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Lit-up hotel and apartment towers beside Kaohsiung's Love River at night, their colorful lights reflected in the dark water

South · Destination guide

Kaohsiung

高雄

A harbor city whose table is set by the port, the navy villages and the farm country

Introduction

The food of Kaohsiung

On weekdays at 7:15 a.m., a small shop on Datong 2nd Road in Qianjin District opens its doors and starts ladling rice. The braised pork rice comes glossy and dark, sweet first and salty after, topped with fish floss that the cooks stir-fry by hand from local milkfish; Michelin suggests adding a soft-cooked duck egg. The shop has been selling it since 1959 and is now in its third generation; when the food runs out, it closes. In Kaohsiung, a cheap, ordinary bowl like this is the city's baseline.

Kaohsiung has Taiwan's largest harbor. After the county and the city merged in 2010, the municipality grew to nearly 3,000 square kilometers, stretching north past the goat-meat restaurants of Gangshan and northeast to the Hakka villages of Meinong and the orchards at the foot of the hills. The waterfront has fish markets and ferries, Zuoying has the navy villages settled around 1949, Gangshan has air force ones, and each community brought its home cooking into the city.

To get a feel for the place in a day, eat a bowl of braised pork rice in Qianjin in the morning, take the ferry to Cijin for seafood at noon, and be back in town for Liuhe Night Market in the evening, or ride the metro out to Ruifeng (closed Monday and Wednesday). With more time, head north to Gangshan by local train or the metro Red Line, where goat meat and chili bean paste are another thread.

  • 3 dishes
  • 2 markets
  • 4 restaurants
  • 6 neighborhoods
  • 2 food trails

The short list

Known for

What Kaohsiung is famous for, most iconic first. Foods with their own guide are linked.

  1. Braised pork rice (ròuzào fàn)肉燥飯

    In the south the minced-pork-sauce bowl is called 肉燥飯. Qianjin Braised Pork Rice adds hand-fried milkfish floss, and at Hongji the amount of sauce is adjustable; both are 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand picks.

    Dish guide

  2. Cijin seafood旗津海鮮

    Take the ferry to Cijin and the streets around Miaoqian Road are lined with seafood restaurants, the easiest way for visitors to eat the harbor. Travel guides suggest ordering one more dish than there are people.

  3. Gangshan goat (羊肉)岡山羊肉

    Gangshan is Kaohsiung's goat-meat town, with offal soup, herbal goat soup and goat with bitter melon the usual orders. On Taiwanese menus 羊肉 can mean goat or sheep (Michelin's English text says goat), and a 2018 Taipei Times feature reports that over 90 percent of the meat served in the town's eateries is imported.

  4. Papaya milk木瓜牛奶

    The origins of papaya milk are disputed. Chinese Wikipedia lists three rival accounts, and the earliest points to Kaohsiung's Milk King (牛乳大王), said to have opened in 1966; the others point to Changhua (1968) and Taichung (1971). None is settled. Liuhe Night Market is a good place to try a glass.

  5. Beef noodle soup牛肉麵

    Kaohsiung's claim to the dish runs through the Gangshan military villages and the town's chili bean paste. It is said that "Sichuan-style" red-braised beef noodles may have taken shape here, a theory rather than settled history.

    Dish guide

  6. Milkfish虱目魚

    The fish floss on Qianjin's braised pork rice is hand-fried from local milkfish, salty, savory and crisp.

    Dish guide

  7. Rice-tube sticky rice (tǒngzǎi mǐgāo)筒仔米糕

    Beigang Tsai San Dai in Yancheng has served rice-tube sticky rice since 1956. The menu is the rice, five soups and iron eggs, with the rice sauced in braised pork and served with young ginger; it is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick.

  8. Mullet roe烏魚子

    Wild grey mullet run south on the cold fronts around the winter solstice, and farmed fish are harvested from about November. Ziguan District lists mullet roe among its local specialties, and Keliao fishing port is in the district. The roe is usually sliced thin and eaten with white radish or garlic sprouts.

  9. Meinong Hakka rice noodles (bǎntiáo)美濃粄條

    The great majority of Meinong's residents are Hakka (Chinese Wikipedia's figures run from about 87 to 93 percent). Bǎntiáo is a Hakka noodle cut from steamed rice-milk sheets, and Meinong bǎntiáo (also written 瀰濃面帕粄) appears on Chinese Wikipedia's list of local specialties.

On the table

Signature dishes

Dishes with their own guide that are most tied to Kaohsiung.

Local flavors

How Kaohsiung eats

Specialties

The braised pork rice bowl

In the south a bowl of rice under minced pork sauce is called 肉燥飯, and in Kaohsiung it is the most everyday meal. Qianjin Braised Pork Rice opened in 1959; its sauce is made with pork back fat and the bowl comes with hand-fried milkfish floss. It opens at 7:15 a.m. on weekdays, closes at 2 p.m. on Saturday, is shut on Sunday and shuts early when the food sells out. Hongji in Zuoying is bright and clean, lets you adjust how much sauce you get, suggests a soft-cooked egg, and serves side dishes such as braised cabbage and pig's trotter tendon with a light herbal fragrance.

Both are 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand picks and both take cash only. If you head north, Huang's Braised Pork Rice (橋仔頭黃家肉燥飯) on Qiaotou Old Street is on the same list (closed Monday).

Seafood

Harbor seafood

Kaohsiung has 16 fishing ports. Qianzhen is Taiwan's most important base for distant-water fishing vessels: a Ministry of Agriculture feature says most distant-water boats unload there, and both The Reporter (2016) and Michelin's 2024 feature say it has the highest catch in Taiwan (we found no current Fisheries Agency ranking). The seafood restaurants around Cijin's Miaoqian Road are the easiest for visitors: ride the ferry over, order one dish more than there are people at the table, and wander the evening snack stalls afterwards.

Crab lovers have options too. Crab's House (蟳之屋) is a half-century-old specialist, and Good Crab House (好蟳屋) is known for salt-baked young female crab. In the city, Chao Ming (昭明海產家庭料理) cooks home-style, with fresh fish bought daily and served red-braised or pan-fried; it is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick.

History

Gangshan: goat, bean paste and the beef noodle debate

Gangshan, north of central Kaohsiung, is about 25 minutes by local train (as of 2018), and since 30 June 2024 the metro Red Line has also reached Gangshan Station (RK1). Goat is the direct draw. Jiushi Goat (舊市羊肉, listed by Michelin as Joes) on Hehua Road, open since 1955, was founded by an owner who had traded freshly slaughtered goat; its signature broth simmers goat bones with the shop's own herbal mix for three hours, and the offal soup and goat with bitter melon are the usual orders. It is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick, open 11:00 to 20:00 daily and cash only.

The other thread is chili bean paste. Ming Teh's old-style paste shop was on Heti Road, Section 2 (as of 2018), and that spicy paste is the basis for Lu Yaodong's suggestion that the Gangshan villages may be where Sichuan-style beef noodles began. The idea is influential, but it is not settled.

Dishes to try

Street food

Night markets and street snacks

Liuhe is one of Kaohsiung's most representative tourist night markets, open from evening into the small hours, with seafood congee, salt-steamed shrimp, danzai noodles and a row of steakhouses. Ruifeng sits beside the Arena, opens Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday, and leans toward the walk-and-eat snacks: fried chicken, stinky tofu, sweet potato balls and chicken-wing rice rolls.

In town, Chunlan Gua Bao, founded in 2000, is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick. In Fengshan, San Lun De Dian began in 1961 as a tricycle stall and sells charcoal-grilled pork sausage and sticky-rice sausage.

Drinks

Papaya milk and Milk Tea Street

Papaya milk's origins are disputed: Chinese Wikipedia lists three rival accounts, and the earliest points to Kaohsiung's Milk King, said to have opened in 1966, but none is settled. Whatever its source, Liuhe Night Market is a good place to try a glass, and both the Taiwan Tourism Administration and the Kaohsiung metro recommend it.

In Yancheng, Sinle Street has so many tea shops that locals call it Milk Tea Street, and the main shop of Hwada Milk Tea (樺達奶茶) is at No. 101.

Day and night

Famous markets

Night markets, market halls and food streets in Kaohsiung.

  • Food carts and diners line a wide Liuhe Night Market street at night beneath a glowing ribbon-shaped light arch
    Night market

    Liuhe Night Market

    六合夜市

    • Kaohsiung
    • Daily 17:00–02:00

    Known forDanzai Noodles · Stinky Tofu

  • A busy covered lane at Ruifeng Night Market after dark, with grill stalls glowing on both sides and browsing visitors
    Night market
    • Kaohsiung
    • Tue, Thu–Sun 17:00–00:00

    Known forTaiwanese Fried Chicken · Stinky Tofu · Sweet Potato Balls

Sit down

Places to eat

Established restaurants and shops in Kaohsiung. Awards appear exactly as recorded, with their year.

    • Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026

    Chunlan Gua Bao

    春蘭割包

    A gua bao shop on Fuxing 1st Road, founded in 2000 and, per Michelin, well liked by locals for its flavor, generous fillings and big portions. The one to order is the assorted gua bao: a soft hand-made bun holding amber fat-and-lean braised pork, crisp pickled cabbage, a house sauce and peanut sugar, with the fat-to-lean ratio of the pork up to you. There are vegetarian buns too, and drinks such as job's tears milk, almond soy milk and black tea. NOWnews roundups from 2025 to early 2026 put one bun at NT$70. Cash only; Michelin gives no booking details (contact the shop directly) and flags it as worth a wait. It is open Tuesday to Saturday, 09:00 to 14:00 and 15:00 to 19:00, and closed Sunday and Monday. A 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick (Michelin spells the name Chun Lan Gua Bao).

    Kaohsiung

    Known forGua Bao (Pork Belly Bun)

    • Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026

    Hongji Braised Pork Rice

    弘記肉燥飯舖

    A braised pork rice shop on Liwen Road. Unlike the usual roadside stall, it is bright and clean, with a cartoon pig theme that Michelin reads as the owner's inventive streak. The signature is the braised pork rice, and the amount of sauce can be adjusted to taste; Michelin suggests adding a soft-cooked egg, whose silky yolk goes well with the salty-savory pork. Side dishes such as braised cabbage and pig's trotter tendon carry a faint herbal fragrance and go well with rice. Service runs in lunch and dinner blocks, with Friday open straight through from 11:30 to 22:00, and it takes cash only. It is roughly a 10-minute walk from Ruifeng Night Market, handy for a last bowl afterwards. A 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick (Michelin spells the name Hung Chi Rice Shop).

    Kaohsiung

    Known forBraised Pork Rice

    • Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026

    A family shop on Datong 2nd Road, founded in 1959 and now in its third generation, serving what Michelin calls the favorite breakfast of generations of Kaohsiung people. The sauce is made with pork back fat: glossy brown, sweet first and then salty, and the rice soaks up the gelatin so the bowl is rounded rather than greasy. The signature order is the fish floss braised pork rice, where the floss is hand-fried by the shop from local milkfish, savory and crisp over the rice. Michelin suggests adding a soft-cooked duck egg and stirring the yolk through the rice; the braised tofu is worth ordering too. The room is plain and usually full, the shop closes when the food sells out, and it takes cash only. It opens at 7:15 a.m. on weekdays, closes at 2 p.m. on Saturday and is shut on Sunday. A 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick (Michelin spells the name Cianjin Braised Pork Rice).

    Kaohsiung

    Known forBraised Pork Rice · Milkfish

    • Michelin Plate 2026

    A small shop in a lane off Bade Road in Fengshan, founded in 1961 when the founder sold from a tricycle on the street; it grew into a no-frills booth and has long been a local afternoon-snack spot. It makes charcoal-grilled, hand-made pork sausage and sticky-rice sausage by old methods: the pork sausage is stuffed with pork, five-spice and sorghum liquor and eaten with garlic, while the rice sausage uses local glutinous rice, peanuts and fried shallots and carries a faint charcoal smoke. A pork-bone soup is available on the side. These two grilled items are the two halves of the night-market classic 大腸包小腸; Michelin describes them separately and does not say whether the shop sells them stuffed together. It is open from noon to dusk and takes cash only; OpenStreetMap lists Monday to Saturday, 11:00 to 18:00, so check before going on a Sunday. Listed in the 2026 Michelin Guide as a Michelin Plate restaurant, without a Bib Gourmand.

    Kaohsiung

    Known forTaiwanese Sausage in Glutinous Rice (“Small Sausage in Large Sausage”)

Where to wander

Neighborhoods to know

Districts and towns to eat your way through.

  • District

    Yancheng District鹽埕區

    Yancheng is one of Kaohsiung's old districts. Residents made a living from salt as early as the Ming-Zheng period, and the name Takao Yancheng comes from the salt fields that Fengshan County had more than twenty people open in 1701. After the harbor was built and land reclaimed under Japanese rule, the Kaohsiung city office moved here in 1928, and the International Market, nicknamed Takao Ginza, is in the district. Sinle Street was once called Golden Street for its jewelers; today it is known for a run of tea shops, hence the nickname Milk Tea Street, and the main shop of Hwada Milk Tea is at No. 101. According to Wikivoyage's shop listings, pearls are an add-on.

    Keep reading

    Most of Yancheng's eating is in old shops. Beigang Tsai San Dai has sold rice-tube sticky rice since 1956; the menu is the rice, five soups and iron eggs, it is closed on Wednesday, and it is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick. Cheng's Noodles (鄭家切仔麵) in a lane off Sinle Street has been open for more than eighty years, serves from 08:00 to 15:00 daily, and is also in the 2026 guide. The Pier-2 Art Center sits where Yancheng meets Gushan, so you can walk it off among the old warehouses.

    Known for

  • District

    Cijin District旗津區

    Cijin is a long thin sandbar island, about 8.5 kilometers from end to end and only 400 meters wide on average. It was once joined to the mainland and became an island in 1967, when a second entrance to Kaohsiung Harbor was cut. The ferry from Gushan runs from about 05:00 to 02:00 (gofunit, 2026). Cijin Old Street is on Miaoqian Road right in front of the Cijin ferry station (as both Supertaste in 2025 and gofunit in 2026 put it), lined with seafood restaurants and snack stalls, so it makes sense to sit down for a few dishes first and stroll afterwards.

    Keep reading

    Two 2025-2026 travel roundups list charcoal-grilled baby squid and grilled squid, whelks, swordfish fish cakes with a quail egg inside, and soy-sauce tomato slices, and Chinese Wikipedia's list of Cijin snacks adds sweet-potato cakes and oyster fritters (that passage cites no sources, so treat it as a lead only). Prices and hours change, so confirm on the spot.

  • District

    Qianjin District前金區

    Qianjin is under two square kilometers yet holds several of Kaohsiung's Michelin Bib Gourmand picks. In the 2026 guide, Qianjin Braised Pork Rice on Datong 2nd Road, Chao Ming (昭明海產家庭料理) on Ziqiang 1st Road, Yung Yen (永筵小館) on Chenggong 1st Road and Niu Lao Da (牛老大涮牛肉) on Ziqiang 2nd Road are all here.

    Keep reading

    Qianjin Braised Pork Rice opened in 1959 and opens at 7:15 a.m. on weekdays. Chao Ming has served home cooking for more than half a century, now run by the second generation, with fresh fish bought daily and a stir-fry of pork with garlic shoots. Yung Yen is known for scrambled eggs with shrimp, and Niu Lao Da's founder began with a roadside Tainan-style beef soup stand; fresh beef arrives daily from Tainan and is served as shabu-shabu. Their hours and rest days all differ, so check before you go.

  • District

    Xinxing District新興區

    Xinxing was once called Dagangpu, wasteland beside a river branch. In 1941 Kaohsiung Station moved here and Zhongshan 1st Road was laid out, which started the area's rapid growth, and in 1946 it was renamed Xinxing, or 'New Prosperity'. After 1949, snack vendors gathered on open ground beside the station in what was called the Dagangpu market, the forerunner of Liuhe Night Market, according to a 2010 Taiwan Panorama feature.

    Keep reading

    Beyond the night market, Chunlan Gua Bao on Fuxing 1st Road, founded in 2000, stuffs hand-made buns with fat-and-lean braised pork, pickled greens and peanut sugar, with vegetarian buns too; it is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick and closed Sunday and Monday. The district covers about two square kilometers and is Kaohsiung's most densely populated.

  • District

    Zuoying District左營區

    Zuoying is Kaohsiung's old town and home to the navy base. Fengshan County's first county seat stood here in the Qing period, and the seat moved to Fengshan after the Lin Shuangwen rebellion. The Japanese built a naval base, and around 1949 large numbers of military families settled, forming what is described as the largest single-service dependents' village complex in Taiwan, designated a cultural landscape by the city government in 2010. The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas on Lotus Pond are the landmark visitors know. For meals, most people head to the Arena shopping district, where Mingcheng and Yucheng Roads are lined with restaurants of many nationalities.

    Keep reading

    Ruifeng Night Market sits beside Kaohsiung Arena metro station and opens Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday. Hongji on Liwen Road, a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick, is about half a kilometer from the market, handy for a last bowl afterwards.

  • District

    Gangshan District岡山區

    Gangshan lies north of central Kaohsiung, about 25 minutes from Kaohsiung Station by local train (as of 2018), and since 30 June 2024 the metro Red Line has reached Gangshan Station (RK1). It was an air base under Japanese rule, the Air Force Academy moved here around 1949, and military dependents' villages grew up around it. Locals speak of Gangshan's three treasures: goat meat, honey and chili bean paste.

    Keep reading

    Goat is the easiest signature to find. Jiushi Goat (舊市羊肉; Michelin's English name is Joes) at 111 Hehua Road, open since 1955, simmers goat bones with its own herbal mix for three hours; the offal soup and goat with bitter melon are the usual orders, and it is a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand pick, open 11:00 to 20:00 daily. The Taipei Times reports that more than 90 percent of the goat meat in local restaurants is imported. As for the chili bean paste, the founder of Ming Teh Food is said to be the first to make and sell the spicy paste in Gangshan, and the scholar Lu Yaodong suggested that Sichuan-style red-braised beef noodles may have taken shape in the villages here. That theory remains unsettled.

Food trails

Eat your way through Kaohsiung

Routes that string the stops together, with suggested times, notes and a map.

The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas at Kaohsiung's Lotus Pond, two tall red-and-gold towers rising from the water behind lotus leaves
Kaohsiung

A harbor-city day: braised pork rice, old Yancheng and Cijin seafood

Start with a bowl of braised pork rice in Qianjin, wander Yancheng's Milk Tea Street and an old noodle shop, walk past the Pier-2 warehouses, then ride the ferry from Gushan to Cijin for seafood. Best Monday to Saturday, since the Qianjin shop is closed on Sunday.

8 h 30 min6 stops

Recommended food itinerary

The route at a glance

  1. Qianjin Braised Pork Rice for breakfast
  2. Milk tea on Sinle Street
  3. Cheng's Noodles, an 80-plus-year-old brunch
  4. Pier-2: a stroll among the old warehouses
  5. Ferry from Gushan to Cijin
  6. Cijin Old Street and seafood

More trails in Kaohsiung

  • Food carts and diners line a wide Liuhe Night Market street at night beneath a glowing ribbon-shaped light arch
    Kaohsiung

    Two night markets in one evening: Liuhe and Ruifeng

    Begin with gua bao in Xinxing, work through Liuhe Night Market, ride the metro Red Line four stops to Kaohsiung Arena for Ruifeng, and finish with a bowl of braised pork rice on Liwen Road. Ruifeng opens Tuesday and Thursday to Sunday and Chunlan Gua Bao is closed Sunday, so the best nights are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

    5 h 15 min5 stops

Food history

A food history of Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung's harbor story is older than the name Kaohsiung. In Qing times the area was Takao (打狗). Boats came to the Yancheng coast to catch grey mullet even before the Dutch-Spanish period, and under the Ming-Zheng regime residents made a living from salt; in 1701 Fengshan County recruited more than twenty people to open salt fields, which is how the place came to be called Takao Yancheng (打狗鹽埕). The port opened in October 1863 as an outer harbor for Anping. Under Japanese rule the harbor was expanded step by step; Hamasen is the new town built on reclaimed land, with government offices and the fish market, and the main north-south railway ended nearby. Takao was rewritten as 高雄 in 1920 and became a city in 1924.

Postwar migration set the other half of today's table. Air raids in 1945 badly damaged the port and downtown. Around 1949, families who came with the military settled near the navy base in Zuoying and the air force base in Gangshan and built rows of military dependents' villages (眷村). The Zuoying navy villages are described as the largest of any single service in Taiwan, and Gangshan is home to the Air Force Academy, which moved there around 1949. In 2010 the city government designated the Zuoying navy villages a cultural landscape, and the same year the county and city merged, bringing Meinong's Hakka settlements, Qishan's banana fields and Yanchao's orchards under one Kaohsiung.

Gangshan is the most concrete stop on the dependents'-village thread. Locals speak of the town's "three treasures": goat meat, honey and chili bean paste. A 2018 Taipei Times feature says Liu Ming-teh, a Henan-born air force clerk who learned to make spicy pastes while living in Sichuan, arrived in Taiwan in 1948 and is described as the first to make and sell this chili bean paste in Gangshan; he went on to found Ming Teh Food. The scholar Lu Yaodong used that history to suggest that "Sichuan-style" red-braised beef noodle soup may have taken shape in the Gangshan villages. It is an influential theory but not a settled one, and other accounts, from Taipei's Taoyuan Street to canned beef from US aid, remain just as unproven.

Kaohsiung's food today reads like those layers stacked up: harbor seafood and snacks, the noodles and chili pastes the villages brought, the Hakka rice noodles of the hill settlements, and what comes from the southern farms and fish ponds. The Michelin Guide has also covered the city in recent years, and its 2026 list runs from budget snacks to one-star restaurants.

Through the year

Seasonal specialties

Months are a rough window, and the weather moves them from year to year.

  • Season: Nov–Jan

    Mullet roe烏魚子

    Around the winter solstice, wild grey mullet run south ahead of the cold fronts. The roe of the females is cured in salt, desalted, shaped and sun-dried into 烏魚子, and farmed fish are harvested from about November. Ziguan District lists mullet roe among its local specialties, and Keliao fishing port is in the district. The roe is usually sliced thin and eaten with white radish or garlic sprouts.

Plan your trip

Getting there

Open Kaohsiung in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Zuoying HSR Station is the main gateway to Kaohsiung and connects to the Zuoying station (R16) on the metro's Red Line. From there the Red Line runs south: two stops to Kaohsiung Arena (Ruifeng Night Market) and six to Formosa Boulevard (Liuhe Night Market). Kaohsiung's main railway station is in the city center, a walk of a little over ten minutes from Liuhe, and Kaohsiung International Airport is also on the Red Line.

For Cijin, take the ferry from the Gushan ferry pier, which is near Exit 1 of Hamasen station (O1) on the metro's Orange Line; Wikivoyage estimates about a 10-minute walk, and the Circular Light Rail has a Hamasen station (C14) too. Gofunit (2026) says the Gushan to Cijin boats run from 05:00 to 02:00 at intervals of roughly 5 to 30 minutes depending on the hour, while Chinese Wikipedia gives about every 5 to 7 minutes at peak and 10 to 15 off-peak. Go by the posted timetable. For Gangshan, ride the metro Red Line to Gangshan Station (RK1, opened 30 June 2024) or take a Taiwan Railways train from Kaohsiung Station, about 25 minutes according to a 2018 report. Many snack shops keep fixed rest days and some close when the food sells out, so confirm hours before you go.

ReviewedDrafted with AI and cross-checked against sources.Last reviewed Oct 11, 2026