One of the great joys of spending any amount of time in Taipei is the city’s fantastic traditional breakfast shops.
Taiwanese breakfast is a cuisine of its own. With origins in China, the tradition was born when migrants introduced their dishes to Yonghe district in New Taipei City in the 1950s. Many shops in Taipei still carry the name “Yonghe” and “soy milk” – the staple breakfast beverage.
Forget about fancy décor, reservations, tips, credit cards, and non-streaked walls. These shops are all about cheap, hearty, and delicious food to start your day. And yes, there may be a line, but it will move fast, and some are even open 24 hours a day.
In this article, I’ll be introducing the five most famous breakfast shops in Taipei plus five very local ones which I’ve handpicked for their unique items. Also see my guides to the best breakfast in Ximending and around Taipei Main Station.
The Most Famous Breakfast Shops
Let’s start with the five most well-known breakfast shops in Taipei. These are the ones you’ll see introduced in most blogs or guidebooks and which foreign tourists – plus a fair share of locals – flock to.
You hate to admit it, but you’ll want to visit these breakfast shops, too.
Fu Hang Soy Milk
Fu Hang Soy Milk (阜杭豆漿, here) is Taipei’s most famous breakfast shop among tourists. Many visiting foodies consider Fu Hang to be an absolute must on their Taipei itinerary (and yes, there’s always a line!) Read about guide to ordering at Fu Hang breakfast shop here.
Fu Hang has been dishing up traditional Taiwanese breakfast since 1958. Long a local staple, it has attracted more tourist crowds in recent years, especially after it bagged a Michelin Bib Gourmand award in 2018.
It’s conveniently located right outside exit 5 of Shandao Temple MRT, just one stop (or walking distance) from Taipei Main Station.
The shop is in a food court on the second floor of Huashan Market (華山市場), but the line for it usually spills down the stairs and along the street outside.
Fu Hang’s signature items are thick bread (厚餅 or houbing) and thin bread (薄餅 or baobing, usually called 燒餅 / shaobing / clay oven rolls in other shops).
These flaky pastries can be ordered with egg, fried dough stick (油條 or youtiao), or both. Other classic items grace the menu, like salty soy milk (鹹豆漿), rice balls (飯糰), and green onion pancakes (蛋餅).
The line for Fu Hang normally takes 15 to 30 minutes, but at peak times can be up to 1.5 hours. Even though the line may look silly long when you first, they are very efficient and it moves quickly.
Although the shop is open from 5:30 AM (closed Mondays), many devout foodies starting lining up even before that. I find the optimal time to be from 6 to 7 AM or closer to closing time (11 AM to 12:30 PM). That way you skip the initial rush of those who lined up super early, but still beat the morning rush of people about to go work.
Yonghe Soy Milk King
Easily the second most famous breakfast shop in Taipei is Yonghe Soy Milk King (永和豆漿大王, here). The shop is often confused with other breakfast shops, because so many of them have the same name, but aren’t actually related.
To distinguish this one from the others, it may be called Da’an Yonghe Soy Milk King (after the area) or Fuxing South Yonghe Soymilk King (after the street it’s on).
Whatever you call it, this is the most famous of all the “Yonghe” breakfast spots in Taipei city. According to this Taiwanese blog, part of this fame goes back to the 2002 Taiwanese film Twenty Something (朝九晚五) – in one scene, the stars come here for a mid-night meal after going out on the town.
Due to its convenient location near Da’an station on the Red and Brown MRT lines, it makes for an easy morning stop on the way to Taipei 101, Elephant Mountain, or Maokong Gondola.
Compared to Fu Hang, Yonhe Soymilk King definitely feels more like a typical local breakfast shop, with cooks preparing foods right out on the street. In other words, it’s offers a quintessential Taiwanese breakfast experience.
There’s an English and Japanese menu, but you’ll have to ask for it. Discerning locals will point out that, due to its popularity, prices here are slightly more expensive but the menu pretty much the same as other typical local breakfast shops. As a visitor, you probably won’t notice.
The full range of typical Taiwanese items are represented here: pork steamed buns (肉包 or roubao), egg pancakes (蛋餅 or danbing), xiaolongbao (小籠包), clay oven rolls (燒餅 or shaobing), hot and cold soy milk (豆漿) rice milk (米漿), and more.
Personally I went for an egg pancake stuffed with rice ball (蛋餅夾飯糰) because I’ve never seen those two classic dishes together as one like this before. Heads up, it’s very filling!
One of the best parts of this shop is that you can watch them making the items from scratch as you order. The line on the street is for take-away. If you plan to stay, go inside, ask for menu, then sit while you decide.
Place your order from the back of the kitchen, not the line at the front. There’s a rack with spicy sauce and tissue dispensers are on the walls. Take your tray to the bin at the back and pay before leaving.
Ding Yuan Soy Milk
Ding Yuan Soy Milk (鼎元豆漿, here) is another very famous breakfast shop in Taipei. However, this one somehow seems to be most popular among Japanese visitors but is less known or frequented by tourists from other countries.
According to this Taiwanese blog, there are more Japanese than locals inside on any given day. When I visited, I found it to be just a hint nicer and cleaner inside than your average local shop – perhaps this scores additional points among Japanese?
This traditional breakfast shop is in a residential neighborhood not far from Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Expect a bit of a line but nothing too crazy on a normal day.
It’s important to know that there are two lines. The left one says 內用結帳 (to stay) and the right one says 外帶結帳 (to go). If you stay, don’t be afraid to share a table with someone if there are empty seats.
Only the Mandarin menu is posted, so you’ll have to ask the clerk for the English or Japanese one when you get to the front.
So what’s good here? Their pan fried chive pockets (韭菜包) are especially popular. Japanese guests seem to love the xiaolongbao (小籠包), often ordering several baskets of them per person. Salty soy milk (鹹豆漿) and clay oven rolls (燒餅) are also hits.
Local reviewers also mention that the green onion pastries (蔥花餅) on display at the front, which fried dough sticks can be added to, are special (personally, I find this combination too dry).
Shi Jie Soy Milk King
Shi Jie Soy Milk King (世界豆漿大王, also called World Soy Milk King, here) is actually in Yonghe district of New Taipei City, not Taipei, but I’m making an exception here because this one is so important and worth the trip.
Dating to 1955, World Soy Milk King is considered the original Taiwanese breakfast shop. Established by a KMT veteran from Shandong province in China, it was the first to incorporate northern Chinese items like green onion cakes into a breakfast menu.
According to the shop’s About Us, the late Soong Mei-ling (wife of former president Chiang Ka-shek) surprised the staff when she showed up for breakfast with bodyguards one day in 1966.
In 1975, this was the first breakfast shop to open for 24 hours, starting a major trend. All the other “Yonghe” breakfast shops in Taipei are modelled on this one.
Despite its age, in 2020 the shop did a major makeover, so it actually looks very new and nice now. There are some cute decorations and plastic models of all the dishes outside, like you always see in Japan.
When you sit, you can ask for a menu in English, Japanese, or Korean. You can also see pictures of every item here (Mandarin only). The hottest items here are of course the classics: xiaolongbao, shao bing, rice balls, and steamed buns.
Unusually, you’ll see beef on the menu – stuffed in shaobing or in salty pies (餡餅 or xianbing). Another unique item is the white radish egg pie (蘿蔔絲蛋餅), which has a deep fried cake filled with white radish strips topped with egg (see above pic).
The shop is a short walk north of Dingxi station on the MRT Orange Line. It remains open 24 hours to this day.
Yong He Soy Milk Ximending
I put Yong He Soy Milk Ximending (西門町永和豆漿, here, no relation to Yong He Soy Milk King or other Yonghe Soy Milk shops) last on my list of most popular breakfast shops for a reason.
Yes, it is very popular – this breakfast shop attracts mainly tourists, in part because it is in Ximending, the most popular area to stay in Taipei. But there always seems to be a crowd in front of this shop and ordering can feel a little chaotic. Also, locals will tell you that the food here just isn’t as good as others.
To order, first you have to squeeze through the crowds and grab a menu and pencil. The main menu is in Chinese, but another one has English, Japanese, Korean, and Thai on it. The foreign language one doesn’t seem to list as many items as the Chinese one.
Draw a horizontal line at the top right beside 外帶 (take away) or 內用 (to stay). Then simply put checks on all the items you want or write a number to order multiple. After you order and pay, you can sit down inside if you chose to stay.
Some popular items here are soup dumplings (湯包), shaobing with egg, fried dough sticks, ham and/or cheese, steamed buns with egg and chicken leg, and bacon omelets.
If it looks too busy, try this smaller breakfast vendor down the street. Her rice rolls (飯糰) are very popular, while I loved the tuna egg crepes (鮪魚蛋餅), which come with rice inside and a sweet bean sauce different than the usual sweet soy sauce.
Breakfast Shops Where Locals Go
Now that we’ve covered the most “famous” breakfast shops which attract the tourist masses, I’d like to introduce five very local Taiwanese breakfast shops in Taipei which are largely off the tourist radar.
Ms. Chin’s Soy Milk Shop
Ms. Chin’s Soy Milk Shop (秦小姐豆漿店, here) was introduced to me by one of my Taiwanese foodie friends (who isn’t a foodie in Taiwan?)
According to her, locals across Taipei know this breakfast shop for its lion head meatballs (獅子頭). Her family goes there before every Lunar New Year holiday to buy packs of them for their New Year’s feast. You won’t find these in any other breakfast shop!
On the menu, you’ll see the option to add these special pork meatballs added to many typical breakfast dishes, like eggs with green onion (蔥蛋), egg crepe (蛋餅), or shaobing (燒餅).
A few other items stand out as unique on the menu: egg crepes with mashed black-eyed peas (豇豆蛋餅), shaobing with Xinjiang pork (新疆豬肉蛋燒餅), and pumpkin soy milk (南瓜豆漿).
The breakfast shop is at the end of a small park next to Zhonglun Traditional Market (中崙市場).
Jin Jin Soy Milk
If oily breakfast is your guilty pleasure (that’s me!), then you’ll love Jin Jin Soy Milk (津津豆漿, here).
At this breakfast shop, instead of grilling their egg pancakes like most shops do, they do deep fried danbing (炸蛋餅) and stuff them with chives instead of green onions. The end result is crispy and delicious. It reminds me of the deep fried green onion cakes in Yilan county.
The above dish is reason enough to go there. But the shop also makes good salty soy milk (鹹豆漿), white radish cakes with egg (蘿蔔糕加蛋), shao bing, and steamed buns. Even their regular soy milk is very good – it’s a little thicker than the watery kind at most shops.
While this shop isn’t touristy at all, they’ve got a large English menu covering the wall, so thank you for that!
You’ll find this breakfast shop in Datong district, 10 minutes walk north of the northern end of Dihua Street and Daqiaotou MRT, or 10-15 minutes southwest of Dalongdong Bao’an Temple, Confucius Temple, and Yuanshan MRT.
Ruian Soy Milk
Ruian Soy Milk (瑞安豆漿大王, here) is one of the best 24-hour breakfast shops in Taipei. It’s only a couple blocks from Yonghe Soy Milk King (#2 in the famous breakfast shops section above) but caters to a primarily local clientele.
Compared to Yonghe Soy Milk King, individual items at Ruian Soy Milk are TWD 5 to 10 cheaper. Ruian Soy Milk belongs to a popular style of local breakfast shop which has a very long counter with several grab & go items or huge menu above that you can order off.
All the bases are covered here – clay oven rolls, egg pancakes, rice balls, soup dumplings, regular dumplings, etc.
But a few items which stand out as special are their bacon egg pancakes (培根蛋餅), which come with bean sprouts inside, and their noodle dishes, like spicy soup noodles (麻辣湯麵), vegetable cold noodles (蔬菜涼麵), and minced pork noodle soup (肉燥湯麵).
The only challenge here could be ordering if you can’t speak Mandarin – there’s no English and no handheld menu that you can easily scan to translate or point out items on.
Lao Jiang’s House
Another 24-hour breakfast shop option is Old Soy Milk House (老漿家, here).
This is probably the most “modern” breakfast shop I’m including in this article. It’s modern in feels (how dare they put nice tables and a few decorations!), but the food is still traditional and classic. It’s still very local, but think local and young.
The one item that really draws me to this shop is their egg pancakes made with rice flour instead of wheat (河粉蛋餅 or hefen danbing). The result is that the pancake is more QQ (chewy) than usual. This goes perfectly with their delicious matcha soy milk (抹茶豆乳).
Besides these anomalies, the rest of the menu is traditional – clay oven rolls, rice balls, dumplings, and other the other usuals.
This breakfast shop is no stranger to foreigners (or, in the middle of the night, drunks). It’s just off the very busy section of Zhongxiao East Road, which is known for its shopping and night clubs, so it’s a go-to place for young local party-people after a boozy night.
There’s English on the paper menu. But don’t make the same mistake I saw some young travelers making here, trying to pay with credit card – like the vast majority of small restaurants and breakfast shops in Taiwan, they are cash only.
Sihai Soy Milk King
To finish off this listicle, I’d like to give you another traditional Taiwanese breakfast option near Taipei Main Station. This honor goes to Sihai Soy Milk King (四海豆漿大王, here).
Sihai or “Four Seas” takes its name from one of the oldest original breakfast shops in Yonghe district.
This is a classic local institution frequently mainly by locals. When I last visited, the staff were busy at work hand-making dumplings on the counter where customers usually pay. Meanwhile, another was hard at work in the cave-like room behind the seating area, taking trays of freshly baked clay oven rolls out of the oven.
With the smell of those clay oven rolls coming out of the oven right behind my table, I just had to order one. All the other usual temptations are on the menu. Their fat and juicy xiaolongbao (小籠包) – the same ones I saw the staff hand-making – are an especially hot item.
At peak times, there may be a line for take-away and a separate one for seating.
When it’s your turn to sit, ask for an English menu first then sit any available spot, sharing a table with someone else if you have to. When ready, go up to order. You can point at the items on the English menu or try to match them with the words on the paper menu provided at the table.
If you use the paper menu, write your table number after the words 內用請寫桌號. Pay on the way out after eating. If you want takeaway, put a check in the box that says 外帶打包.
Enjoy your Taiwanese breakfast feasting!
