already way too many brands that have sprouted over the past decade amid boba’s increasing—and now sustained—popularity. This is why we avoided getting our bubble tea fix from mainstream choices, like CoCo or Milksha.
Similar to lu rou fan and the scallion pancakes, we just ordered bubble tea whenever and from wherever we felt like it, and it was a hit almost every time, except that one time in Ximending when we fell for what we thought would be good bubble tea because the line was long. (Xin Tu Fang is the name of the shop, you’re welcome.)
What emerged as our favorite was also the cheapest, Great Taipei Black Tea at the basement level of Taipei City Mall. An order of wintermelon tea starts at only NTD35 (P68-70), and pearl milk tea variants are priced for as low as NTD60 (P117-120).
Convenience store food
Those who have been to Japan know that one can happily live off konbini food. The same, dear readers, is true of Taiwanese convenience store food, specifically 7-11’s. Our hotel was located a two-minute walk away from not just one but two 7-11’s situated on opposite sides (such joy!), and for the duration of our five-day stay, we had every single breakfast and late-night snack from the convenience stores’ shelves.
Call us uncultured travelers if you will, but we don’t mind since 7-11 spoiled us with so many great choices. I wish I had taken more photos, but I was much more focused on choosing which microwaveable wonder I should try next. The standouts were all the pasta options of the Oh La La line (it still amazes me how a convenience store pasta vongole could be so yummy) and their pork cutlet bentos (the one from CoCo Ichibanya was my favorite). They also have decent sushi and a mind-boggling selection of drinks. The best part? Prices of pasta and bento boxes start at NTD69 (P135-P140).
