When our travel crew came together for this spontaneous holiday trip we never considered just how difficult it might be to find places for us all to eat. I (Pauline) am vegetarian. Josh has a histamine intolerance which means he’s essentially allergic to all fish and seafood. And another one of our companions is lactose intolerant and on a gluten-free diet. Fun, huh?
Still, we did manage to find some great options. Here’s how we did it
Breakfast
Each morning we all had the included breakfast at our hotel. It was not the best breakfast, but it did the trick. I had toast. Everyone but me enjoyed eggs. They did serve the staple Taiwanese breakfast porridge stuff, plus the steamed vegetables like cabbage that are part of the normal free breakfast hotel fare. Unfortunately they served awful coffee, but the local Starbucks helped out with the jitters for those that needed a decent cup.
Lunch
Our large group meals happened at lunch. For those that had a light breakfast, this was a great option. There are a good number of lunch options, and we were pretty happy with what we found:
Smokey Joe’s
Josh and I jump at any chance to have something close to Mexican Food in Asia, so we had to check out Smokey Joe’s. It’s a fun restaurant space, with super friendly English speaking staff and enormous menu. The menu includes tex mex, pasta, burgers and seafood. The choices for vegetarians and gluten conscious eaters is limited, but they do have a menu online so you can check to see if there’s anything you’re interested in before you go!
Josh and I were really happy with our burritos. However, there was a bit of a snafu with the fajitas for our gluten-conscious friend . She’d asked if they served no-flour corn tortillas but when it came out they looked suspiciously like regular flour tortillas. She asked again and the staff assured her they were corn. But then a manager heard and rushed over to say no in fact they were made with flour. He was extremely apologetic and offered to let her order something entirely different. This sounds like an obvious gesture but is actually pretty unusual for Taiwan’s restaurant culture. She opted instead for free hard taco shells and the crisis was adverted! Oh and when it came time to pay the bill they comped that item (again this is super unusual here in Taiwan and lovely to see!).
Originally we’d planned to eat at 迷路小章魚 Piccolo Polpo Italian Restaurant. We knew it’d be a splurge but we’d also read that it was vegetarian friendly with vegan and gluten free options. We arrived in time for a late lunch, 25 minutes before their afternoon closing time… however, when we walked in, they still turned us away. (Having done a lot of restaurant work back in the US this is a huge pet peeve of mine!) Hungry and annoyed, we pulled out google maps and scrambled to find another late-afternoon, multi-diet appropriate, lunch option. But turned out Piccolo did us a favor by turning us away! Just a minute down the road google pointed us to “Ba Sha Nuo Wa Restaurant” This is actually is just the phonetic rendering of the Chinese Characters that sound the most like Bossa Nova. Ha!
We got too excited about the food at Bossa Nova Beach Cafe and forget to take pictures once our dishes arrived!
Bossa Nova Beach Cafe was my favorite place we ate at in Kenting! The space itself is charming. The staff were super friendly and able to speak some English. Google maps calls it a European restaurant but its more eclectic then that, it’s a mix of Thai, Chinese and French food. Our lactose and gluten-conscious friend was very pleased with her pork roast and salad. And my vegan Korma curry was some of the best curry I’ve ever had in my life.
Dinner
Night Market Street:
Our solution for dinners was to hit Kenting night market. Once there we would wander together for a while and then split off to find food that suited our tastes and needs. This worked great! We found lots of cheap delicious food in this area while also getting in a little market shopping. Here’s a sampling of food spots found in the market
Re Chao:
Re-chao ( 熱炒 ) restaurants are basically Taiwan’s version of a diner. They are super casual and bustling restaurants. People go for cheap prices, beer and delicious small stir-fried dishes. For vegetarians you’re pretty much guaranteed to be able to get a big steaming plate of greens with thick soy sauce and/or some spicy cabbage. Of course, if you’re not vegetarian there are lots of fish and meat dishes. We went to one at the end of Kenting Night Market street in this little strip mall like complex that we pinned on google maps.
Pizza!
There are actually two pizza trucks in the Kenting night market. Both feature wood burning pizza ovens built onto the back of the truck! While obviously not a great option for our gluten-free friend, the rest of us really enjoyed them. Pizza Swell 波波窯烤手工披薩 comes up on a lot of online reviews and is pinned on google maps, the other one however is a little more off the grid. But no worries! You can count on Pizza Swell to be there and if you stumble on the other one along the way you can check it out too We found both to be equally delicious.
Grilled Corn:
Sometimes it pays just to join a super long line and find out what the fuss is all about. That’s how we discovered a stand that was giving away roasted corn over the Christmas weekend! This was another win for all the different diet restrictions. Plus, it was surprisingly good. We’ve had this style of caramelized grilled corn before in Taiwan but they were nowhere near as good as this. Instead of being hard and rubbery, this corn was soft and juicy, and their spicy sauce was amazing! We’re not sure if this stand is always at the Kenting market, but if it’s there you should definitely check it out.
Overall we found Kenting to be a great place for food just as it is for fun!