Our Guide to Night Markets in Taipei
When visiting Taipei don’t even bother with traditional sit-in restaurants for dinner. Don’t get me wrong, restaurants in Taipei are great and I’ve been to several, but Night Markets are a unique experience serving up some of the best and cheapest food in Taiwan. Night Markets in Taipei can be found in pockets throughout the city. Usually from evening until early morning, food vendors set up along the streets and serve up some of the best food Taiwan has to offer from Stinky Tofu and fried salad sandwiches to huge grilled chicken skewers and grilled rib tips. This post is our personal guide to Night Markets in Taipei as we outline some of our favorite night markets and favorite dishes! Don’t forget to bring cash and come hungry!
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Many streets around Taipei look like your ordinary city street during the day. But come dinner time, many streets around Taipei turn into night markets with food vendors and hungry customers as far as the eye can see.
Vendors begin to set up their food stalls in the early evening and are serving delicious and cheap food throughout the night, sometimes past midnight. Time wise, most night markets start around 17:00 and end sometime between 22:00 and 24:00 but these times will vary on days and the specific market.
Night markets are popular among both foreigners and locals. You generally see a good mix of people here from foreigners and children to businessmen and people that know the markets and come on a near daily basis.
The vendors at the night markets are known to serve bite sized portions of delicious food. In general, expect the food to be quite cheap in price, that doesn’t mean the quality of the food is poor. It’s quite the opposite, for the most part, the food sold at the markets are fresh and local.
Sometimes, when walking around Taipei especially the night markets, you might get a whiff of a bad city smell. Chances are it’s not a sewer smell but a food famous in Taiwan known as Stinky Tofu. It’s fermented tofu with a rather pungent smell. I was reluctant to try it, (I don’t do well with smells) but set a goal for myself to try it on my last trip to Taipei (February 2023). I tried it on my last day from a local vendor at Guangzhou Street Night Market. Surprisingly, I found the stinky tofu to be rather delicious. Thankfully it didn’t taste like it smelt.
Night markets can be chaotic, noisy, and messy but it’s all a part of the atmosphere and experience. If visiting night markets in Taipei, try not to overthink and over plan your visit to the markets. If you are wondering which night market in Taipei to go to, simply pick a selected few in the area and do a quick walkthrough to see what food options are available. Once you explore the market, start ordering food directly from the vendors. be adventurous and remember to try anything and everything.
Taipei Night Market Tours
I always find food tours in cities I am unfamiliar with to be a great introduction to the food scene.
Food tours offer great benefits. The guides are knowledgeable, you learn a lot about the city itself, and get to learn about and sample a wide variety of delicious food items.
Night markets in Taipei are always a highlight when visiting. For first timers visiting Taipei, a night market can seem overwhelming. I recommend local food tours as an introduction to Taipei night markets.
Here are some of the recommended night market tours in Taipei.
Famous Night Markets in Taipei We've Visited
I am by no means an expert when it comes to night markets in Taipei. I don’t really have the expertise to say which ones are the best and go here and not there. I’ve been to probably 6 – 10 different markets through Taipei and love all of them. Each market is unique in it’s own way. You can find a lot of similar food items throughout all the markets but many will have a variety of vendors only found at that particular market. When visiting Taipei, it’s best to go to several markets and try various food items at each market.
I’m a foodie and love trying new food, it’s one of my favorite reasons to travel to new destinations around the world.
Jill and I have visited Taipei twice now totaling about a week, and have made attempts to visit new markets every night. We’ve only scratched the surface, but below you can find a list of the night markets we’ve visited and recommend throughout Taipei. Hopefully this list and our experience with Taiwan’s night markets will continue to grow as we travel back to Taiwan in the future.
Guangzhou Street Night Market
Guangzhou Street Night Market is close to Lungshan Temple in Taipei’s Wanhua District.
Guangzhou Street Night Market is a smaller one but has some of the best local Taiwanese food. At this market I tried some of the best street food in Taiwan and I had my first bite of Stinky Tofu here. By far one of the best meals I got from a vendor in Taipei was here. The vendor was selling fried rib tips and they were so good, I went back for seconds!
The Guangzhou Street Market is open daily from 16:00 until 24:00.
Huaxi Street Night Market
Huaxi Street Night Market is a popular market just up the street from Guangzhou Street and Lungshan Temple. The Huaxi Street Market has covered pedestrian paths in parts and has a variety of shops, food vendors, and massage parlors.
Huaxi Street Night Market is also known as Taipei’s “Snake Alley“🐍 . Snake Alley got its name because back in the day, many restaurants here used to serve snake dishes. Today, there are still a few restaurants here that do serve Snake Soup and Stir Fried Snake or “Sanke Soup” and “Stir Fred Snake” if “Engrish” is your preferred language. I do love trying new foods, but I just couldn’t get myself to eat the snake here because the boas outside the restaurants are so beautiful.
This area used to be a rough part of town but has since cleaned up and is quite safe and fun to explore. There are more outside sit down dining restaurants here. My first time in Taipei we tried one of these restaurants and it was great although a tad intimidating. This time around, I just had meat skewers.
Huaxi Street Night Market is open daily from 16:00 until 24:00.
Linjiang Street Night Market
Linjiang Street Night Market is located in the Da’an District of Taipei. The Linjiang Night Market is near Taipei 101 so it makes for a great stop if visiting this famous landmark.
Lijiang Night Market is made up of around 200 vendors selling a wide variety of food items. Here I ate some incredible steak bites and a Döner Kebab like sandwich.
Linjiang Street Night Market is open daily from 18:00 to 24:00 and is located on Linjiang Street in the Da’an District of Taipei.
Ningxia Night Market
One of my favorite night markets in Taipei is the Ningxia Night Market. This night market was somewhat chaotic as hundreds of vendors were lined up on both sides of the narrow road.
When we visited Ningxia Night Market, it was busy and almost every vendor had a line. Surprisingly, the lines went quick. Here we had a delicious fried salad sandwich, taro balls, and some of the best chicken on a skewer I’ve ever had! The chunks of chicken strung out on the skewer were huge and delicious. Simply grab your food, find a nice place to stand, and enjoy!
Ningxia Night Market is located in the Datong District of Taipei and typically open from 17:00 until 1:00.
Raohe Street Night Market
Perhaps one of Taipei’s most popular and best night markets is Raohe Street Night Market.
The Raohe Street Night Market is about 600m long with food vendors on both sides of the street. This market is old, being founded in 1753.
There are all sorts of goodies at this night market. I remember having Schwein Haxe, not as good as in Germany but still satisfying. I also had a dessert that was doughy and full of peanut butter. I can’t recall where it was or what it was, all I know is that is was tasty and satisfied my sweet tooth.
Raohe Street Night Market is in the Songshan District of Taipei and is open from 17:00 until 23:00 daily.
This area is worth exploring as there is the Songshan Ciyou Temple, Rainbow Bridge, and more attractions worth seeing.
Shilin Night Market
Located in the Shilin District of Taipei is the Shilin Night Market. If you are looking for one of the largest and most famous night markets in Taipei, then the Shilin Night Market is where you want to start.
About a 10 minute walk from Shilin Station, visitors will find themselves at Shilin Night Market.
This night market is huge and spans several blocks. Shilin Night Market isn’t just about food, there are many shops here and a covered area full of fun games and activities for kids.
Let’s be honest, I came here for the food and the Shilin Night Market did not disappoint.
I tried takoyaki balls with shrimp, steak cubes, pork buns, Chinese hamburgers, fried rib tips, pancakes with filling, and a vegetable of some sort wrapped in bacon, all of which were delicious.
If you are looking for a night market in Taipei and having trouble deciding where to start, I recommend Shilin Night Market.
Ximen Night Market
Ximen Night Market seems more like a shopping district then food market. But if you walk around here long enough, you’ll find incredible eats!
Jill loves Bubble Tea and there are a few vendors and chains here that sell Bubble Tea at a very reasonable price.
There are many restaurants and small sit in dining places at Ximen Night Market, we found ourselves inside a dumpling shop. We also went to J & G Fried Chicken, ordered the chicken bites and calamari. Portions were huge, very flavorful, and fairly cheap!
Visiting Taipei's Night Markets - So Much More to Try!
Jill and I have barely scratched the surface when it comes to eating our way and visiting all the night markets in Taipei. We’ve been to Taipei twice now and have eaten our way through several of the night markets. But there are still so many we have yet to go to and food that we’ve yet to try. We already have plans to visit Taiwan again in the future and are eagerly waiting to fill our stomachs with all the exciting, fresh, and tasty food that is served at the night markets in Taipei!
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