YilanEat Recommendations

Jinze Braised Pork Rice is a beloved local Yilan shop, famous for its generous, affordable braised pork rice. Bowls come loaded with braised pork, napa cabbage, enoki mushrooms, dried baby shrimp and shredded carrot at huge portions for around NT$40-50, with great value for money. Both indoor and outdoor seating are spacious and suitable for group meals. Busier in recent years but still a queue-up must for locals and tourists alike, it's the perfect stop for a quick, hearty taste of nostalgic Taiwanese flavour.

King Car Kavalan Whisky Distillery in Yuanshan, Yilan, is Taiwan's first whisky distillery and one of the world's top ten. The site offers free guided tours, whisky tasting and a café for breaks, with green lawns and varied activity spaces where visitors can dive into the story of award-winning whisky made with pure mountain spring water and a subtropical climate. Beyond whisky tasting, you can purchase bottles and enjoy ice cream and coffee, making it an excellent half-day or full-day cultural experience.

Aniang Gei De Suanwei Rougeng is the original Yilan garlic meat soup, famed for its rich garlic aroma and hand-made meat chunks. The shop traces back to 1966, starting as a stall at Beimen; adding generous amounts of minced garlic made it a sensation and a must-queue classic. In 2017 it moved to Taishan Road with more comfortable surroundings, while still keeping its traditional hand-made craft and bold garlic flavour, beloved by locals and tourists alike.

Ah Zong Taro Ice at No. 267, Sec. 3, Qingyun Road, Toucheng Township, Yilan, is a beloved hand-made old-school 'ba-bu' ice cream shop on Toucheng Old Street. With a large signboard and red-brick arched doorway, the nostalgic space offers six flavours of soft-serve scoop ice at friendly prices—about NT$55-60 for three scoops. The texture is dense and the ingredients are real, with no artificial flavourings, making it beloved by locals and tourists alike. Queues are common, and it's an unmissable dessert stop and photo spot in Toucheng.

Ah Zao Bo Angelica Lamb Soup is a Luodong Night Market stall more than ten years old, famed for angelica lamb soup, fried stinky tofu and stir-fried lamb with satay sauce over noodles. Crowds are heavy every day, with separate queues for dine-in (in front of the Earth God temple) and takeout, and waits often exceed 30 minutes, especially on weekends. The stall is on the Minquan Road side of Luodong Night Market beside Fude Temple, about a 10-minute walk from Luodong Train Station—an unmissable night-market food stop for any Yilan traveller.

Ah Mao Rice Noodle Soup at No. 95, Shenghou Street, Yilan City, is a long-established snack shop founded in 1951 with more than 50 years of history. The signature is a thick, savoury broth simmered with shiitake mushrooms, bonito flakes and pork bones, paired with Yilan-made thick rice noodles, bamboo shoots, wood-ear mushroom and tempura, yielding a distinctive rice-noodle soup flavour. Beyond the signature dish, the crispy stinky tofu is often ordered alongside. Prices are friendly, with average spend about NT$100 per person. Loved by locals and tourists alike, it's an excellent stop to experience traditional Yilan snacks.