Taipei Uncovered is a mobile travel guide to Taipei. I am the author of the guide, and it was created in conjunction with Sutro Media.

Inside the guide you will find over 200 entries listing the best places to visit, eat and drink in and around the city.

www.taipeiuncovered.com

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Kiwi Gourmet Burger is pretty similar to GBK in London and New Zealand, offering a wide range of gourmet-influenced burgers. I recommend the delicious (and very meaty) veggie burgers, and the Rooibos iced tea, which always cured my homesickness for South Africa.

Near Taipower MRT station, towards the Shida night market. Come out of the station going towards the market and turn left down a small alley - you'll see the restaurant from the main street.

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Borough Market hasn’t got a patch on Shilin Night Market in Taipei. Instead of going to bars and pubs, the Taiwanese congregate at night markets, so it’s also a great place to get a feel for local life. Shilin was one of the best I went to and it’s great for sampling Taiwan’s delicacies from stinky tofu and pearl tea to oyster omelette and Shilin sausages. The market extends down rabbit warrens of streets and is also great for picking up cheap Converse trainers, clothes and gifts.

Taipower Building MRT station

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Many non-Chinese restaurants in Taipei are either run or conceived by foreign expats, but not the Bistro. Instead it is run and head chef-ed by Maggie, a Francophile Taiwanese who cooks like she was born in a Paris brasserie.

This is good old bistro fare. If you want high end Provencale go to Le Jardin in TienMu. Yes you can have foie gras perfectly seared at Bistro L'Olivier, but this is the place for your down to earth French fix. Escargots followed by Cassoulet, Confit De Canard or table mixed Steak Tartare with crispy frites, for example.

If you've got room after that the warm chocolate cake is Maggie's speciality with chocolate sauce oozing from the sides.

OK, it's not very Chinese but then it's hardly TGI Fridays or the Outback Steakhouse either.

145 An Ho Road, section 2, (opposite Carnegies);
tel: 02 8732 3726;
open: 11:30 am-11:30 pm

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Quite simply a Taipei institution and recommended by Ken Hom himself, Din Tai Fong is the king of dumpling restaurants. Popular with Taiwanese and westerners alike, the speciality are small soup dumplings which melt in your mouth. The chicken soup is also a wonder, a simple chicken and ginger broth with seemingly half a tender wild chicken. There's a bowl on nearly every table.

However it's the dumplings you go for. While the older Xin Yi branch is stuffed in to 4 narrow floors the newer Zhongxiao branch is on one level with the tables arranged in a horse-shoe around the dumpling makers. Take some time to watch: the hands never stop moving as dumpling making is turned into an Olympic sport.

They have a numbered English menu and a line up system which means at busy times (you can wait up to 30 mins for a table), but it's worth it.

218 Zhong Xiao (Chung Hsiao) East Rd, section 4 (enter via lane 216 with the Orange ATT on the corner);
tel: 02 2721 7890;
open 11 am-2 pm and 4 pm-10 pm;
Also at Xin Yi Road, just west of Da-An Park

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