Taipei Food: 10 Must Eat Food and Where to Find Them!

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!

View from Elephant Hill in Taipei

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.

Two styles of broth at Yong Kang Beef Noodle

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.

The tender beef chunks at Yong Kang

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 are popular with the locals – it took me about 0.2 seconds to agree and follow her.

Wenzhou Street Daikon Pancake

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.

Scallion pancake with egg

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! 😀