Our last day in Taipei – a day of hits and misses

13 January 2016

This was our last day in Taipei and we did not have any major sightseeing planned. So we slept late till almost checkout time. Our flight was at night, so we have almost one whole day in Taipei.

After checking out from our hotel in Taipei (CityInn Hotel Taipei Station Branch III), we left our luggage in the good hands of the hotel staff and went in search of breakfast near the hotel. By this time, all the shops were opened for business and we chanced upon Si Hay (Four Sea) soybean store on the way to the ZhongShan MRT station.

Soybean Milk with Fried Fritters.

Fried sesame seed pancakes – plain tasting but goes well with the soybean curd and milk.

Soybean Curd.

We went to Ximending as there is a Beef Noodle restaurant called the Tao Yuan Street Beef Noodle (桃源街牛肉麵) near there that is supposed to be good and that would be our planned dinner stop.

First, we went to explore the Ximen Red House, just outside the Ximen MRT Station. This building was built in 1908 to serve as Taipei's first public market, now a multifunction building that includes a theatre.

Ximen Red House, just outside the Ximen MRT Station.

Inside the Ximending Red House.

Signs of past Japanese colonial influence inside the Red House.

Interesting stall with creative re-use of glass bottles.

We had done some research on what the best eats at Ximending. We tried the highly recommended fried chicken stall near the MRT station but found that it was overrated. Maybe, the standard had dropped. Being in Ximending, we had our second bowl of Ah Zhong Mian Sian again. Cannot resist. This time, we ordered the small one as we wanted to eat other stuff. We searched for the mochi on a stick stall and found that it was not opened. There were plenty of other options in Ximending.

Oyster Omelette, Fried Carrot cake and Braised Minced pork on Rice with egg. This was what we had in our previous trip and I still remembered this stall.

Mango Shaved Ice Dessert – big enough for two persons.

The Starbuck Cafe was big and was a nice place to have our coffee fix and take a after lunch nap.

Ximending was all about shopping and eating. We ate more than we shopped.

Just as we finished our lunch and took a nap at Starbuck, it was time to try what is supposed to be one of the top three recommended beef noodles in Taipei. We had savoured the excellent Yong Kang Beef Noodles on our first day in Taipei.  The Tao Yuan Street Beef Noodle stall is supposed to be just as good.

The shop is located about 10 minutes walk from the Ximending and easy to find using google map.

This was what greeted us when we arrived at the Tao Yuan Street Beef Noodle Shop. Disappointing.

Finding that the shop was closed, we decided to go find the other beef noodle restaurant in the list. So, Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles (林東芳牛肉麵) would be our next destination!

The restaurant is located on Bade road, about halfway in-between Nanjing Fuxing and Zhongxiao Fuxing Station. We alighted at the Zhongxiao Fuxing Station and walk along Andong Street, cross under the Taipei CIty East-West Expressway,  and continued along Andong Street to get there. Nice and easy walk. Andong Street itself has a few interesting cafes.  The stall was located near the junction of Andong Street and Bade Road and it was opened!

Lin Dong Fang Beef Noodles served in steel bowl.

We ordered the standard beef with tendon bowl.  Excellent and worth the trip to try this. The soup was herbal style, tasty with strong beef flavours, unlike the spicier Szechuan style served by Yong Kang Street Beef Noodles stall. It was hard to say which is nicer since it is two different styles of cooking beef in soup. 

After dinner, we still have some time to walk around the large Sogo Department Stall by the Zhongxiao Fuxing Station before heading back to our hotel to collect our luggage and head for the airport by limousine bus. 

The plan was to take the Kuo Kwang 國光客運 express bus but we bought the wrong tickets at the counter and ended up on a local bus. I knew something was wrong when the seller sold us the tickets for 90 NT, instead of 125 NT. The bus was a non-express local bus and the driver expected the passenger to press the buzzer before each stop, without any announcement of what is the name of the next stop. 

We ended in the wrong terminal (together with another Japanese lady tourist) but we managed to take the skytrain back to the right terminal. That’s what you get for taking a “Budget” bus.

Then, we found that our Scoot flight home was delayed from 1 AM to 3 AM. …and that’s what you get by taking the Budget airline. By 11 PM, none of the shops or restaurants were open.

Taipei airport has some nice free reclining lounge style chairs, if you know where to find them.

Hint: in the remote corners where the gates are located.