Must-see restaurants in Western Taiwan

  • JL Studio

    Taichung

    Award-winning Jimmy Lim, former head chef at the illustrious Le Mout, reimagines Singaporean street food at his elegant restaurant, and the results are a…

  • Vegan Project

    Taichung

    A no-frills restaurant where you can see the chef whipping up delicious and beautiful western vegan meals. Kale, quinoa, and fermented beans in all forms…

  • Shih Sundry Goods

    Taichung

    A multitalented family built this graceful rustic restaurant with scraps. The meals they prepare are tasty and honest using only organic ingredients …

  • Fourth Credit Union

    Taichung

    The owner of Miyahara has transformed an old bank (1966) into a trendy three-storey cafe and restaurant. The old vault doors and standing-height counter…

  • Qinyuan Chun

    Taichung

    Qinyuan Chun offers hearty, old-fashioned Shanghainese cooking. The restaurant opened in 1949, the year Chiang Kai-shek and his forces fled to Taiwan, and…

  • Tu Pang

    Taichung

    The ecoconscious chef of this private kitchen takes great pains to source quality Taiwan ingredients for his skilful French-style meals – line-caught fish…

  • Old Uncle’s Hotpot

    Taichung

    Fermented cabbage is the star here and it appears in various dishes – the signature hotpot (酸菜鍋, suāncài guō) alongside dried shrimp, celery and whatever…

  • Jinzhi Yuan Caodai Fan

    Taichung

    This small shop is famous for its stepped-up bento classics: rice with succulent fried pork chop (香酥排骨飯, xiāngsū páigǔ fàn) or with flavourful fried…

  • Fengjia Night Market

    Taichung

    A sprawling night market well known for its innovative and cheap street food. Vegetarian nibbles are especially well represented. A taxi from Taichung…

  • Miyahara

    Taichung

    The flagship store of pineapple-cake specialist Dawncake (日出鳳梨酥) also sells ice cream in flavours such as Hakka lei cha (擂茶, léi chá) and, of course,…

  • Cat Mouse Noodle

    Western Taiwan

    The Changhua tourist website claims that this shop's special noodle dish is one of the three culinary treasures of the city. It's a stretch, but the tangy…

  • Weng Ji Restaurant

    Taichung

    The crowd out front should tell you something about this much-loved goose specialist. Try the smoked (燻鵝, xūn’é) or drunken variety (醉鵝, zuì’é), or the…

  • Yu Chen Chai

    Western Taiwan

    This fifth-generation shop sells pastries purportedly based on original Qing-dynasty recipes. The phoenix-eye cake (鳳眼糕, fèngyǎn gāo), almond cookies (杏仁棗…

  • Yang Qinghua Spring Rolls

    Taichung

    A clean family-run institution that serves your order of spring roll – plain (原味, yuánwèi) or wasabi-flavoured (芥末, jièmò) – with a cup of bonito broth…

  • Fancylake Hotel

    Western Taiwan

    Just behind the train station at the start of the 'old street', Fancylake is famous for its bento (鐵路便當, tǐelù biàndāng) meals...