Bubble Tea
珍珠奶茶zhēnzhū nǎichá
- Vegetarian
- Sweet
- Creamy
- Aromatic
- +1 more
Central · Destination guide
Taichung
台中
Sun cakes, the bubble tea debate, and ice cream in a former credit cooperative
Map of Taichung
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Open in the mapIntroduction
The food of Taichung
Taichung is the largest city in central Taiwan, and one that takes its snacks and sweets seriously. You can start the day with a bowl of braised pork rice in the Second Market, spend the afternoon eating ice cream in a former eye hospital or credit cooperative, and wander through Fengjia or Yizhong Street in the evening with something fried or grilled in hand.
The flavor here is not one signature dish but a run of things you want one more bite of: sun cakes, pineapple cakes, sausage in rice sausage, and a cup of bubble tea whose birthplace is still argued over. Taichung's pastry trade has been busy since the Japanese era; Fengyuan has the nickname 'hometown of pastries' (糕餅之鄉) and neighboring Shengang is known for its bakeries too. In the 1980s the tea shops and student shopping districts added a younger, louder layer of street food.
Since Taichung city and county merged in 2010, the municipality stretches from the urban core to the mountains and the coast, and the eating is spread out accordingly. For a first visit, start with the old downtown, Fengjia and Yizhong Street, which a mix of walking and short rides can link into a single day.
- 7 dishes
- 2 markets
- 5 restaurants
- 5 neighborhoods
- 2 food trails
The short list
Known for
What Taichung is famous for, most iconic first. Foods with their own guide are linked.
Bubble tea珍珠奶茶
Chun Shui Tang in Taichung and Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan each say they were first to put tapioca in milk tea, both in the 1980s; the question is still open.
Dish guide
Sun cake (tàiyáng bǐng)太陽餅
A flaky round pastry with a malt-sugar filling, tied to the pastry maker Wei Qing-hai and the Taiyang Tang shop; several shops claim to be the original.
Fengyuan and Shengang are known for their bakeries, and Dawncake, the group behind Miyahara, is known for its pineapple cakes and cheesecake.
Dish guide
Several stalls at Fengjia Night Market call themselves the original; there is no reliable record of who made the first one.
Dish guide
Taichung Meatball in the South District is on the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand list; MICHELIN says it has operated since 1933.
Dish guide
Braised pork rice魯肉飯與爌肉飯
The Second Market's Shanhe is described as the market's most queued-for name; Night School serves until 2:00 and is on the Bib Gourmand list.
Dish guide
Fengren ice at Yizhong一中豐仁冰
Sour-plum shaved ice with sweetened beans and ice cream, from a street-corner stand reported to date from 1946.
Máyì soup麻薏湯
A summer soup sold in the Second Market; guides describe sweet potato and whitebait in it, with a faint bitterness.
Dajia taro大甲芋頭
Dajia, on Taichung's coast, is known for its taro, and Fengjia Night Market has a shop devoted to taro sweets.
On the table
Signature dishes
Dishes with their own guide that are most tied to Taichung.
Pineapple Cake
鳳梨酥fènglí sū
- Sweet
- Fruity
- Rich
- +1 more
Taiwanese Sausage in Glutinous Rice (“Small Sausage in Large Sausage”)
大腸包小腸dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng
- Savory
- Sweet
- Smoky
- +2 more
Ba-wan
肉圓ròuyuán
- Savory
- Sweet
- Umami
- +1 more
Braised Pork Rice
滷肉飯lǔròu fàn
- Savory
- Porky
- Rich
- +2 more
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
牛肉麵niúròu miàn
- Savory
- Beefy
- Aromatic
- +3 more
Douhua (Tofu Pudding)
豆花dòuhuā
- Vegan
- Sweet
- Light
- Nutty
- +1 more
Local flavors
How Taichung eats
Drinks
Tea houses and the bubble tea debate
The brand began on Siwei Street in 1983, and today's Chun Shui Tang original store stands on that street, for many visitors the first stop for bubble tea. The official site lists hours of 8:30 to 22:00 every day, and the menu covers tea drinks, tea snacks and light meals.
It helps to remember, as you sip, that the story is unsettled: Chun Shui Tang says an employee, Lin Hsiu-hui, dropped tapioca into tea, while Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its owner, Tu Tsong-he, made it first with white tapioca balls. Both dates fall in the 1980s, and both accounts come mainly from the shops themselves.
Dishes to try
Bubble Tea
珍珠奶茶zhēnzhū nǎichá
Places mentioned
Sweets
Sweets in old buildings
Two old buildings a few minutes apart on Zhongshan Road capture Taichung's dessert culture: Miyahara, built in 1927 as an eye hospital, and the Fourth Credit Cooperative, a former credit cooperative building that the Taichung film foundation's location database dates to 1966. Both are now run by the Dawncake group, selling ice cream and gifts, and the Fourth Credit Cooperative still has its vault-style door.
The ice cream is a good excuse to sit down and take a slow look inside the old buildings.
Dishes to try
Pineapple Cake
鳳梨酥fènglí sū
Places mentioned
Breakfast
Mornings in the Second Market
Stalls in the Second Market start early, which makes it a good place for breakfast in Taichung. A 2020 guide called Shanhe the market's most queued-for name, with a bento box of side dishes as generous as a buffet, and long-running stalls selling radish cakes and Fuzhou-style noodles are in the market too. In summer, try the máyì soup; Ah-E's stall opens at 6:00, though a 2026 guide gives Monday and Tuesday as its days off.
Hours differ from stall to stall and many close in the afternoon, so go early.
Dishes to try
Braised Pork Rice
滷肉飯lǔròu fàn
Street food
Street food at Fengjia and Yizhong
Fengjia is the big, footsore night market where sausage in rice sausage, egg crepes, stinky tofu and fried chicken are all favorites and the popular stalls often have a queue; Yizhong Street is the high-schoolers' after-class snack street, with plain prices and big portions. You can do both in one evening: Yizhong in the late afternoon, then a ride to Fengjia after dark.
Dishes to try
Taiwanese Sausage in Glutinous Rice (“Small Sausage in Large Sausage”)
大腸包小腸dàcháng bāo xiǎocháng
Stinky Tofu
臭豆腐chòu dòufu
Taiwanese Fried Chicken
鹽酥雞yánsū jī
Specialties
Everyday eateries on the Bib Gourmand list
The 2026 MICHELIN Guide Taiwan lists 23 Bib Gourmand restaurants in Taichung, many of them modest, inexpensive places. Three picks here: Ke Kou Beef Noodles in Xitun, whose broth is simmered with 35 Chinese herbs; Taichung Meatball, which MICHELIN says has been selling ba-wan since 1933; and Night School Braised Pork Rice, open until 2:00.
Dishes to try
Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
牛肉麵niúròu miàn
Ba-wan
肉圓ròuyuán
Braised Pork Rice
滷肉飯lǔròu fàn
Day and night
Famous markets
Night markets, market halls and food streets in Taichung.
Night market- Taichung
- Daily 16:00–02:00
Known forTaiwanese Sausage in Glutinous Rice (“Small Sausage in Large Sausage”) · Egg Crepe (Danbing) · Stinky Tofu
Food streetYizhong Street
一中街商圈
- Taichung
- Daily 12:00–22:00
Known forStinky Tofu · Taiwanese Fried Chicken · Mango Shaved Ice
Sit down
Places to eat
Established restaurants and shops in Taichung. Awards appear exactly as recorded, with their year.
Chun Shui Tang, Siwei Original Store
春水堂人文茶館四維創始店
Chun Shui Tang is where many people first meet bubble tea, and this Siwei Street original store ties back to the story of how the brand began in 1983. In May 1983 its founder, Liu Han-chieh, opened a tea shop on Siwei Street under the name Yangxian Tea House (陽羨茶行); he is said to have seen iced coffee in Japan and, back in Taiwan, started shaking hot tea with ice in a cocktail shaker to make cold 'foam tea'. The street later became known as the 'foam tea street'. The menu covers tea drinks, tea snacks and light meals. The company's own timeline says that in 1987 it set up a separate Mu Xi Tang (木犀堂) inside the tea house for gongfu-brewed tea and tea sales, though whether the original store has such a room today is something to confirm on the spot. As for who first made pearl milk tea, Chun Shui Tang says an employee, Lin Hsiu-hui, added tapioca to tea, and its site gives 1986 for the first try and 1987 for the launch, while Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its owner, Tu Tsong-he, did. Both dates fall in the 1980s, both accounts come mainly from the shops themselves, and neither has been settled. A cup here is also a taste of a story still being argued over.
Taichung
Known forBubble Tea
- Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026
Ke Kou Beef Noodles
可口牛肉麵
Ke Kou Beef Noodles is a Bib Gourmand beef noodle shop on Dadun Road in Xitun. MICHELIN says the owner and his wife are beef lovers and this restaurant is their creation. The signature is noodle soup with red-braised beef and tendon in a broth simmered for hours with 35 Chinese herbs, and there are also dry noodles dressed with a house sesame-peanut paste and a savory bean sauce fried fresh daily. It opens only Monday to Friday, in a lunch session and an early-evening session (per the MICHELIN page), and is closed at weekends, so it is worth phoning before you go.
Taichung
Known forTaiwanese Beef Noodle Soup
Miyahara
宮原眼科
Miyahara was built in 1927 as an eye hospital by the Japanese ophthalmologist Miyahara Takekuma (宮原武熊), and is usually described as the largest eye clinic in Taichung Prefecture of the Japanese era. After the war it changed hands several times, serving as a health office, a hospital and a newspaper sales office; later the owner became tied up in lawsuits with occupants, the building sat idle and run-down, and the 1999 earthquake and a 2008 typhoon damaged it further. In 2010 Dawncake (日出), known for pineapple cakes and cheesecake, bought the building, kept part of the facade and the arcade, and refitted the interior as a tall, library-like hall. It reopened in January 2012. Today Miyahara sells ice cream, chocolate, pastries and tea drinks, and upstairs is the restaurant Zui Yue Lou (醉月樓, listed by MICHELIN as Moon Pavilion), on the 2026 Bib Gourmand list. A few minutes' walk away is the Fourth Credit Cooperative, run by the same group: a building that the Taichung film foundation's location database dates to 1966, now selling ice cream behind a vault-style door.
Taichung
Known forPineapple Cake
- Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026
Night School Braised Pork Rice is on Jingcheng Road in West District and serves until 2:00, so it suits night owls. MICHELIN says the signature is kòngròu fàn: fresh pork stewed in soy, sugar, wine and shallots until soft and springy, with rice packed in a bento box and sides such as shredded bamboo shoots, braised napa cabbage and fried tofu. Kòngròu fàn is usually a block or thick slice of braised pork belly over rice, which differs from lǔròu fàn, where minced pork sauce is spooned over the rice; names vary by region, as the braised pork rice entry explains. Cash only.
Taichung
Known forBraised Pork Rice
- Michelin Bib Gourmand 2026
The menu at Taichung Meatball has just three items: a ba-wan, served with either fish-ball soup or glass-noodle soup. MICHELIN says the shop has operated since 1933 and is known for its no-frills cooking and low prices. The big, translucent dumpling is filled with peppery ground pork and topped with thick soy paste and a sweet white sauce made from sticky rice and cassava flour. It takes cash only, and hours can be irregular, so phone ahead.
Taichung
Known forBa-wan
Where to wander
Neighborhoods to know
Districts and towns to eat your way through.
District
Central District中區
Central District is Taichung's oldest downtown. At 0.88 square kilometers it is the smallest district in Taiwan. Redeveloped on a grid plan under Japanese rule, it holds Taichung Station, the Second Market and Miyahara; in recent years the reuse of old buildings has made it a popular place to eat and stroll again.
Keep reading
The eating is packed into a small area: Miyahara (20 Zhongshan Rd.) and the Fourth Credit Cooperative (72 Zhongshan Rd.) turn an old eye hospital and a former credit cooperative into ice cream shops; the Second Market has braised pork rice, radish cakes, máyì soup and Fuzhou-style noodles from early morning; and the Green River (綠川) runs close by, good for a walk after dessert. Six of Taichung's 23 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurants in 2026 are in this district.
Known for
District
West District西區
West District sits right next to the old downtown. It is also one starting point of the bubble tea story: Chun Shui Tang's original store is on Siwei Street, where the brand began in 1983. The Calligraphy Greenway is a pleasant walk after a meal, and Jingcheng Road has Night School Braised Pork Rice, a spot for night owls that serves until 2:00.
Keep reading
Six of Taichung's 23 MICHELIN Bib Gourmand restaurants in 2026 are in West District: Ajisai (繡球), Fu Juang Yuan (富狀元豬腳), Night School Braised Pork Rice (夜間部爌肉飯), Shin Yuan (馨苑), Küisine (好菜) and Kung Fu Shanghai Fish Ball (功夫上海手工魚丸). A good plan is Chun Shui Tang by day, then braised pork rice on Jingcheng Road after dark.
Known for
District
North District北區
North District's star is the Yizhong shopping and snack district. Yizhong Street is named for Taichung First Senior High School, and according to a Wikipedia summary, after cram schools and department stores moved in during the 1980s it became the place where central Taiwan's high-schoolers gather after class, so the food leans cheap and generous. The busiest hour is late afternoon, when stinky tofu, chicken cutlets, shaved ice and drink shops line Yizhong and Yucai streets.
Keep reading
One old name is Fengren ice: reported to have started in 1946 and now run by the third generation, it serves sour-plum shaved ice with sweetened beans and ice cream from a stand on the corner of a lane diagonally across from the school's main gate.
District
Xitun District西屯區
Xitun District is a newer urban center of Taichung and home to Fengjia Night Market. After Feng Chia College of Engineering and Business (now Feng Chia University) moved to its present site in 1963, its students brought trade, and the stalls along Wenhua and Fuxing roads gradually joined up into one of Taichung's best-known night markets.
Keep reading
Away from the market, Xitun has quieter places too: Ke Kou Beef Noodles on Dadun Road, whose signature, according to MICHELIN, is red-braised beef and tendon in a broth simmered with 35 Chinese herbs; 曙光居 (House of Dawn) and 裡小樓 (Li Xiao Lou) are also on the 2026 Bib Gourmand list. The National Taichung Theater is nearby if you want to see another side of the district.
District
Fengyuan District豐原區
Fengyuan lies north of Taichung's city center and is a pastry town nicknamed the 'hometown of pastries' (糕餅之鄉). It and neighboring Shengang have been known for cakes and pastries since the Japanese era, with salted-egg cake, pineapple cake, mung-bean cake and egg-yolk pastry among the usual mentions; Xuehua Zhai is one of the old bakeries; its Chinese Wikipedia entry, which cites the brand's own pages and press reports, gives 1900 as the founding year, a date that rests on the brand's own account. The sun cake story also runs through this area: according to Wikipedia, the Kunpai Bakery where Wei Qing-hai trained was in Shekou, Shengang.
Keep reading
In the evening, Miaodong Night Market grows along Lane 167 of Zhongzheng Road beside Fengyuan Ciji Temple (known locally as the Fengyuan Mazu Temple); its core is only about a hundred meters long, and the travel writer Nick Kembel describes it as Fengyuan's largest and most popular night market. For gifts, pick a box from one of the old bakeries.
Known for
Food trails
Eat your way through Taichung
Routes that string the stops together, with suggested times, notes and a map.
A day of old-town sweets and tea houses
Start with breakfast in the Second Market, walk past two old buildings on Zhongshan Road, have a pearl milk tea on Siwei Street after midday, then shaved ice at Yizhong, and end with braised pork rice at Night School. Two legs need a bus or taxi, but every stop is in urban Taichung.
11 h6 stops
Recommended food itinerary
The route at a glance
- Breakfast in the Second Market
- Miyahara
- The Fourth Credit Cooperative
- Chun Shui Tang on Siwei Street
- Fengren ice at Yizhong
- Night School Braised Pork Rice
More trails in Taichung
- Taichung
Yizhong to Fengjia: a night-market crawl
Begin at Yizhong Street with stinky tofu, fried chicken bites and Fengren ice in the late afternoon. Ride to Fengjia after dark for sausage in rice sausage and an egg crepe, and finish with a late bowl of braised pork rice on Jingcheng Road. Some stalls close one day a week (the Yizhong stinky tofu stall on Monday and Tuesday, the chicken bites and Fengren ice commonly on Tuesday), so Wednesday to Sunday is the safest; check the day before you go.
6 h6 stops
Food history
A food history of Taichung
Much of today's old downtown in Taichung is a grid laid out under Japanese rule. The Japanese authorities declared Taichū a city in 1920, but the Second Market had already opened in 1917 as the Shintomichō Market (新富町市場), at first serving mostly the Japanese residents nearby, with a hexagonal main tower at its center. Miyahara, completed in 1927, was built as an eye hospital by the Japanese ophthalmologist Miyahara Takekuma (宮原武熊) and is usually described as the largest eye clinic in Taichung Prefecture in the Japanese era. The old buildings became the backdrop of Taichung eating: the market still sells breakfast and snacks, and the eye hospital became an ice cream shop in 2012.
Taichung is also a pastry town. Fengyuan and neighboring Shengang had a busy cake-making trade from the Japanese era, and the sun cake story starts in that area, though the accounts do not fully agree. Chinese Wikipedia says that Kunpai Bakery (崑派餅店) in Shekou, Shengang, was known for malt-sugar cakes, and that the pastry maker Wei Qing-hai (known as Ah-Ming-shi, 'Master Ming') learned there and reworked the traditional cake into what became the sun cake. A 2008 Business Today essay dates the invention to the late 1940s. It says the wrapper of Ah-Ming-shi's own old shop claims he opened Yuanming Store (元明商店) in Beitun in 1949 as the first Taiyang Tang bakery, which is the shop's own account. The Taiyang Tang (太陽堂) bakery in downtown Taichung was, according to the same essay, founded in 1953 at Jiguang Street and Minquan Road before moving to Ziyou Road, and the author adds that Wei once worked there as a pastry maker. Wei's apprentices went on to open many shops signed 'Taiyang Tang' around Taichung, each claiming to be the real one, and who first made the cake has never been settled.
Tea is the city's other calling card. Liu Han-chieh founded Chun Shui Tang on 20 May 1983 with an original store on Siwei Street, then called Yangxian Tea House (陽羨茶行); he is said to have seen iced coffee in Japan and started shaking tea with ice in a cocktail shaker, and the street became known as the 'foam tea street'. Who first put tapioca pearls into milk tea is disputed. Chun Shui Tang's own timeline says an employee, Lin Hsiu-hui, added tapioca to milk tea in 1986 and that it went on sale as 'pearl milk tea' in 1987, while other accounts give years from 1985 to 1988. Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its owner, Tu Tsong-he, made the first cup in 1986 (some sources say 1987) with white tapioca balls he bought at the Yamuliao market. The two shops began suing each other in 2009, and news reports say that in 2019 a court found bubble tea was not a patentable product, which left the question of who came first unanswered.
Postwar student crowds added another way of eating. In 1963 Feng Chia College of Engineering and Business (now Feng Chia University) moved to its present site, its students brought customers to the stalls along Wenhua Road, and Fengjia Night Market grew from there. According to a Wikipedia summary, in the 1980s the Shuili Building and the Lailai department store opened and cram schools moved in, making Yizhong Street an after-school hangout for central Taiwan's high-schoolers, with cheap, generous snacks to match. The old downtown had a second wave in the 2010s: Miyahara reopened in January 2012, and in August 2013 the same group turned the former Fourth Credit Cooperative into an ice cream shop. Today the MICHELIN Guide Taiwan lists 23 Bib Gourmand restaurants in Taichung (2026), many of them inexpensive small eateries serving beef noodles, ba-wan and braised pork rice.
Through the year
Seasonal specialties
Months are a rough window, and the weather moves them from year to year.
Season: Jun–Aug
Summer: máyì soup and shaved ice夏天的麻薏湯與剉冰
Máyì soup in the Second Market is a summer-only dish, said to contain sweet potato and whitebait; Ah-E's stall, reported to be about 70 years old, is one place to find it. Summer is also shaved-ice season: TVBS's food guide features Zhandou Ice, a small shop tucked into a lane near Yizhong Street, which serves a summer-only fresh mango ice, while Fengren's sour-plum ice is said to find customers even in winter.
Try it as
Plan your trip
Getting there
Open Taichung in Google Maps (opens in a new tab)From Taipei, the high-speed rail to Taichung Station (in Wuri) takes roughly an hour, and the Taichung MRT Green Line starts at that station and runs straight through to Wenxin Yinghua (文心櫻花) station in Xitun. You can also take a Taiwan Railway train to Taichung Station in the city center; Miyahara, the Fourth Credit Cooperative and the Second Market are all within walking distance of it, and Yizhong Street is roughly a 20-minute walk. Fengjia Night Market lies to the northwest, about 6 km in a straight line from the station: take a bus or taxi from around the station, or ride the MRT to Wenxin Yinghua and walk. Fengyuan's Miaodong Night Market is further north, within walking distance of Fengyuan Station on the Taiwan Railway.
In pictures
Taichung in photographs
Photo credits
A white bowl of braised pork rice with minced pork, a glossy piece of braised pork and pickled cucumber slices
Photo: Mori Chan from 台中市 ( Taichung ) · CC BY 2.0 (opens in a new tab)Crowds browsing neon-lit shops and food stalls beneath the Fengjia Night Market archway in Taichung after dark
Photo: Chensiyuan · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)Brightly painted walls and doorway in Taichung's Rainbow Village, covered in folk-art faces and patterns, with a painted floor
Photo: Zairon · CC BY-SA 4.0 (opens in a new tab)National Taichung Theater at night, its curving white concrete walls and glass facade lit up above terraced greenery
Photo: hiten326 · CC0 (opens in a new tab)
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ReviewedDrafted with AI and cross-checked against sources.Last reviewed Oct 11, 2026