Lunch Places in Taoyuan

Cuisine Northern Taiwan Restaurants
1

I live in Taipei but I work every day in Taoyuan (insert Taoyuan-is-the-third-ring-of-hell joke here). For those of you who are out there looking for decent food (and I don’t mean the occasionally-western Nankan areas), and I’d like to offer the following 3 options for lunch there:

  1. Novotel Hotel - the Novotel just opened just outside the airport on the airport highway (number 2?) literally just before you get to the airport. The lunch buffet is about NNT550pp and it has a wide selection of western, chinese, indian food. Not awesome but very edible and the selection makes it OK.

  2. Trans Asia Airways kitchen - I think thy use the Chinese name for Trans Asia “Fuxing” as in “Fuxing kitchen”. It’s on Guo Ji Road just South of Min Sheng Road - it’s purple with a gold Trans Asia dragon symbol thingy on it and grafitti on the road-facing wall (I know, very appetizing eh). But the beef lasagna is good as is the fried rice, and the spaghettis

  3. Bei Fang Xiao Che (Northern Little Eats I guess is one way to translate it) - so here’s a weird dumpling place that the locals who work in and around the airport swear by, I really mean swear by. The owner is an ex cop who originally hails from He Bei province Chinese, he makes these minced beef dumplings (Tseng Jiao) - huge compared to normal Taiwan standards - with lots of soupiness in them - plus the usual handmade soup dumplings (Tang Bao) and Onion Pancakes (Xiong Yo Bing) that are all out of this world, no joke. Just across from Jhu Wei High School (or Elementary School)

tyc.edu.tw/english/eng_intro … ain(Dayuan.php?menu_page=e_Jhu-wei

Hope that helps, suggestions welcome, I gotta eat McD’s or 7-11 or the occasional Pizza Hut otherwise

2

Well, there’s Debbie’s, if you don’t mind travelling a bit closer to Taoyuan actual debbies.com.tw/
Affordable American style diner with decent food, small and can be really busy at times but well worth a visit.

3

[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Well, there’s Debbie’s, if you don’t mind travelling a bit closer to Taoyuan actual debbies.com.tw/
Affordable American style diner with decent food, small and can be really busy at times but well worth a visit.[/quote]

Thank you for thinking of us!!
good day,
Debbie Yu

4

Since I live in Taoyuan, I thought I’d mention a few places I like to eat at:

  1. Thai Town (on the 10th floor of the Mitsukoshi department store, across from the Taoyuan train station) has excellent Thai food. A little pricey, but it’s worth it. My favorite is the green curry chicken with Thai rice.

  2. Subber (on Fu Hsing Road, near the corner of Fu Hsing and Min Sheng, next to Hotel Today) has subway sandwiches vaguely similar to that of Subway. I usually order a chicken sandwich with oil and vinegar.

  3. Hsiao De Zhang (on Min Sheng Road, #266) has superb stir-fry dishes, including kung pao chicken, spicy ma-pou tofu and fried rice. Very reasonable prices.

  4. Zheng Hsian (on Min Sheng Road, next to the Chinatrust Hotel) has delicious sushi and sashimi.

  5. Green (An Dong St., #37 - near the corner of An Dong Street and Fu Hsing Road) is a new place with Iranian food. Nice food and atmosphere.

Also, Feebies Pizza and Debbies American Diner are my favorite places for Western food. I love the panzerotti pizza at Feebies, as well as the Mexican burger at Debbies.

5

I’m not sure how many of these places are open for lunch, but here’s a list anyway:

If you want south-east Asian cuisine, go behind the train station. It’s where the south-east Asian factory workers eat, so it’s authentic and fairly cheap.

Ordinarily, I go to all the local Taiwanese buffet places. They’re everywhere, really.

There’s Ali Baba’s (Indian food) on Minsheng Road. It’s fairly close to downtown. It’s next to a Cosmed store, and above a guitar store, on a corner of a fairly busy intersection. They have a buffet on the weekends. I think it usually ends up costing about 300NT+/person if you order dishes, but the portion sizes aren’t great. Can’t remember how much the buffet costs.

Of course, there’s also the nightmarket on Zhongzheng Road, though that’s not open for lunch, obviously.

There’s a good Japanese buffet place upstairs in Tonlin Department Store. I think it’s about 600NT. Very good food, in lots of different varieties.

There’s also a great Japanese vegetarian place on Daxing West Road, pretty close to the corner of Zhongzheng Road. You can get all-you-can-eat and they’ll keep bringing you individual dishes after you order them. I can’t remember the prices exactly, but we get out of it for well under 1,000NT for two people, even for all-you-can-eat. the food is of a great quality, the staff are very nice, and it’s a generally nice, peaceful atmosphere.

Speaking of vegetarian, there’s also a health food store/restaurant on Xianfu Road (the government circle). Their main dishes are pretty average, but they have all you can eat bread (many different varieties that are actually quite good and not sickly sweet white bread as is normal here), soups and salad bar. It’s only a couple of hundred NT I think (I haven’t been there in a very long time).

There are a fair number of tepanyaki (is that what that thing’s called where they cook it on a really long hotplate in front of everyone?) restaurants around the park bounded by Nanping Road, Zhongzheng Road, Daxing West Road. There are quite a few other little restaurants in the vicinity also, including two good buffets (one vegetarian) next to one of the tepanyaki places. Mostly, they’re on the two sides of the park bounded by Nanping Road and the other little road, the name of which I can’t remember.

There’s an aboriginal restaurant on Daxing West Road, just a little bit north of the Zhongzheng Road intersection, opposite the park. There’s also an excellent aboriginal restaurant on Juangjing Road, in between Chuenri and Jingguo Roads. They usually have a couple of guys playing acoustic guitar and singing. The whole place has a really nice feel, with a lot of wood. It’s quite large, with a little garden and deck area. Highly recommended, though (like with most of these places I’ve listed) I don’t know the prices because I’ve always been a guest there.

A lot of people rave about White Shark, almost on the corner of Zhongzheng and Juangjing Roads, and it’s kind of a beer hall atmosphere, with beer and wine promotional girls. It’s famous, but my wife doesn’t think the food is anything special, and she thinks it’s a little overpriced.

There’s a Tapas place on Zhongzheng Road opposite the park, but I’ve never been there.

6

The Tapas place is crap, we went once. With the exception of some beef bake thingie, the food was mediocre at best.

The Shark isn’t half bad, but yes, maybe a bit on the expensive side, but their bbq fish is really nice and they make good prawns and a few other things as well. We used to live across the road from it so…

There used to be a fantastic singaporean/malay restaurant near TGI’s, but they seem to have closed :frowning:

There’s a really good noodle place by the big carrefour across the road from the hospital (dunno what it’s called), it’s some kind of a chain place, but they have good noodles and spicy wontons.

7

I don’t know the noodle place you mean (I just haven’t noticed it, despite just returning from that very Carrefour), but the hospital is Min Sheng Hospital on Jingguo Road. There’s also a Subber right by the Carrefour. I figured the Tapas wouldn’t be very good. I think Tapas are a bit of a joke in general though. Brilliant marketing ploy though to get people to pay an arm an a leg for little bits of bread with olives on top.

8

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]I don’t know the noodle place you mean (I just haven’t noticed it, despite just returning from that very Carrefour), but the hospital is Minsheng Hospital on Jingguo Road. There’s also a Subber right by the Carrefour. I figured the Tapas wouldn’t be very good. I think Tapas are a bit of a joke in general though. Brilliant marketing ploy though to get people to pay an arm an a leg for little bits of bread with olives on top.[/quote]OT here, but in Spain, I remember actual tapas being smaller, but free when you bought a sherry or something. You could also pay for a larger portion if you wanted, but it still wasn’t like one of those expensive tapas places they have all over now. (I guess they also have expensive tapas places in Spain, but I didn’t go to any.)

9

Joe: I think we got them for free in Spain too, though I honestly can’t remember because I wasn’t that interested in them or drinking either. They were very trendy in English speaking countries a few years ago (maybe they still are), which is, admittedly, a comment more about people in English speaking countries than in Spain (hence my comment about it being a clever marketing ploy). I heard they originally began because someone wanted flies or some other insects from going into an open wine bottle, and then someone took that idea and ran with it.

10

The noodle joint about 4-5 stores down Jingguo in the direction on Nankan. It was good that last time we were there about 3 years ago.

There’s also the little sushi place in the small temple down Da Shin Road - across the street from the Drinks store. Certainly nothing special, but it’s decent stuff that you can eat there or take with you.

There was a Chinese pasta place on Da Yo Road as well - again nothing special, but around $100-$150 and long lines were common.

Forgive me if some (all) of this is dated, as it has been 3 years or so.

11

The noodle place I’m talking about is this one

12

Oh, one more place I like. It’s part of a chain of noodle places that have chicken, pork, and fish noodle dishes. It’s called Gan Chuan. You can see a picture of one location on Chung Hua Road here, sandwiched between two cell phone stores. It’s on Chung Hua Road, #32, very close to the GVC language center.

13

Just caught up to this topic, thanks for all the input! I didn’t realize there were so many options available, I’m gonna start with Debbies and that Iranian place when I get back from vay-kay in 2 weeks.

14

The 3 Baboons Sports Bar & Grill is an authentic western restaurant on the first floor of Taimall. $250 lunch specials (soup or salad, main, dessert, unlimited softdrinks/tea/coffee), cocktail of the day, happy hour, and more! Plus there is a large screen TV for live sports, UFC, and such. Food is gooood.

Steak Out Thursdays! A 8oz USDA Choice New York Strip, served with steak fries, onion rings and a grilled tomato for only $399! Choose from 5 different sauces, but delicious enough as is. Add $180 and get a soup or salad, Creme Brule, and drink! All day, every Thursday!

Then stay for $99 Happy Hours! Throw down some Heinekens, Long Island Iced Teas, Lynchberg Lemonades, Sex on the Beach, and Woo Woos for only $99 each! Sunday-Friday, 9 to close.

15

Here are a couple of fairly new places in Taoyuan that have good Western food. Both are pretty close to Fridays.

Heres Brunch and Cafe
Da Ye Road, Sec. 2, #27
http://heres.com.tw
This spot has pasta, pizza, breakfast, sandwiches, and more.

Hyphen
Hsin Pu 6th St., #89
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/uchutw/3088314
Brunch, omelettes, hamburgers, sandwiches and dessert.

Also, another place I highly recommend in Taoyuan county (Nankan) near Taimall

Cafe de M&L 李‧西餐廳
Nankan Road, #192
http://www.wretch.cc/blog/lemonadellen/1711882
Pasta, fried chicken, fish and chips, salad, soup and sandwiches.

It’s a little hard to find, because they don’t have a sign.
Here’s what it looks like from the outside…

16

TheLostSwede wrote:

[quote]Well, there’s Debbie’s, if you don’t mind travelling a bit closer to Taoyuan actual debbies.com.tw/
Affordable American style diner with decent food, small and can be really busy at times but well worth a visit.[/quote]

I second this. I had a very nice brunch there last weekend. A friend lives in Taoyuan and took me there for brunch. Good eggs, bacon, sausage, English muffin, and tasty home fries. Freshly brewed coffee and all reasonably priced.

The rest of the Menu looked good too with standard diner fare (burgers, sandwiches, pizzas, spaghetti, wings, some Mexican, etc.) Make sure you meet Debbie, she’s fun and speaks perfectly fluent English. She’s lived abroad and seems to know western food and service very well. My only dislike was the 80’s rock that was played at a somewhat high level. I’m more of a Mozart man for brunch but not to be expected at a diner place I guess. Overall easily one of the best brunches I’ve had in Taiwan.

The link seems to be dead so I will post the addy & # here:
Debbie’s
No. 419 Da You Rd., Taoyuan City
(03)3151019
closed Mondays

17

I also like Debbies, although I prefer some dishes over others. The spicy jalapeno burger and burrito are my favorites.

I agree with you about the music, Dark Horse. Sometimes too loud for my taste. Once I remember politely asking one of the waitresses if they could turn down (not turn off) the music, just a little bit. She smiled and went over and turned it down. A few minutes later, a man came out of the kitchen (perhaps one of the owners), marched proudly over to the stereo, and turned it up again.

:unamused:

I guess I’ll bring earplugs next time.

Despite this minor problem, I still enjoy eating at Debbies and will definitely go back again.

They have a new webpage: https://sites.google.com/a/debbies.com.tw/debbies-web/

18

An update to this list.

I still recommend Debbies, Cafe M & L, and Hyphen (see previous posts).

Another place I’d recommend is T2 Kitchen and Bar, located near the corner of Zhong Zheng Road and Da Hsing West Road. They serve burgers, pasta, pizza, drinks and desserts. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful.

You can see the menu on their Facebook page:

facebook.com/t2kitchenbar/timeline

19

Never been here, but I have heard good things about this place.

facebook.com/locale.cantina?fref=ts

20

Locale is a good spot. I’ve been there before and really enjoyed it.

I can also recommend The Sixth Cafe, in the same area as Locale.

The Sixth Cafe offers sandwiches, burgers, pasta and desserts. Located on Tong De 6th St, #154.

Not much information on their Facebook page, but you can see some information and photos here:

blog.udn.com/maggieshiba/8175082