
Taipei’s culinary scene is buzzing with a newfound appetite for Hong Kong flavors, driven by a mix of political solidarity, cultural nostalgia, and the irresistible allure of Cantonese cuisine.
story and photos BY DINAH GARDNER
A flurry of excitement followed the news last September that former Hong Kong pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan was about to open a private kitchen in Taipei. In just a few days, Red Cotton’s Facebook page had racked up thousands of likes (at the time of writing this story, it has well over 15,000).
It’s unsurprising, then, that within hours of opening the first dinner reservations in mid-October, bookings were snapped up, leaving all slots up until the end of January available by waiting list only. This is despite the minimum seat reservation set to a table of six (maximum of 10) with a set price of NT$3,380 (before the 10% service charge).
The enthusiasm for Chan’s high-end kitchen, nestled in the leafy Songshan District, surely has something to do with Chan herself. For many supporters of democracy, she is a hero. In 2019, the increasingly pro-Beijing authorities in Hong Kong prosecuted Chan on “public nuisance” charges for her role in the city’s 2014 Umbrella Movement, giving her an eight-month suspended sentence. Like many other Hong-kongers who have fled the growingly authoritarian political environment on the island, Chan also left. She made Taiwan her home in 2021.
While many Taiwanese are sympathetic to Hong Kong’s fate, they are also enthusiastic about its cuisine. Taipei is home to many Hong Kong-style restaurants, canteens, cafés, dessert shops, and bars that are often packed. As a Hong Kong-style private kitchen “run by a chef who loves Taiwanese ingredients,” Red Cotton has solidified a ready-made fan base.

What is Hong Kong food?
Like my fellow residents, I, too, have a soft spot for Hong Kong cuisine. My journey in East Asia, now running into its second decade, began there. I used to enjoy having lunch in cha chaan tengs (茶餐廳, cha canting, or tea houses), which are family-run canteens serving inexpensive comfort food. For weekend gatherings with friends, yum cha (點心, dian xin, or dim sum), where savory and sweet treats are served up in bamboo baskets wheeled around on trolleys, was a favorite. Hong Kong food registers with stronger flavors and a lot of pleasing textures, including crispy, flaky, delicate, and succulent.
In Hong Kong Food & Culture, a recipe book published in 2020, Adele Wong writes that “Cantonese cuisine is the undisputed backbone of Hong Kong cuisine.” She adds, however, that the long period of British colonial rule and many other immigrant residents have had key influences creating an “east-meets-west fusion.”
The cha chaan teng are great purveyors of “Hongkongized” British offerings. First, there are cups of extra strong builder’s tea creamed with condensed or evaporated milk. You’ll find fluffy scrambled egg sandwiches, luncheon meats, and savory macaroni soup with “slivers of ham in a clear pork-based soup.” Meanwhile, egg tarts – a great favorite of the last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten – are derived from British custard tarts.
Finally, my favorite is the heart-stopping Hong Kong-style French toast or sai daw see (西多士, xi duo shi). This is a golden-brown toast sandwich where the bread is deep fried in egg and milk, sometimes with peanut butter filling, and topped with a cube of melted butter and drizzled with treacle. Don’t have more than one a year.
Foreign influence doesn’t stop with the British. Over the decades, Hong Kong was home to waves of refugees fleeing Mao’s China. White Russians and their descendants, who had already fled the Russian Revolution of 1917, also ended up in the fragrant harbor, where Hong Kong’s kitchens embraced their borscht soup. The Hong Kong version, called Luo Song Tang (羅斯湯, luosi tang, literally Russian soup), typically swaps beets for a tomato broth.
In celebration of the city, here are some of the best places to get your Hong Kong fix in Taipei.
Best for desserts
Bright Sky Wivern 晴空蔚雲
No. 7, Lane 171, Minsheng West Rd., Datong District
Its charming, blue-painted façade makes this cute dessert parlor easy to spot. The brightly lit interior is decked out with a curious nautical theme. There’s more blue paint, and the walls are decorated with ceramic seagulls and framed art showing seaside vistas that are more Mediterranean than Hong Kong.
Opened two years ago by a Hongkonger, Bright Sky Wivern’s menu is extensive, with classic options such as bean, ginger, and sesame soups, egg tarts, and pineapple buns. Drink options feature Hong Kong specials, including condensed milk tea, lemon tea, and salted lemon coke.
I enjoy a bowl of hot ginger and sweet potato soup paired with an egg tart. The soup is mildly sweet and quite hearty, and it gets my tongue tingling with ginger. My duckling-yellow tart is also gentle on the sweetness, with a soft filling and moist pastry. Hong Kong egg tarts are very different from the Macanese version, which are creamier with a caramelized top and often have cinnamon zest with puff pastry casing. In contrast, Hong Kong’s tarts are more demure, smoother in taste, less sweet, and with short crust pastry.
Best for yellow businesses
Jiu Yue Dim Sum Restaurant 九月茶餐廳
No. 213, Section 2, Chengde Rd., Datong District
Yellow businesses get their name from the yellow umbrellas used by pro-democracy protesters to protect themselves from police pepper spray and tear gas. The yellow economy is one that openly supports Hong Kong’s democratic movement.
One of Taipei’s most famous yellow restaurants is Jiu Yue. This cha chaan teng is bright, busy, clean, and unpretentious. Food is served on plastic plates, tables are metal-topped, and a plastic tumbler of weak tea is served to every customer, free of charge. It’s consistently popular, but while you may have to wait for a table, the smooth and efficient service ensures the line moves quickly. As a proud yellow business, Jie Yue’s interior is decorated with big, bold banners bearing pro-democracy slogans such as “Even if in vain, we will sustain.”


All the staples – rice and noodle dishes, plates of slippery eggs (滑蛋, huadan) with meat, fish balls, custard buns, and turnip cakes, in addition to a range of dim sum can be found here. Sadly, the restaurant has succumbed to the QR-code ordering craze, but the staff are patient and quick to help as they whizz around serving and cleaning up around us one busy weekend lunchtime.
I order sweet and sour fish – the sauce and fish flesh are spot on, neither too sweet nor too greasy, but the green vegetables on the side are a little tough. The fish is followed by a basket of har gow (蝦餃, xiajiao) plump shrimp dumplings wrapped in a translucent flour wrapper. These are marvelous.
For dessert, my dining partners and I share crispy fried sesame balls with a mochi-like red bean paste filling plus a tempeh and pineapple deep-fried roll. The restaurant’s iced milk Hong Kong-style coffee (called silk stocking coffee) is intense and surprisingly not the slightest bit sweet.
Best for Hong Kong-themed cocktails
cdou bar 獅鬥
No. 19, Lane 25, Kangding Rd., Wanhua District
When Peter Ng (or No. 5 as he likes to go by) moved with his wife to Taiwan in 2017, he was disappointed with the bar scene here in Taipei. “There are too many rules,” he tells me, slightly tipsily, one Saturday night at cdou. “You can’t talk loudly – and that’s a problem because Cantonese is a loud language – they have a minimum charge, you need to book a table in advance, and they close early.”
His solution: to open his own bar with no rules.
I rock up at cdou with a friend at around 8 p.m. one Saturday night, and already the place is pretty busy. The bar staff quickly finds us a spot on a well-worn leatherette sofa tumbling with cushions and battered duck plushies.
The atmosphere is warm, welcoming and relaxed. At a high table near the window, a couple sips on drinks while their young daughter plays on a free-standing arcade machine straight out of the 1980s. Laughter fills the room, punctuated by bursts of Cantonese spoken loudly. As the night wears on, the bar staff join in, sipping drinks and mingling with the guests.
The menu is a work of creativity. Designed to look like a Hong Kong tabloid-style magazine, its pages are jammed with ill-fitting photos and haphazard fonts in a riot of colors. There are many cultural references to celebrities and movies from the island, none of which my friend (Taiwanese) and I understand.
The signature drink is a Hong Kong egg tart shot, whose base is Bellabomba, a liqueur made from egg yolks, milk, and rum. I opt for a Hong Kong Island iced tea, even though the bartender politely suggests it might be a bit too strong. She’s right. It’s knock-your-socks-off potent. It has a lemon base, slightly but not sickeningly sweet, with robust notes of rum and gin. For those not into cocktails, there is a decent selection of bottled craft beers.
“I want people to come here, get drunk, and be happy,” Ng says. From our experience, that’s exactly what’s happening.
Best for fish
Mr. Curry 咖哩先生
No. 21, Section 3, Lane 283, Roosevelt Rd., Da’an District

Ignore the sign that says Indian Style Curry by the door. This long-established family-style Hong Kong-owned restaurant serves up some of the most delectable and succulent steamed fish on this side of the Taiwan Strait. Fresh off the boats, whole or half portions of sea bream or tilapia are served in a heavenly marination of soy sauce, chilis, and fermented black beans, garnished with a thatch of spring onions. With its generous portions, Mr. Curry is best savored in the company of friends.
The owner, now in his 60s, tells me he came here in his early 20s to study at National Taiwan University and never left. He is indefatigable. On the evening we visit, he works alone in the kitchen – cooking, serving, cleaning, and surveying his customers with a wry smile. The interior is simple but cozy, warmed by the orange walls and wooden flooring. I’m not a Michelin Guide inspector, but if I were, this would be the one that I’d champion for a star.
Best for banquet style
Silks House, Regent Taipei
Fl. 3, No. 3, Section 2, Lane 39, Zhongshan North Rd., Zhongshan District
Hong Kong chef Max Wo helms the kitchen at Silks House, a high-end Cantonese restaurant inside the Regent Taipei. The space is intriguingly designed, resembling a train corridor, with seating arranged in private booths along one side and wait staff moving gracefully through what feels like the aisle of a luxury carriage. The lighting is dim and moody, made of scattered spotlights that throw spooky shadows on your dining partner’s face. The result is a dining experience that feels both distinctive and unexpectedly serene.
I visit with a friend from Hong Kong to enjoy a complimentary tasting menu. The crispy roast pork gets a thumbs up from my dining partner for its crackling texture and tender meat, but the char siu (叉燒, chashao), a type of barbecued pork, is too lean for her Hong Kong taste buds.
Next up is the fish maw soup with cabbage. Fish maw (魚鰾 , yu biao in Mandarin or yu piiu in Cantonese), also known as fish swim bladder, is a bit like a rubbery sheet. This one, however, chews smoothly and has a pleasing peppery finish.

The delicacy is highly prized in Hong Kong and China for its purported medicinal properties, with the most coveted specimens fetching tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars, my friend tells me. She jokes that its benefits are so profound that some believe “it can revive the dead.” Intrigued, I looked it up later. While there’s no evidence supporting resurrection, fish maw is reputed to aid digestion, smooth wrinkles, and promote wound healing – a trifecta of allure for those seeking culinary and health benefits in equal measure.
The braised mushroom and abalone in a clay pot are rich and meaty. But my favorite of the day is the king crab meat in a lobster stock soup with toasted rice. The medley of texture, from the succulent crab to the crunchy rice (not unlike cereal), is a hit with us both.