10 Best Restaurants in Kaohsiung

Gang Yuan Beef Noodle Restaurant has been a staple in Kaohsiung's dining scene for over 60 years, serving excellent noodles with generous helpings of beef, pork feet, or shredded pork. Its signature beef noodles (niu rou ban mian) come with thick and tender Australian beef and beef soup (niu rou tang) made with an original recipe. The amber-coloured broth has a deliciously intense flavour. 

Pork feet (zhu jiao) dish is also popular at Gang Yuan Beef Noodle Restaurant. The meat becomes very thick and tender after stewing, with every bite full of collagen. This long-established noodle restaurant has the simplicity of a traditional snack bar, but expect long queues even during non-dining hours.

Locals often recommend Boston Lobster to those looking to enjoy a high-end meal in Kaohsiung. The restaurant serves top-class live Boston lobsters, preserving their natural freshness and sweetness by steaming. The whole 22-oz shellfish is quite an impressive sight when brought to the table. The firm, juicy meat is delicious and flavourful, while the accompanying sauce (cream, liqueur and lobster juice) makes it taste even better. Standout appetisers at Boston Lobster include the steamed eggs with caviar and scallops with creamy spinach puree. 

Hi-Lai Harbour at Grand Hi-Lai Hotel comes highly recommended for seafood lovers in Kaohsiung. The seafood buffet has sashimi, shrimp, crab, and mussels, just to name a few. The restaurant also serves steaks, grilled chicken, and pork feet, along with a variety of satisfying surf-and-turf dishes. Many diners queue for the freshly carved oven-roasted steak, duck, and ribs. The restaurant's speciality dessert is the burnt caramel grapefruit. 

Hi-Lai Harbour is on the 43rd floor of Grand Hi-Lai Hotel, offering excellent sunset and night views of Glory Pier and Kaohsiung Port. The 300-seat restaurant is always never empty, sp booking a month in advance is always a good idea. 

Lin Palace is a stylish buffet restaurant in central Kaohsiung. Many come for high-end ingredients such as fresh oysters, giant grouper and angel red shrimp. You can also enjoy beers, red and white wines throughout your meal.  Oysters are opened every 30 minutes, while the fried angel red lobster – bigger than a human palm – is crispy, fragrant and tender. 

Meat lovers can't afford to miss the roast duck, which is immediately carved by the chef. Dishes are served continuously but in limited quantities, so make sure you get there quickly. If you don't get to it fast enough, you'll just have to wait for the next round.

Foster Hewitt's Pub and Grill is a sports bar serving authentic Canadian dishes. A must-try is the delicious sweet-and-salty beef burger – it comes with a juicy beef steak topped with bacon, peanut butter, and caramelised maple banana. Also try the fried chicken wings, which are brushed with spicy maple sugar barbecue sauce, and served with chips and meat sauce.

Drinks-wise, Foster Hewitt's Pub and Grill offers a variety of cocktails like the Zombie, Bikini, and Old Fashioned, as well as a selection of beers. You can also try the Beer Frisbee, which has 4 different types of beer. The bar is very popular with foreigners, especially during the World Football Championship. 

Ambassador Hotel Kaohsiung offers 5 restaurants, all of which have beautiful settings and excellent dishes. Located by the hotel pool, the iRiver Steak Seafood Buffet Restaurant's extensive spread include European, Thai, American, and classic Cantonese seafood dishes. Sichuan Restaurant on the 20th floor offers classics like roast duck and kung pao crab leg, with views of Kaohsiung Port and the Love River. 

Excellent pastries and cakes are available at Corner Bakery63 State Guest Bakery, while Taoranting Pavilion and Sail Lounge Bar serve cocktails, beers and liquors until late. With 5 restaurants to choose from, each serving a different speciality cuisine, Ambassador is a safe option when looking for top quality food in Kaohsiung.

Dandan Hamburg is famous in South Taiwan's fast-food industry for its Chinese-western combo meals and low prices. Meals include hamburger with a thick soup made of misua paste (coagulated pig blood, onion oil and seafood) and chicken nuggets. The crispy chicken burger is a popular choice, consisting of deep-fried chicken drumsticks that are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, served with lettuce and mayonnaise. 

The restaurant also serves traditional Taiwanese snacks like thick soup (rou geng), sticky rice topped with minced pork (mi gao), and lean pork porridge (shou rou zhou). You'll find Dandan Hamburg only in Kaohsiung and Tainan.

Bulao Sushi is a popular and affordable sushi restaurant in Kaohsiung. Along with the traditional sashimi and sushi, limited-edition dishes of the day are also popular here. The banana-flavoured salmon roll (jiao xiang gui yu juan) consists of banana and crab sticks wrapped in soft vinegar rice and burnt salmon belly. 

If you order the nigiri sushi with peony shrimp (mu dan xia wo shou si), you can add the detached shrimp heads to miso soup or vinegar rice. The extensive sushi list also includes sea urchin rolls, salmon roe sushi, shrimp with asparagus rolls. 

San Antonio is a French restaurant with a beautiful riverside location on Kaohsiung's Hexi Road. It serves set meals, with starters such as raw speciality Bayonne Ham from France and large Hokkaido scallops with caviar. The restaurant's most popular main course is the black truffle steak. The prime grade steak is spread with black truffle sauce and wrapped with black truffle slices after roasting, giving it an intense aroma. 

Local dishes like Kinmen distillers' grain-fed beef ribeye steak and Yunlin's tomahawk pork chops are standouts, too. After your meal, waiters will bring round the dessert trolley – you can choose from 7 or 8 different options, such as macarons and lightning puffs.