Kaohsiung Eateries

My favorite comfort food in the south. Have a meal there, sit back and feel happy.

2 Likes

Thanks for including that and merging. I didn’t know which thread to put this in. There is a good sushi place down the road from where I live too, really casual, run by a single guy. has about 8 seats in total but is pretty new, I’ve never seen it full in there.

莫忘刺身丼飯握壽司日本料理

1 Like

How about Sichuan (mala) restaurants, @DKaoshuing?

try Haidilao, a big chain from China, they have shop at the MEGA21 Mall/department store
(https://www.haidilao.com/en/gyhdl/hgwh/index.html)
This soup base is made by boiling high-quality beef tallow, green Sichuan pepper, red Sichuan pepper and a variety of peppers. It has rich tastes with red color and becomes more fragrant while boiling. Serve with crushed garlic and sesame oil dip, that is the way to eat!

Also I like here (but has mixed reviews) 胡子麻辣駌鴦火鍋 https://miemie.tw/huzi-spicy-hotpo/

and here: [高雄新崛江美食]聚梧桐臻品麻辣鍋物-誇張豪華!有龍蝦的國王海陸鍋~免費升級爽吃芒果雪花冰 – 美食好芃友 (angelala.tw)
Nice side dishes with peanuts with pepper (spicy) flavors

1 Like

My shortlist:

Local foods:

  1. Shantou Chuan Cheng Hotpot 汕頭泉成沙茶火鍋 - Steps away from Meilidao MRT and famously the place Korea Fish went to after he lost the presidential election. Kaohsiung has a sizeable Shantou-Chaozhou trader community and this is where I would bring out of towners looking for a sit down meal representative of the city.

Foreign foods:

  1. Chen Lili Indonesian food 陳莉莉印尼美食 - clean, authentic, old school Indonesian restaurant with an extensive menu in Yancheng District.

  2. Goon’s Bistro印度美食餐酒館 - small Indian eatery near the main station.

  3. Arkansas Diner - some of the best American comfort food on the entire island.

  4. 義郎創作壽司 - not gourmet, but certainly high quality Japanese restaurant with the standard fare executed with consistency.

Fine dining

  1. Liberte - If the Michelin Guide went to Kaohsiung, this place would get two stars. French by Japanese chef with an attempt to use local ingredients. Reminds me of Logy in Taipei but I liked it even better. $6000 a head with wine pairing well spent.

  2. 樂穀餐酒館 LE GOÛT et LE GOÛT - French by Taiwanese chef using Taiwanese ingredients. The chef is a qualified sommelier who lived in France.

  3. Stage 5 - modern creative cuisine; more affordable than the previous two. Located in the weiwuying complex, the atmosphere is wonderful, and convenient if you’re already there to watch a performance.

7 Likes

Great list. Thank you for posting it!

Guy

Great place, open late and yes cheap but good food. My Japanese friends from Uni also love the food, she loves the bao choices.

1 Like

榮星宮保雞丁飯
811高雄市楠梓區楠梓新路190巷57-7號
No. 57-7, Lane 190, Nanzixin Rd, Nanzih District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 811
Been going here forever, good people and good food.

1 Like

Thanks, looks good !
Its this? 榮星宮保雞丁飯 - Google Maps
Any coffee shops in the area? Its place I seldom visit but want visit the train station as it’s one the few I have not visited in Southern Taiwan.

1 Like

Yes, that’s the one. Coffee shops… there are many, some chain stores, some not, although it’s been awhile since I’ve been out that way so can’t say which would be the one to check out.
If you are in that neighborhood, you might want to save some room and stop in at the dumpling shop around the corner though.
(YangBaoBao)北平楊寶寶蒸餃-814高雄市楠梓區朝明路106號


Be prepared to wait though as lineups are to be expected. About 20 years ago, YangBaoBao was set up right beside 榮星宮保雞丁飯(KungPao Chicken) in the dingy little market accross from where the KungPao Chicken place is now. The dumpling shop consisted of a couple of older ladies, a hot plate, sink and some small fold up tables with those little plastic stools. Now they’ve converted two housing units into a multi story restaurant. Pretty cool to see. I’d recommend trying the 牛肉捲餅 (beef roll) if you did go.
1 Like

Sounds like a experienced recommendation. I’m in.

1 Like

For me it’s interesting to see how these old mainlander shops in Taiwan chose to name themselves: Beiping, not Beijing, which would presumably have landed them in hot water, or worse!

Guy

1 Like

Just adding my own small contribution, thoughts and opinions are welcome. I’m certain some of the users here know Kaohsiung better than I do.

1 Like

As a general rule, tough to find good food in Kaohsiung.

2 Likes

I used to be really down on it as well. It’s getting better though. Back in the day I’d cut a wide swath around it and head to Tainan, but I think the food selection is improving.

must have been pretty dire

1 Like

Food choices and quality in Taipei blow Kaohsiung away. We have a couple things you guys don’t have (like the Arkansas diner you lot always post about), but that’s about it. There’s 3 or 4 truly unique or next level eateries (at the most) I’d miss if I moved away, but the rest of the food I eat when I’m out ranges from average lunchbox places to boring Subway sammies to the truly dire stuff that you wonder how it can even stay in business. No shortage of the latter in Kaohsiung. Indian food, Italian food and Mexican food are all mediocre down here. There’s a couple barely passable Indian places… the Italian and Mexican can’t even pass.

1 Like

Could you list them?

Well, I think a couple you probably already know. My favorite “secret” place is an awesome Sichuan noodle soup restaurant. I think it’s just called Spicy Noodle Restaurant. The owner’s wife is from Sichuan province, and for my money it’s the best Sichuan food in Taiwan (including Taipei). Unfortunately the restaurant is closed for a couple months while they move to a new location near Rueifong night market.

4 Likes

Looks great ! There are so many Beef noodle places that are really good here that at least once a week we go to lunch at three fav’s in my rotation. (Something funny , we would have this friendly chat with Taipei staff about best Beef Noodle until they tried some places in KHH they would no longer mention Taipei places.) I also like to eat Vietnam noodles, also too many choices but some good ones I like better than ones in Japan or Hawaii but well still Vietnam is the best. Being from Japan , I also found some good Japanese places very, some very good but with so many Japanese places there many not good ones (Taiwanese like sweet so bit different tastes for those Japanese places made to Taiwanese tastes). As for Western foods, Taiwan in general does not match even other Asian nations with choices and good food. And last so many good Taiwanese places in KHH, I would miss this a lot.

2 Likes