TAIPEI · SHILIN NIGHT MARKET

Shilin Night Market Route

Shilin, Taipei's largest night market. Amid griddle steam and the smell of frying oil, from Hot-Star's giant chicken cutlet and Zhong's pan-fried buns to Prince's cheese potato and a closing bowl of snowflake ice. From the underground food court to the lanes around Cixian Temple — the classic route, eaten evening into night.

🚇 Tamsui–Xinyi (Red) Line, Jiantan Stn🚶 ~150 min on foot🍽 6 dishes

What Shilin Night Market is

Shilin Night Market spreads by Jiantan Station in northern Taipei and is the largest night market in Taiwan. At its heart stands Cixian Temple, a Mazu temple over a century old, and the market grew from the stalls that gathered before its gate. Today several hundred shops crowd both the underground food court beneath Jihe Road and the web of lanes around the temple. By day it is a quiet residential district, but as evening falls the stalls light up one after another and the steam of griddles and fryers whitens the street. Being close to a student quarter, it leans to cheap, generous, youthful food.

What to eat at the market

Shilin's signature begins with Hot-Star's chicken cutlet, bigger than a palm. Beyond it, the axis is one-handed griddle and meat foods: Shanghai-derived pan-fried buns, sesame cold noodles, a baked potato heaped with cheese, and the sticky-rice sausage that tucks a Taiwanese sausage into a grilled glutinous-rice one. To close, snowflake ice — flavored ice shaved soft and mounded with sweet beans, mango or taro to cool a heated body. Most stalls fry or grill to order, so a fresh one tastes entirely different. Alternating salty and sweet is the trick to walking without tiring.

How to walk this route

Shilin is a night affair; most stalls run from around 4–6pm until late. Leave MRT Jiantan's Exit 1, settle into the Jihe Road food court first, then climb up to the lanes around Cixian Temple to eat on the move. Popular shops queue but turn fast, so put your name down and circle the area without wasting time. Stalls are almost all cash only (Taiwan dollars), and many signs are in Chinese alone, so noting each shop's name helps you find it. With so much hot fried and charcoal food, it's safer to step aside than to eat walking. To avoid crowds, a weekday or the market's opening hour walks easier. Hours are a guide, so confirm on the spot.

Route map

Jiantan Stn → Jihe Rd food court → snack lanes around Cixian Temple (evening into night)　·　numbers match the dishes below

The dishes on this route (6)

Tap through to each shop and dish

串1SnacksHot-Star Large Fried Chicken×Fried Chicken Cutlet雞排A chicken breast bigger than your palm, pounded thin, battered and dropped in the oil to order. It comes out dusted with pepper-salt and handed over in a paper bag — uncut, a single sheet, so you carry the bag and bite in from one edge as you walk. The crust snaps hard; the inside is still steaming and the juice runs onto your fingers. Ask for "la" and the chili powder goes on heavier. A fixture at the market's edge — many people hold one while circling the other stalls. One is filling enough to split with a companion.Nearest near the market entrance, Wenlin Rd / Jihe RdPrice NT$80 包2DumplingsZhong's Shanghai Pan-Fried Buns×Pan-Fried Pork Buns生煎包Leavened dough wrapped around pork filling, packed edge to edge in a wide flat pan, fried on the bottom in oil, then covered and steam-finished. Done, the base is a hard amber shell while the top stays pale and puffed; sesame and chopped scallion go over. Bite in and hot juice floods out, so mind the first mouthful and let it cool a moment. The seared face crackles, the steamed face is soft and chewy — both live in one bun. Two or three settle the stomach lightly, a plate for the gaps between night-market stalls.Nearest near Dadong Rd / Wenlin Rd cornerPrice NT$15 each 麺3NoodlesGood Friend Cold Noodles×Cold Sesame Noodles涼麵Yellow wheat noodles, boiled, oiled, cooled and loosened, then dressed with sesame paste, soy and garlic and tossed. Taiwanese cold noodles are closer to room temperature than iced, the sesame clinging thick and mellow. Shredded cucumber goes on top; add chili to taste. Most people pair it with a bowl of miso soup or an egg-drop broth. It slips down light — right for a gap between oily things, or a small late-night hunger. A little sit-down shop open until late, so it works as a close after circling the market.Nearest behind Xiaobei St / Wenlin RdPrice NT$55–75 串4SnacksPrince Cheese Potato×Loaded Cheese Baked Potato起司馬鈴薯A big baked potato split lengthwise, the inside fluffed and worked with butter and melting cheese, then topped. Pick from the counter — tuna, corn, ham, broccoli, black pepper — and they pile it on the spot. The heat melts the cheese into strings, and you dig up from the bottom with a spoon. It has real volume; one is a light meal in itself. On a winter night the steaming paper tray warms your hands. After a run of sweet market snacks, the salt and richness make a good change of taste.Nearest around the Anping St stallsPrice NT$70–90 肉5MeatShilin Sticky-Rice Sausage Stall×Sticky-Rice Sausage Wrap大腸包小腸A thick grilled glutinous-rice sausage (the "large intestine") split lengthwise, with a sweet pork sausage (the "small intestine," a Taiwanese sausage) laid inside — a Taiwanese hot dog that literally wraps the small in the large. Into the cut go chopped garlic, pickled radish, coriander and chili sauce to taste. The toasted char of the rice, the sweet burst of the sausage and the bite of raw garlic all arrive at once. You hold it in one hand and eat as you walk, the charcoal smell pulling you in — one steaming, smoky stick waited for at the grill.Nearest charcoal stalls around Cixian TemplePrice NT$50–60 甘6SweetsXinfating Ice×Snowflake Shaved Ice雪花冰A block of pre-flavored frozen ice shaved thin, mounding up soft as powder snow. Unlike ordinary shaved ice, the ice itself carries condensed-milk or milk flavor and melts away the moment it hits the mouth. The signatures run to a mixed bowl near the old "honey-bean ice," or one heaped with taro and red bean under plenty of condensed milk. A long-standing Shilin shaved-ice house, it's right for cooling a body heated from walking the market. Being a sit-down sweet shop, many use it to close out after the fried and charcoal-grilled things. One bowl split between two is plenty.Nearest Anping St, near Shilin MarketPrice NT$100–150

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