Vegan Guide to Taipei
OCTOBER 2022: Due to COVID we were unable to travel for nearly two years, which means it’s been impossible to update our vegan travel guides. Therefore we cannot be sure if the below restaurants are still open, so please contact them directly to check. As travel has now restarted we will be updating guides accordingly, but in the meantime please check out the excellent HappyCow, which you can find via the link at the bottom of this vegan guide.
Updated April 2020
Our vegan guide to Taipei was easy to write as Taipei is heaven for vegans. In fact, we’d go as far to say that there are few cities in Asia where the vegan options are so plentiful, close to each other and downright good. If you haven’t been before, then stick it on your travel list; this is one of those places where we think you’ll be happily surprised (and full of vegan food). Taipei is a busy, bustling and vibrant city but we’ll be honest and say that on the whole, it’s not the prettiest place you’ll visit on your travels. There are some interesting old buildings (if that’s your thing), some modern shopping developments (if that’s your thing) and some really friendly people (surely that’s everyone’s thing?). There were also an abundance of dog lovers; people campaigning for dogs and their welfare and people pushing their dogs around in prams like babies was not an unusual sight during our visit there.
The Language and Getting Around
We won’t even attempt to do a language guide to help you with your time in Taipei as we admit that we didn’t master even the basics during our short trip there, people in Taipei speak Mandarin, some the phrases you need are included in this PDF from World’s Best Vegan called ‘Vegan Phrase China.’ There are taxis which are fairly cheap but the best and most popular form of transport is Uber. Everyone uses Uber in Taipei and you won’t have to wait long until someone comes to collect you, download the app before you arrive if you aren’t already a user (click here for a discount and you give us a reward too :). There also an MRT and train system and it’s pretty easy to walk about too. In short, getting around is easy and cheap.
Keelung Night Market
Open daily from 6pm
This was one of the best things we did during our trip and it was all made possible by James and Stephie from The Caffeinated Vegan, whilst pointing us in the right direction and showing us all of the amazing vegan options James also made a video of our trip, see what we all got up to here.
Vegan Heaven
Open daily 12.30pm-6.30pm (closed Monday)
Vegan Heaven
Lane 473
Guangfu South Rd
Taipei
Best. Vegan. Cakes. Ever.
What can we say about this gem in Taipei called Vegan Heaven, multiple visits during our time in town allowed us to eat nearly everything that they offer and we loved everything we tried, the owner is a beautiful soul with a big heart and an even bigger talent for plant based baking, here is our detailed review from Vegan Heaven.
Miss Green
Open daily 12pm-4pm and 5pm-10pm
Miss Green
No 143
Wenchang St
Taipei City
Our go to place for a burger (but they also do sandwiches and cakes), Miss Green is an all vegan cafe/restaurant was a good place to hang out, we had good food and the staff were smiley and helpful… can’t ask for more than that!
SOUL R Vegan Cafe
Open Mon/Tues/Wed 2pm-9.30pm and Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun 11.30am-9.30pm
SOUL R Vegan Cafe
No. 6, Alley 1
Lane 217
Taipei City
Having received rave reviews from friends about Soul R Vegan Cafe we didn’t really enjoy our food that much, but perhaps we ordered badly? We ordered risotto (bland) and bacon sweetcorn waffles which were too sweet, plus the chips were frozen. There was some vegan salad cream that had good novelty factor for us though. The staff however, were really friendly and we hear so many good things about this place that we’d definitely give it another go.
Apparently it’s all about the chocolate waffles there.
Mianto
Open Tuesday to Sunday 11.30am-9.30pm
Mianto
No 7
Lane 146
Section 1
Xinsheng S Rd
Taipei City
The delicious mushrooms with melted homemade vegan cheese were outstanding at Mianto although the portion was so small it was hard to enjoy them to there fullest, just 5 mushrooms which for a cost of NT$150 seemed a little meagre. Lovely pizza which was laden with mock meat and pineapple and mushrooms, the crust was really crunchy but not in a biscuity way and the tomato sauce was rich. We couldn’t visit without trying the cupcakes which looked pretty and had a wonderful topping although the actual cake was a little dry for us.
Vegan Fine Dining in Taipei
Silks House
Open daily 11.30pm-2.30pm and 5.30pm-9.30pm
Silks House
Regent Hotel
Taipei City
Taiwan
Here you can read about one of the most memorable meals of our vegan travels at Silks House situated at luxury hotel, Regent Taipei where we were still excitedly talking about the food for days afterwards. We’ve enjoyed many vegan fine dining experiences during our travel but this really was one of the very best!.
Vegan Friendly Luxury Hotels in Taipei
Check out these ‘tried and tested’ vegan friendly luxury hotels and resorts in Taipei that one of our team has stayed at. Each of them understood our request for plant based food and ensured that our experience as vegan guests was very enjoyable. We would always recommend contacting your hotel or resort in advance to advise them of your dietary choice, and then to follow this up upon check in by asking to speak with either the restaurant manager or member of the F&B team.
Other Vegan Guides to Taipei
We have made a couple of updates to this guide thanks to our friend Wendy AKA The Nomadic Vegan. She has just published an excellent Taipei vegan guide which you can read here. The following bloggers have also published their own vegan guides which include some great tips and information:
Plant-Powered Nomad
Indefinite Adventure
Bounding Over Our Steps
Vegan in Brighton
We are Indian vegetarian ,visiting Taiwan in 2nd week of Nov.Could you, please suggest some good hotels having vegetarian breakfast in Taipei, sun moon lake and Alishan
Thanks
Hello and thank you for reading our guide. We stayed at 3 luxury hotels in Taipei and had very good vegan breakfast at each of them. You can find review of our stays on our website also. They were Grand Hyatt, Regent and Mandarin Oriental.
The iVegan store no longer carries any imported vegan products such as tofutti, or smart balance. I traveled an hour and a half to get there stuff for Christmas dinner. They had nothing and the attendant said they don’t carry that anymore. I was crushed..
So sorry to read this Gabby! Our guides are updated whenever one of our team returns to a location. You commnet will help others not make the same mistake and we will put a note within the guide….