Why Taipei Is the Best Food City You've Never Visited

Taipei doesn't get the culinary hype that Tokyo, Bangkok, or Mexico City command, and that's a mistake of global proportions. Taiwan's capital is a city where night markets operate as open-air food museums, where Michelin-starred restaurants charge $30 for a tasting menu, and where a 70-year-old dumpling shop can produce the single best bite you've had in your life. If food is your reason to travel, Taipei should be next on the list.

The night markets are the main event. Shilin Night Market, the largest and most famous, packs hundreds of stalls into a labyrinth of alleys serving oyster omelets, stinky tofu (yes, it smells terrible; yes, it tastes incredible), pepper bao buns, and shaved ice mountains topped with mango and condensed milk. Raohe Street Night Market is smaller and more curated, with the famous black pepper bun stall at the entrance that draws a line every single night.

Din Tai Fung, the dumpling empire that started in Taipei in 1972, is still best experienced at its original Xinyi Road location. The xiao long bao (soup dumplings) are produced with surgical precision — each dumpling has exactly 18 folds and weighs exactly 21 grams. Watching the kitchen through the glass window is a masterclass in consistency. Other branches worldwide are good; Taipei's is the standard. Explore food culture at https://eng.taiwan.net.tw.

Beyond dumplings, Taipei's restaurant scene is remarkably deep. Logy (one Michelin star) fuses Japanese and Taiwanese techniques, RAW by chef André Chiang applies modernist techniques to local ingredients, and Addiction Aquatic Development is a seafood complex where you can buy fish at a market, have it prepared at a sashimi bar, and drink sake in a standing bar — all under one roof.

Taiwanese breakfast culture is its own genre. Yong He Dou Jiang shops open at dawn serving warm soy milk with you tiao (fried dough sticks), savory egg crepes (dan bing), and flaky scallion pancakes. Fu Hang Dou Jiang near Shandao Temple station has served the same breakfast since 1958 and the pre-dawn line is a badge of honor. This is the meal that Taipei does better than any city on Earth.

The tea culture deserves its own trip. Taiwan produces some of the world's finest oolong teas — particularly the high-mountain varieties from Alishan and Li Shan — and Taipei's tea houses offer gongfu-style tastings that rival wine experiences in their complexity. Wistaria Tea House and Smith & Hsu are the standout venues, and a proper tea session costs less than a single cocktail in most Western cities.