A foodie's guide to Raohe Night Market

Raohe Street is Taipei's most rewarding first night market: compact, walkable, and book-ended by the gold-trimmed Songshan Ciyou Temple. It is one straight lane - no maze, no getting lost - just stall after stall of the food that makes Taipei worth the flight. If you only have one night for street food, spend it here.

This guide walks you from the temple gate to the far end: how to get there, when to arrive, exactly what to order, and where to stay so it is all a short stroll from your bed.

How to get there

Raohe runs beside Songshan Station in eastern Taipei. Take the metro or the local train to Songshan and you surface a minute from the temple-end entrance. From the Xinyi / Taipei 101 district it is a short cab ride or a 20-minute walk along the elevated riverside path.

• Metro / TRA: alight at Songshan Station, Exit 1 - the temple gate is right there.
• From Xinyi: a 5-minute taxi or a flat 20-minute walk.
• Pay with an EasyCard and a little cash - most stalls are cash-only for small items.

Best time to visit

Stalls warm up around 6pm and run to roughly midnight. Arrive by 6:30 to get the pepper buns before the longest queues form, then graze for an hour or two as the crowd builds and the lanterns glow. Weeknights are noticeably calmer than weekends; if you can, skip Friday and Saturday.

Recommended stops

Enter from the temple end and work your way down. Pace yourself - portions are small by design so you can try eight things instead of two. The essentials:

• Fuzhou pepper buns (hú jiāo bǐng) - peppered pork slapped to a barrel-oven wall and pulled out blistered. The signature; join the queue at the gate.
• Oyster omelette - glossy with a sweet-savoury sauce, a night-market classic.
• Stinky tofu - braver than it smells, crisp-fried with pickled cabbage.
• Medicinal pork-rib soup (yào dùn pái gǔ) - a warming pause between bites.
• Taro balls and shaved ice - the right way to finish.

Raohe is the market I send every first-timer to. One lane, every classic, and a temple to walk off dinner.

Pair it with the neighbourhood

Raohe is small enough to fold into a bigger evening. Start with a sunset walk along the elevated riverside park on the Keelung River, cross to the market as the stalls light up, then finish with a craft cocktail in the lanes of nearby Xinyi or a late soak back at your hotel. If one market only whets your appetite, Tonghua (Linjiang) Night Market is a short ride south and trades the tourists for a more local, residential buzz - a good second act on a longer trip.

Where to stay

Base yourself in Xinyi and Raohe is a short metro hop or a riverside walk away - with Taipei 101, the rooftop bars and the best of the city's design hotels on the same doorstep. Our picks for the area are below, each with a live partner rate for your dates.