For the longest time, Taiwan was best known for its street food, cheap electronics and soap operas. With the arrival of the Michelin Guide in 2018, the island’s haute dining scene and quality local produce finally started getting long-overdue pings on tourists’ radars. Diverse microclimates in Taiwan allow a wide range of produce to thrive. The mountainous region of central Taiwan, for example, is famous for crunchy bamboo shoots. The north yields delicious strawberries, while durian flourishes in the south. With the Pacific Ocean fringing its east coast, and the Taiwan Strait along its west, Taiwan is also surrounded by great seafood. Taiwan’s history has also shaped its culinary scene. When Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Chinese Nationalists, left mainland China after losing the civil war with the Communist Party, he took the best chefs from different provinces with his supporters to Taiwan. The legacy of these chefs endures. Restaurants serving good provincial cuisine, from Sichuanese to Shanghainese, are plentiful. In recent years, young Taiwanese chefs have been returning home after stints abroad, seduced by the possibility of gaining international recognition through the likes of the Michelin Guide and lists such as The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. Standing sushi bars, budget sushi omakase come to Tokyo: 6 of the best Foreign chefs have also been moving to the island’s capital, Taipei, because of the access they have to high-quality produce. Thanks to this influx of talent, a fresh crop of restaurants opened during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a three-year hiatus, I was able to return in December 2022 and ate my way through Taipei. Here are some of my top picks – in no particular order – which include perennial favourites as well as new discoveries. 1. Shin Yeh Original Restaurant This restaurant specialises in Taiwanese cuisine and has several branches, including an upmarket one that has a Michelin star – but I only want to go to the original Shin Yeh in Zhongshan district. Lovers of nostalgia will appreciate the buzz and old-school, Chinese-banquet-hall vibes of this restaurant that opened in 1977. Old people, families and tourists pack the restaurant. The most popular dishes are not the banquet dishes but the ones that remind me of mom’s cooking, like pan-fried pork liver slices marinated in dark soy sauce and doused in Chinese rice wine. My must-haves: chai poh neng (pickled radish omelette) with di gua zhou (sweet potato porridge). New chefs spend three months learning to flip the omelette to perfection before they are allowed to progress to other dishes. No. 34-1, Shuang Cheng Street 2. The Guest House Come to The Guest House at the Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel with an empty stomach and a big group of friends. Though the two-Michelin-star restaurant calls itself a specialist in Huaiyang cuisine, there are over 200 items, including Hunanese and Sichuanese dishes, on the menu. Don’t leave without having the double-boiled chicken soup. Cooked with Chinese ham and dried scallops for many hours, this extremely flavourful chicken broth has to be ordered in advance. 17/F, Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel, 12, Section 1, Zhongxiao East Road 3. Sushi Ryu Fifty years of Japanese rule left a lasting influence on Taiwan, not least a fine appreciation for Japanese cuisine. Local customers’ expectations and chefs’ skills run high – in fact, Taipei is one of the few cities outside Japan to boast Michelin-star sushi restaurants that are headed by non-Japanese chefs. One of them is Sushi Ryu, headed by 46-year-old chef-owner Yonglong Yang, who started his career in Japanese cuisine when he was 16. Every dish in my 19-course lunch was memorable – especially the sweet and briny sea urchin marinated in an intoxicating broth of dashi and rice wine. At the end of my meal, I was given a slice of castella cake made with shrimp and Japanese mountain yam. It was sweet, with an umami flavour, and mind-blowingly good. Yang has recently promoted his sous chef, Laiyi Tsung, to be a head chef, giving rise to talk that he is preparing to open a second restaurant. No. 60-5, Section 2, Xinsheng North Rd 4. Gubami Social Lanshu Chen was voted Asia’s best female chef by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2014 and founded the highly respected, but now closed, Le Mout in Taichung, in central Taiwan. In spring 2022, she opened Gubami Social, a bistro in the upmarket wing of Taipei’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi department store complex, in Xinyi district. The restaurant, as its name suggests, is meant for friends to gather and share plates. The food is a mishmash of Taiwanese, Chinese and European ingredients and flavours. Don’t turn your nose up at Chen’s rendition of char siu, the popular Hong Kong barbecue pork staple. Her sauce-slathered “Coco BBQ Pork” uses the meat of the indigenous black-haired pig, marinated with Valrhona chocolate, hawthorn jelly and fermented bean curd. The result is juicy and bursting with flavours that are counterbalanced by a touch of acidity and umami. Ask for drinks pairing recommendations, as the sharing plates are better enjoyed that way. There is quite a selection, from creative cocktails to wines. 6F, Hall A9, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi, No. 9 Songshou Road 5. Le Palais This Cantonese restaurant is Taiwan’s only three-Michelin-star restaurant and has kept its rating since the Michelin Guide Taipei’s launch in 2018. It is led by executive chef Ken Chan, from Hong Kong. The decor, a curious blend of old-world European opulence and Asian accents, may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but we are here for the food. Place an order two days in advance for the signature crispy roast duck, which is made using a 28-day baby duckling from Taiwan’s northern Yilan county. Under the crispy, wafer-thin skin is very tender and juicy meat with full-on flavours. Another highlight is the homey Fuzhou-style mee suah (or wheat vermicelli) with egg in soup. Laced with fragrant rice wine from Puli, in central Taiwan, and thinly sliced pork strips, the dish might seem rather humble in such a lavish restaurant, but the comforting taste warms one’s belly and heart, making it a winner all round. 17F, Palais de Chine Hotel, No. 3, Section 1, Chengde Road 6. Mountain and Sea House This is another Taiwanese restaurant, but it offers a different experience from Shin Yeh. Open since 2014, it is housed within a mansion replete with courtyard and a high-ceilinged foyer. The food harks back to the days when laborious preparation was seen as necessary to ensure a dish’s quality. Before the restaurant’s opening, the culinary team spoke with retired Taiwanese chefs and pored over recipes from the 1930s – a time when holding lavish feasts was de rigueur and elaborate dishes were celebrated. For the roast suckling pig, a staple during Taiwanese banquets of yore, a 21-day-old hog is slow-cooked and roasted for 12 hours using a secret recipe until the skin is crisp and golden. The pork is eaten in three ways, with the leftovers shredded, stir-fried and served with condiments in a Chinese steamed bun. The restaurant adopts a farm-to-table approach – it has its own organic farm, and sources seafood and livestock from small, sustainable operations. No. 94, Section 2, Ren’ai Rd