Discover Taipei’s Famous Shilin Night Market in Taiwan

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If you ask any Taiwanese which night market to go to in Taipei, they will very likely recommend you the biggest of them, the Shilin night market. It certainly is one of the best night markets in Taipei, but there are so many others to choose from (which we can help with).

The Covid-19 pandemic hit hard here, with nearly 300 vendors forced to close their businesses. Some say Shilin has declined ever since, but there are clear indications that Shilin is reviving again in 2024 – not least because it’s jammed with tourists on the weekend.

We’ll give you all of the latest tips for Shilin night market, including the food you must try and the places within that you have to make an effort to visit.

Tips before going to Shilin Night Market

To avoid the crowds, it’s best to visit on weeknights. Most vendors at Shilin start around 5 pm and close around midnight.

Taipei is a humid city. It is rainy during winter, and sweltering in summer. Luckily, Shilin Night Market has an underground food court at the “Shilin Market” building which reopened in June 2024. This makes it good to visit anytime of the year. However, non-rainy weather is still the best experience.

Taiwanese have a reputation for enjoying waiting in lines (the British are terribly similar). Long lines might be annoying, but for your purposes, you can take a queue as an indicator for delicious stalls.

Make sure to check out out tips for travelling in post-Covid Taiwan generally.

How to get to Shilin Night Market

To get to the market, take the Red line MRT to Jiantan station and walk out from Exit One. There’s another MRT station called Shilin but Jiantan station is closer to Shilin Night Market.

A building with a big ball (Taiwanese people refer to it affectionately as a tumor) will be the first thing you notice as you step out of the station. The ball is actually a spheric-designed theater in Taipei Performing Arts Center. Watching local performances in a theater is a unique experience – you might want to check out their events.

Recommended route

Shilin night market is arranged like an inverted triangle. I recommend going clockwise around the area.

A five–minute walk will lead you to “Shilin Market”. Shilin Market is a building that’s part of the night market. This market building, established over a hundred years ago, is where the vendors who were trading goods around Cixian Temple were first located.

After years of alterations, the first floor has now become the market for games and souvenirs. You’ll also find an underground food court which reopened in June 2024. 

Inside Shilin Night Market

Night market games aren’t just for kids. Balloon shooting, ring toss, pinball machines are iconic night market games that you must try.

Besides games, Shilin is the perfect place to pick up quintessential Taiwanese souvenirs (yes, that includes pineapple cakes keyrings) to take home.

This might be a strange thing to mention, but I want you to be fully prepared. It is notoriously hard to find restrooms in night markets. As such, it’s a delight to see this building which offers modern restrooms which you might visit more than once during your visit. Although this really depends on what you eat…

Food around Cixian Temple

When you reach the end of the market building, food stalls will start appearing in the distance. This is one of the busiest and most popular streets in Shilin night market.

I love the huge spiral fried potato. This unique food is basically fried sliced potato on a stick with different kinds of seasoning salt you could put on. The variety of seasoning sauces and salts at night markets is one of my favorite parts about night market food.

There’s also a famous Michelin-recommended stall for local, thin noodles right beside the Cixian Temple. In my humble opinion, this stall is unmissable. Food is te primary reason you’re in Taiwan (or it should be) and this stall will not disappoint. These kinds of Taiwanese noodles can be served in thick soup, thin soup, or intestines (if you’re up for a try).

Many of these Taiwanese dishes make good use of animal parts that you normally might not dare to try (and you may not ever want to try again, frankly). Taipei’s night markets are incredibly clean (the Taiwanese take hygiene seriously), so if you’ve been thinking about broadening your food palate but are worried about a stomach bug, Taipei’s night markets are the place to do it.

In Taiwan, night markets originate from the temple where vendors used to congregate for the crowds of people going to the temple. Cixian temple is dedicated to the goddess Mazu who’s believed to protect sailors and fishermen.

Only in Shilin night market can you grab food and sit on the temple steps to savor and feel the traditional atmosphere.

If you want to experience a bit of local Taiwanese culture, go inside the temple to observe local customs and appreciate its exquisite carvings. Too few foreigners do this, and it can really be one of the most memorable things to do in Taiwan.

Must-try food in Shilin Night Market

Fried Ice Cream

As you’ve wandered around, you’ll find many fried food that you can’t find elsewhere, but have you heard of fried ice cream? The combination of hot and cold is contradicting yet unexpectedly satisfying. There are lots of fried ice cream stalls in Shilin, but our recommendation (without a doubt) is Bàozhà Bīng Tuán Fried Ice Cream (爆炸冰團).

The friendly owner uses quality ingredients that are handmade. The dessert has a crispy, non-oily exterior and (as you might imagine) creamy ice cream – but it doesn’t melt as fast as you can (don’t think too much about why). The stall offers a huge variety of flavors, but if you’re struggling to choose then Oreo is always the right choice.

Taiwanese Hotdogs

Want to try what Taiwanese hotdogs are like? Look out for a stall selling “Taiwanese Sausage with Stir Rice (大腸包小腸)”. Forget your ordinary bun – the Taiwanese get creative by swapping it out with glutinous rice sausage to sandwich the pork sausage.

You can find this chewy, juicy “double-sausage” at a famous stall called Guan Zhengzong’s Original Small Sausage Wrapped in Big Sausage (冠正宗創始店大腸包小腸), just another block further away from Cixian Temple. It’s easy to spot because there’s always a long line.

Meat and fish skewers

If you’re a meat lover, Shilin Night Market offers a huge variety of innovative meat dishes, ranging to land to sea animals, ensuring you a meat-filled night! (Though if you’re vegetarian or vegan, you might want to check out Taipei’s incredibly delicious vegan restaurants).

Scholar cake

Besides innovative night market food, you will absolutely find all of Taiwan’s great traditional snacks in Shilin.

Keep an eye out for champion rice cake, sometimes translated as scholar cake (狀元糕). It’s a kind of small cake made of glutinous rice flour that’s steamed with fillings ranging from butter to sesame. It really is quite tasty. However, one of the real joys of the scholar cake is observing the process of putting the flour into the special wooden steaming mould.

Taiwanese tradition dictates that, if you need to pass exams, you could eat these sweet, chewy scholar cakes for luck.

Fresh (and sugared) fruit

If you feel like having a more healthy night, visit some juice or fruit stalls. Taiwan is known to be a fruit paradise, so try out some fresh dragonfruit, wax apple, guavas or mango depending on the season.

Or grab a sugar-coated tomato stick. It’s a classic traditional snack in Taiwan, and is a part of the collective childhood memory of all Taiwanese people. I’ll be honest: these can be a little bit sickly for most Western palates, but at least there’s fruit.

Attractions

It always is a fun surprise when you see a 3D tiger cub screen at the crossroads. Stop by and enjoy the tiger cub that looks like it’s popping out of the screen. 

There’s even a Lover’s Lane on Anping Street. This Instagrammable spot is full of heart-shaped lights on top, where you can take a selfie with your food (and your love) like a true foodie romantic.

Shops

If you missed the games at the start, you don’t have to go back to the market building for it. There are plenty of games shops and a claw machine arcades on the street as you go on.

In claw machines, you first find a particular prize that you like. Next, spare NT$10 (US$0.30) and start playing to win. It’s unlikely you’ll be able to get the prize with just one round though. I recommend you prepare yourself for the long haul if you want the big bear…

There are so many shops selling clothes, accessories, electronics, phones, bags, pet clothes, and even wigs. If you’re going to live in Taiwan for some time, night markets are really suitable for buying some budget-friendly daily necessities.

What’s amazing about this night market is that there are also some genuinely great bars scattered around the night market for a drink or two. One of our favorites is “Noobtent” which is camping-themed. It’s a little bit strange at first, but that’s kind of what makes Taiwan so fun. What’s even better is that you can take night market food into the bar to enjoy it with your drink.

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