One of the things that lured me to move to Taiwan was tales of super cheap food and lots of vegetarian cuisine. I can now affirm the stories were true. But at first it didn’t feel like it. Ordering food at the cheap-to-eat places can be daunting. Frequently there’s just an ordering slip on the table from which you are supposed to decipher the item you want and note the quantity in the box.
I quickly learned how to say I’m vegetarian (wo chi su) in Mandarin (watch this video if you haven’t learned that yet) but I was flustered when my statement was met with a string of Chinese ending in what seemed to be a question. I was introduced to the character for vegetarian. But it takes a while to get to the point where that character sticks out among the sea of Chinese characters everywhere (eventually this character will tip you off either to the vegetarian section of a menu if there is one or to vegetarians restaurants and street food stands all over the city)
Some days I had more energy to try communicating my diet in Chinese & could laugh at the unreliable results. But other days it felt like too much. I just wanted some safe places to go where I knew I could get food. And slowly with the help of supportive coworkers and Josh we began to build a list of those places, starting with one or two shops and growing it from there. And now I can join everyone else out there in the internet world saying Taipei is great for vegetarians!
But here’s some suggestions for easy go to vegetarian options as you start out.
($ = 150 NT or less , $$ = 350 NT or less , $$$ = 400NT or more … for a basic meal
green = link to blog or websites, blue = link to googlemaps)
$ 7-Eleven & Family Mart (Cold noodles & roasted sweet potatoes)
Hurray, for convenience stores! Grab what you want, bring it to the counter, and pay! But of course even that can be a challenge if you’re vegetarian and don’t know how to read ingredient lists in Chinese. So check out our blog post on that!
$ Mo’s Burgers (french fries & Mushroom rice burger)
Mo’s isn’t the place you’d expect to go for vegetarian/vegan food beyond french fries! But actually Mo’s Burger has a pretty good mushroom “burger” (it’s not really in a patty though, see picture left). And actually the hamburger “bun” , might night be what you’re expecting either! The bun is sticky rice! Now I’m generally not a fan of mushrooms so this isn’t one of my go-tos but the last time I had one I was surprised at how good the flavor is. Mo’s has an English menu, so you don’t have to worry about accidentally ordering the wrong thing 🙂
$ Ba Fang Yun Ji – Dumplings & Sesame noodles
Little dumpling noodle stands are all over Taipei. Some have English menus, many don’t. Some provide pictures you can point at which can help, although there’s no guarantee there will be anything vegetarian. In other words, they’re hit and miss. BUT there’s always Ba Fang! This chain is a ubiquitous and provides both pictures and English. Not all locations offer the exact same thing but I think all of them have vegan/vegetarian dumplings.
Many also have vegan/vegetarian pot stickers and ma jiang mian (sesame noodles). Sesame noodles are a great vegan/vegetarian option at many noodle shops although every once in a while there will be meat in it. So it’s best if you can see a picture of it or ask to make sure its vegetarian. But again, you are safe at Ba Fang!
UPDATE! Bafang stopped serving vegetarian dumplings and potstickers 🙁 Hopefully this will be temporary (they’ve received a lot of negative feedback online from their customers about it) But as of this moment the only vegetarian options at Bafang is sesame noodles and soy milk – which again is better than nothing, I guess. (July 2018)
UP UPDATE! Bafang has introduced fake pork dumplings and potstickers in most if not all of its locations! They call it “omnipork” and the dumplings and potstickers have a green wrapping so you know you’re getting the vegetarian kind. I personally think they taste a lt better than the ones they had before.
$ Louisa Coffee – Bagels
Another chain you’re sure to see all over Taipei is Louisa Coffee. And they have English menus! Food wise the draw for vegetarians/vegans is bagels. Have them plain, with veggies, jam or peanut butter 🙂
$ Bei Fang Da Lu Bing – Flat bread & Spring onion rolls
This is another easily recognizable chain sprinkled all over the city. It’s basically a glorified food stand and it has flat breads which you can have plain or as a roll with a few different fillings. My favorite here is their “thousand layer” spring onion cake, that looks like a big thick triangle of bread. The spring onion filling rolls are also classic Taiwan snack but its a bit strong for my tastes. There will probably be one or two meat filled rolls, but its pretty obvious which ones have meat. Since all of your options are in a glass case in front of you this is a place where the pointing order method works nicely. No Chinese needed 🙂
$ – $$ Vegan Buffets – veggies & tofu
Now of course there are individual restaurants that cater exclusively to vegetarians. And I’ll do a blog posts about those another day. But I’ll mention vegetarian buffets here, because there are lots of them all over the city. I think the first one we ate at was at a food court in a mall and it had the word vegetarian in English. Once you’ve been to one or two you start to recognize the look of them. But if you’ve never been to one and you don’t have a friend to ask about it, then just look one up online. Our favorite is this one off Dazhi station on the Brown Line. But there are many! For more on how Taiwan’s vegan buffets work check out our blog post about it.
$ Bakeries – well...
Vegans know to be careful with bakeries. But for us lacto-ovo vegetarians, bakeries are usually a safe place. Not so here! That dark brown chocolate roll you’re thinking about getting? It might be squid ink. And watch out for pork floss! This isn’t something that as a westerner you’re accustomed to keeping an eye out for, or even recognizing as a meat product (read this funny & cautionary tale of one vegetarian traveler who consumed it for months before realizing what it was!). The good news is though, there ARE lots of delicious vegetarian baked goods here and many of the bakeries label everything in English and Chinese. Just remember to read the labels, instead of assuming you’re in a safe zone and just grabbing what looks good!
$$ Chili’s – Chips, Salsa & Black bean burgers
Here’s another unexpected vegetarian haven! Not only can you get a never ending bowl of chips and salsa… but best of all, Chili’s has a great black bean burger. It can be subbed instead of a regular beef patty on any of their burgers. In my experience there’s always at least one Chili’s staff who speaks English and the menu is in English.
*Vegans Note: while our vegan friends do eat the black bean burgers they’re not sure if they are vegan or not. Basically none of the staff in Taiwan knows what’s in them…. so while we’re sure its vegetarian because the menu says so, you’ll have to decide if its worth the risk 🙂
$ Taipei’s breakfast shops – Dan BIng,Zhua Bing, SANDWICHes & soy milk
For you non-vegans who like eggs, breakfasts here will be a joy! Dan Bing breakfast stands are everywhere in Taipei. Dan bing is a paper thin tortilla that they crack an egg on top of and then add veggies, cheese or meat too. Ordering can be tricky, but some places have English menus or pictures you can point to. Unfortunately, they can’t make this type of tortilla without the egg.
BUT there is another type! Called Zhua Bing (pictured here) its like a wheat scallion tortilla, although they tend to use the English word “pancake” instead of tortilla when you see them on English menus. It’s very nice and you can ask for it to be filled with just veggies once your Chinese is good enough for that 😉 There are also a lot of street side food stands that just make Zhua Bing with egg. That makes it easy because you can just motion that you want one and point to the eggs and nod yes or no. The other question they may ask is if you want “la” this means spice. We really like the spicy sauce, but of course its up to you! (It is spicy but not super spicy)
The breakfast shops also may have sandwiches that you can just grab and pay for. For vegetarians this is easier than for vegans (you never know if there’s mayo in it) But for vegetarians you can do a pretty accurate visual on them. They come up with some really random combinations of fruits and vegetables (as seen in the triple-decker lettuce,tomato and kiwi sandwich pictured here) but experiencing new flavor combinations is part of the adventure of living overseas right?!
$ Manto & maybe Baozi (steamed buns)
Manto is a chinese style steamed bread without a filling – although it may have some nuts or dried fruit folded into it. My vegan friend says they almost never have meat in them, and are infact vegan. So if you see something like what’s pictured to the right then its probably safe.
Baozi, filled steamed buns, are a little harder. They frequently have meat in them and even if there’s a picture that looks like its just veggies there may still be little bits of meat hiding inside. So you may need to wait til you feel comfortable asking a few questions in Chinese. Although again, there are some stands with English menus! (In fact there’s one in Taipei Main Train station that was one of my first vegetarian safe spots). I was also just recently introduced to an vegetarian baozi place that has both a sit down and take away option. It’s already expanded to 3 different locations. So hopefully it will continue to spread! They have the best almond milk I’ve ever had in my life! UPDATE! Sorry guys, the vegetarian baozi place closed all of its locations 🙁
$ Xiao Cai (little sides)
Ok this is not a place, but a type of food. Many of the hole in the wall dumpling & noodle places will have a counter with a bunch of small plates of food. These are little side dishes. Even if you don’t understand anything else on the menu you can at least go for these. Its generally assumed that you will just go up and take them. (Although since you wont know which box on the menu to check to indicate what you bought its best to do some pointing and gesturing to ask/show what you are taking). There are meat dishes too, but its usually fairly obvious which things are veggie friendly. Some of the common vegetarian sides are spicy refrigerator pickles, various types of tofu, cabbage and eggplant. I really like the little side dishes here, you could definitely make a light lunch out of just sides if you needed.
$-$$$ Italian – Pasta & PIzza
Pizza and pasta is always a good go-to for vegetarians and not a bad bet for vegans either. In Taipei there are a lot of Italian restaurants and the price and quality vary greatly (and not necessarily proportionally). If it’s an all Chinese menu, I wouldn’t risk it. There are plenty that have English menus so you can know for sure what you’re getting.
One of our personal favorites is Pizza Trattoria off the Ganqian MRT Station (Brown Line). Their margarita pizza is delicious and pretty reasonably priced! And if you’re vegan they are happy to make no-cheese vegan pizzas. Plus their pesto sauce is vegan (so long as you remind them not to sprinkle Parmesan on the top 🙂 ).
Pasta 2 Go out by Tai Da University is another great cheap Italian option (I think their pesto is also vegan. It’s run by an English speaking expat, so you can ask!) Our vegan friends also highly recommend Pizza Mia out by the Neihu MRT Station (Brown Line)
$$-$$$ Indian Restaurants (but Thai places not so much)
Again if you’ve been a vegetarian for much time at all you know the ethnic cuisines that tend to have a lot to offer us. Some of this wisdom transfers to Taiwan, some of it doesn’t. The good news? Indian food is still a great option! You can find it in a lot of places from mall food courts to spendy sitdowns. They always have English menus and come in a variety of price ranges but its never gonna be as cheap as Ba fang or Mo’s Burger’s. One of our favorites (and also happily, one of the cheapest places we’ve found) is Masala House. Otherwise, if you’re in the mood to splurge we highly suggest the spice shop in Tienmu.
But then there’s Thai food. A standby for vegans in the US. But a disappointment here. The thing is, here most Thai restaurants use fish oil or some other type of meat stock in ALL of their sauces. So if you care about that, that’s definitely something to keep in mind. (Although there is a great little vegan Thai place in town called The Green Room! My favorite dish is their vegan yellow curry pictured left! But again this place is a splurge)
With a little help from your friends…
Of course friends really help as you learn where to go. If you have a friend whose willing to help you figure out the menu we suggest checking out the following types of restaurants almost which always have something vegetarian. (and once you’ve gone once you can go back! Just take a picture of the boxes you need to check in that table order form!)
$ Cold Noodle Shops
Although 7-11 & Family Mart have let down the vegans when it comes to cold noodles, most cold noodle shops WILL actually have vegan cold noodle options. Cheap and filling these are a great go to, once you know which hole in the wall to walk into and what boxes to check on the order form 🙂
$ Tepanyaki
My first year in Taiwan I never went to a Tapanyaki place, even though there’s one just a block away from work. My coworkers go there often but when we would go out together we’d go other places because they assumed I couldn’t get anything to eat there. They considered it a meat place. This kind of thing can happen a lot with good meaning Chinese speaking friends. They are happy to try and help you find vegetarian food but not being vegetarians themselves they’re fuzzy on where to go.
So just knowing that YES Tepanyaki places always have vegetarian options is incredibly helpful! The next time a Chinese speaking friend or coworker says “lets go out for lunch where can you eat” you can say, “I hear Tepanyaki is good!” And then ask them to help you order, explaining that all Tepanyaki places have tofu, veggies (like cabbage, bean sprouts and mushrooms) and eggs. You just may need help ordering. Once you’ve assured your friends that there will be options for you there, they’ll be happy to help you figure out how to order! And bonus! All of the vegetarian dishes are considered sides, so they’re usually quite cheap. Tepanyaki can be a little spendy for meat eaters, but for vegetarians its a cheap meal!
$ Re Chao
Re chao restaurants are about as local and authentic as you can get (well, after stinky tofu maybe) These are usually dinner and late night dining places. There’s always beer! They’re loud and laid back with lots of tables. Sure, a lot of the food is meat heavy. But if you go with Chinese speakers they should be able to help you find veggie options. You can always count on a big steaming plate of steamed greens of the day. (There are many kinds you’ve probably never encountered before! Like sweet potato leaves or empty heart greens!) They usually come with a dollop of thick soy sauce. Again just make sure your friends let the server know you don’t want any bits of meat in it. Usually there will be a variety of tofu options as well as well as some other small sides you can enjoy.