Tainan City Center Food and Shopping Guide

Sharing with you some of Tainan’s most interesting shopping spots and unique foods! I’m back in Taiwan for a last minute trip, and I’m making the best of it! We took the high speed rail to Tainan Based off of locations I’ve visited on this trip, I’d like to show you all a few spots that I think is a MUST VISIT whenever you find yourself in the city of Tainan!

Tainan: Taiwan’s Food Paradise

Tainan is one of my favorite place in Taiwan! Home to many of Taiwan’s most unique foods, like the room temperature beef hot pot, eel noodles, and coffin board toast, Tainan is a foodie’s must visit city.

Tainan also has so many key historical and cultural relics and destinations, from Anping Old Street to super popular dessert places, you can’t explore them all in a day. I’m so excited to be heading there on the High Speed Rail!

How To Get To Tainan

There are many ways to get to Tainan:

• Driving: My parents drove about 4 hours down Highway 1 to meet us in Tainan
• There are bus routes that will take you as well, so you don’t need to rent a car to make this trip.
• By local train, it takes about 3.5 hours.
• Taiwan High Speed Rail, the FASTEST way

Be sure to check out my High Speed Rail post on my trip from Taoyuan to Tainan.

Great Spots To Explore and Shop in Tainan

Tainan’s focus in revitalizing historical areas brings together local artisans, entrepreneurs, and artists to several hotspots around the city. These areas often hold community events like art fairs, or are simply iconic places to visit in Tainan. Here are a few areas in Tainan with food, shopping, and art to explore!

Blueprint Cultural & Creative Park

Designed to look like a 3D blueprint of a house, Blueprint Cultural & Creative Park started as a simple piece of street art built from the remnants of a collapsed building. The walls of the building are covered in whimsical giant murals

The area was an abandoned government dorm complex that the city decided to revitalize. Today, the area has become a community area, with a rebuilt shopping area to accommodate trendy boutiques and bars. I definitely recommend spending time strolling through all the little shops and boutiques, because each artist has a different specialty! You’ll never find the same thing twice.

The city holds tons of community events in this area, so you never know what you might come across when you visit! Definitely come by to walk around in this area, because there are tons of local gems.

Hayashi Department Store

It seems a little weird to make a department store a destination, but there’s a reason Hayashi Department Store is a Tainan hotspot. Opened in 1932 during Japanese occupation, Hayashi Department Store is Tainan’s first and oldest department store. It contains also possibly the only remaining old fashioned dial elevators in Taiwan. On the roof is a Japanese tori shrine, with some local art exhibits.

It’s a beautiful historic building, but it’s also a five-story department store. How could I not shop? Tainan’s promotion of local artist means that there’s plenty of local artisan goods at Hayashi Department Store. I had to buy everything – from dumpling shaped soy sauce bottle sets to essential oils of all sorts.

If you want to feel like you’re shopping in a palace, Hayashi is the place. You’ll find great shopping and some great food here!

Snail Alley

One of the cutest spots in Tainan you have to walk by is Snail Alley. Whether it’s along the walls, or on the street signs, you can find cute little snail statues and figures EVERYWHERE! It’s a quiet little oasis in a busy big city where you can play a little game of scavenger hunt with yourself.

The alley was nicknamed after a reference to renowned Taiwanese author Yeh Shih-Tao 葉石濤’s novel, The Past Is Like A Cloud, where he compared the relaxed atmosphere of the location to a slow moving snail. The street he lived on at the time came to be known as Snail Alley, and has been attracting visitors since then.

Of course, it’s not just snails all over Snail Alley. The walls of this alley is lined with plenty of 3D murals and interesting art installations from local artists, adding so much personality into these tiny little streets! If you’re curious in learning more about the author who inspired this whimsical spot, there’s also a museum dedicated to him nearby!

Shennong Street 神農街

Shennong Street 神農街 is a scenic historic port street in Taiwan that’s been busy since the Qing dynasty. The historic buildings were later preserved and now are dotted with little shops, bars, art galleries, and restaurants. This street is beautiful at night, lit with lanterns and fairy lights everywhere. On the weekends, you can find craft fairs and events here that are fun for the family.

This historic street is also a temple area, and leads to the temple of Shennong, god of agriculture. Every year, they hold lantern festivals here that lights up this street even more! If you love handmade goods, nostalgic treats, and local artists, Shennong Street is the place to go.

Unique Tainan Restaurants Nearby You Cannot Miss

We used to drive hours to Tainan every summer just to eat all the yummy local street foods that you can’t find anywhere else. For the few days we were there, Tainan was pouring rain. We had to cancel a bunch of our plans, but it didn’t stop us from walking around to find something yummy to eat. Despite the weather, I’m so glad we got to try everything, from eel noodles to room temperature beef soup!

Pork Blood and Intestine Soup – 蔡三毛豬血攤

In Taiwan, pork production is standardized to ensure freshness and quality, and each restaurant is required to disclose their source. Many local farms raise them on a nutrition of locally grown grains, fruits, and veggies, and deliver them freshly butchered in the morning. At 蔡三毛豬血攤, you can taste that quality. Their specialty? Everything inside the pig. Their menu include braised pork belly rice, blood and offal soup, and different blanched parts of the pig.

We had to try a bit of everything: braised pork belly rice, pork blood and intestine soup, water spinach, and a few side dishes. The broth is so light and well seasoned. There’s no gamey taste in any of the blood or organ meats. If you’ve never had pig’s blood, it has a jello-like consistency with a slight iron flavor. It goes surprisingly well in soup!

蔡三毛豬血攤is the place to try all the unique pork innards dishes that you’ve been too intimidated to try, because every dish is delicious and well-prepared. You can’t miss out on this pork experience! They’re super affordable, so it’s easy to order a bunch to try. Don’t miss out!

Steamed Sticky Rice 米糕 – 保安路米糕

Every time I come to Tainan, I have to come to 保安路米糕 at least twice. In fact, we walked 30 minutes in the rain this time to eat here this time. Micheline Recommended (2022 AND 2023!) 保安路米糕 specialize in 2 main items: steamed sticky rice 米糕 and Chinese 4 herb soup or 四神湯.

The sticky rice is first packed into a bamboo cup, then steamed to perfection and moved to a bowl. On top, they stack braised pork belly, picked cucumbers, cilantro, fish floss, and boiled peanuts. It’s the perfect balance between fatty and light in one bite. They also pack their to-go steamed sticky rice in bamboo leaves, which is so eco-friendly!

The Chinese 4 herb soup is a soup made with pork intestines and 4 traditional Chinese herbs thought to have circulatory and gut health benefits. It can also ben an intimidating dish, but it actually has a light savory broth flavor that’s perfect to wash down the more substantial sticky rice. Come try this combo!

Stir Fried Eel Noodles – 阿輝炒鱔魚

Don’t be tricked by their humble appearance, because 阿輝炒鱔魚 has actually been recommended on the Michelin Green Guide. 阿輝炒鱔魚 offers dishes made with eel, squid, and pig innards, which all sound SUPER INDIMIDATING if you’ve never eaten any of these before. The eels they use here aren’t the same as the unagi from the ocean we’re usually used to, but instead Tainan’s native freshwater eels, a local delicacy.

This Stir Fried Eel Noodles was actually one of the best things I had all trip. I’ve never had anything so tender, yet crunchy at the same time! The large chunks of fresh crispy eel were so tasty covered in the tangy peppery gravy that coated all the bouncy noodles.

There’s always a ton of people in line for this restaurant, so there is a bit of a wait. You order and pay first at the counter, then find a table. The dishes here range from 80-180 NTD, and it’s an affordable meal that I would gladly have over and over again!

Fresh Beef Soup – 石精臼牛肉湯

Tainan’s most famous room temperature beef soup it is so famous that people will travel out hours for the freshest most tender beef. While I was in Tainan, I had a bowl of this every single day. 石精臼牛肉湯 is one such restaurant, serving various cuts of beef in soup. They hang their daily special cuts on a whiteboard, so if you like to try something different, pick from the board!

The restaurant’s officially recommended way of enjoy this beef soup is adding a little rice wine to your beef soup. For dipping, they recommend adding a little vinegar to your dipping sauce for a super appetizing bite of meat.

A small bowl of beef soup (110 NTD) and slightly sweet pork rice (25 NTD) is a tasty meal for less than $5 USD. Or, you can get a large bowl at 150 NTD to share for 2 people. They’re open every day from 5 pm to 10 pm except Monday.

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