Din Tai Fung
The original Din Tai Fung 鼎泰豊 at Yong Kang Street always has a line out front. Even though this location takes up four floors now in the building, it's one of the more cramped locations because it's too popular for the small building's size. Grab a number, ask for estimated wait times and take a quick stroll down Yong Kang St for your next stop.
Yong Kang Street
Yong Kang Street is more than its famous bookends of the original Din Tai Fung at the front and mango shaved ice near the touristy end. Yong Kang Street, or Yong Kang Jie, is full of Taiwanese restaurants, dumplings, noodles, street eats, boba milk tea and even cute dessert cafes and amazing sushi bars if you know where to wander off to find them. You could even put your name down at Din Tai Fung and explore and snack for half an hour to come back in time for your number to come up for xiao long bao.
Yong Kang Beef Noodles
Only have time to hang out near Yong Kang Street, but craving some beef noodle soup? Most people will wander over to the famous Yong Kang Beef Noodle Soup.
Smoothie House Mango Shaved Ice
"Just tell the taxi driver that you want to go to the mango ice place on Yong Kang Street and they will know," she responded.
Smoothie House 思慕昔 took over the reins for this spot from Ice Monster/Yong Kang 15 a few years ago.
Kao Chi
Kao Chi is right around the corner from Din Tai Fung and some say the xiao long baos are equally good and slightly cheaper. What Kao Chi's specialty is though are the sheng jian baos, with a thicker skin and steamed and pan fried at the same time so that they have crisped bottoms.
Spring Onion Pancake
Oddly housed under a sign for Thanh Ky's Pho, the spring onion pancake vendor is worth waiting in line for. You can opt for plain (which I prefer), with egg, cheese, ham or the works (NT$25-50). English menu available to point at. Order one to share and eat while you keep exploring. Crispy, flaky on the outside, doughy on the inside, the cong you bing is hot and quite filling if you eat the whole thing.
Shin Yeh
A perfect choice for those looking to try family style classic Taiwanese dishes in a modern, comfortable setting. If you want to go all out and fancy, Shin Yeh has a branch on the 85th floor of Taipei 101. Shin Yeh 101 has set menus and window seats for a premium to dine with bird's eye view of Taipei.
Unlimited kamote lugao (sweet potato congee), turnip omelette, deep fried intestines, pigs ears, among many more delicious traditional Taiwanese delicacies.
Jiu Fen
There is an unspeakable charm about Jiu Fen 九份, and has become part of the travel itinerary for many making a trip to Taipei. It is a 1-2 hour trip away from Taipei City, located at higher grounds and is a olden town with streets filled with Taiwanese street food stalls, tea houses, and souvenir shops.
A-Zhu Peanut Ice Cream Roll
Two scoops of taro ice cream, grounded peanut candy, maltose, wrapped in handmade spring roll (popiah) skin. The combination turned out great, with parts of cold smooth ice cream with crunchy bits of peanut candy made with water from Yilan.
James Kitchen
In times like these, nothing feels quite so comforting as a little piece of the past. That’s the charm of restaurants like James Kitchen 大隱酒食 (Da Yin Jiu Shi). Despite the fact that it opened only 4 years ago, the restaurant looks as if it’s been there forever. The refurbished interior and down-to-earth service foster this illusion, as does the familiar, unthreatening menu with its nostalgic lineup of 扁魚白菜滷 braised cabbage with flat fish, 菜脯蛋 fried eggs with dried turnips, 炸蚵酥 fried oysters, and 蔥香豬油飯 scallion lard rice.
Address: 65 Yongkang Street, Da’an District, Taipei / 台北市大安區永康街65號 Tel: (02) 2343 2275 Hours: 11:00am~2:00pm, 5:30pm~12:00am Price: 300~400 NTD/person Visited on: Sept 2016
Lan Jia Cua Pao
